Enter the 2025 Battleship Bounty Competition
Chalk went flying like dust from a battlefield. Its warriors were armed only with long brushes, highly-engineered footwear, and their pure grit. Under spotlights and amidst a crowd thousands-strong, they flew, fell, and clung in a dramatic show of strength. Whetstone Climbing Gym in Fort Collins, Colorado put on a spectacle for the Front Range's vibrant climbing community complete with stunning performances from Olympic and national champions.
This was as spontaneous as event photography gets. I heard about the event and showed up with no contracts or contacts. It's how it goes when you're new to the scene, you just have to take a chance on yourself. I pulled up to the qualifying round at 10 am, to a calm and typical bouldering session with many excited athletes chatting and trying various routes. By 6 pm, the scene was transformed.
This competition had four routes, but the one at the end was where the real excitement was. Whetstone aptly calls this wall the prow of the Battleship.
This was my first climbing competition. I dialed my shutter speed to 1/1250th to freeze the rapid motion of falls, jumps, and dynamos. The aperture of my lens was wide open for the most amount of light in the dark gym. ISO set at whatever I needed to make this all happen. Then I held down my shutter. After 15 minutes of overshooting, I slowed to watch the athletes closely and learn to anticipate a big move. Muscles would tense, eyes would lock onto the plastic rock target, then hold down the shutter. Occasionally, I still missed.
This was two-time Olympian Colin Duffy making an epic leap, and I completely missed focus. I'm still not sure if it was more the camera's fault for the autofocus lagging behind, or mine, for not knowing its limitations. Still, in focus or not, I think they get the feeling across.
My favorite shot of the whole day isn't some great jump or action shot, and you can't see his face to tell who he is. Without context you don't even know what sport this is. But I felt it. The pain, the attention of the crowd, the man seated with his back to our fallen hero. It reminded me of why we do sports in the first place. For more than just the joy of reaching the top, we learn to overcome the defeat at the bottom.
