We do not always notice how spectacular the panorama around us is. As is right during a hike, and even more so on a mountaineering climb, we pay more attention to how we move, to what we clip ourselves to, where we plant the ice axe or where our crampons bite. Prudence, in fact, says we should pay more attention to safety than to enjoying the landscape. Beyond a certain level of mountaineering difficulty we are of the opinion that it is better to neglect photography in favour of total safety.
And yet it is the landscape itself that draws the attention of hikers and mountaineers, who for that very landscape would climb the proverbial mountains...
So, if you really cannot give it up, first of all you need to stop; the first thing to do is to tell your companions what you intend to do and to secure yourself as well as you can.
Here below we will take a “typical” situation, that is, a photo taken while climbing a snow slope or a steep gully.
Bear in mind that switching your gaze from the face to the landscape outside can cause a sense of sudden vertigo, together with disorientation and loss of balance. Most of the time this is not pathological vertigo but the natural physical reaction to the change in depth of the field of view. The eye must quickly focus on very distant objects and in doing so it sends the brain information about three-dimensional space, creating, precisely, a certain disorientation.
This reaction can last even a few seconds and must not be underestimated.
Remember too that the rucksack on your back can make disorientation and balance worse, throwing you off balance in the direction you least expect.
For these reasons, before turning towards the panorama it is a good idea to take up a safe position, knowing that if you lose your balance you can count on a good support. One example of a reasonably safe balanced position is with both feet not too close together (so as to have a wider base of support) and one hand on the ice axe driven deep and firmly into the snow.
The mountaineer knows it would be good practice to set up a belay point; in some cases you can drive the ice axe fully into the snow at shoulder height, then with a sling fitted with a karabiner clip your harness to the pick of the ice axe, which has a hole made specially for karabiners. The ice axe planted in the snow like this is not there to hang your whole weight on, but it does let you find the right balance.
Once you have a safe position, at this point you start turning your gaze towards the panorama, letting your eyes slowly adjust to the change of perspective.
Those who wear contact lenses will notice that this visual adjustment is slower and the eyes will adapt with more difficulty.
If the slope allows it, once you have got used to it you can turn round and sit in a small hollow dug in the snow or in a step cut for the purpose.
If you need to take your gloves off, it is best to keep them attached to your wrists. Technical gloves have an elastic loop that goes round the wrist when you put them on.
One tip to serve as a summary warning: “don't show off, arrogance doesn't pay, don't take photos with one hand while climbing a face with the other. If you keep the two activities apart you will do both of them better”.
In short, before taking a photograph you must make yourself safe.
Once you are safe the, so to speak, “mountaineering” work is over, and you can then devote yourself to the “photographic” work.
Let us also learn to stop more often.
Observation is the photographer's first art. Those who cannot look certainly cannot take photographs. First of all you have to learn to look patiently, devoting yourself to picking out details, spending time imagining what a photo would be like, patiently studying your subjects. We go to the mountains to savour honest fatigue and fresh air. Often, though, we forget to stop and enjoy the landscape too, we forget that with patience you can find excellent framings and so take excellent photos as well. You don't need to wait until you reach the summit to take photos. The summit is often a desolate place and the panorama is not always spectacular, especially in the Apennines, where the orogeny of the mountains is not as varied as in the Alps. Instead you can discover very interesting views in the valleys, in the gullies, and in the woods too.
Savouring and observing are the main tools for discovering that even apparently more anonymous places hold a quite special magic. That magic and that meaning which are right before our eyes but which we often fail to see.
Once your photographic curiosity is fully satisfied you will need to get back on your way. Before getting up from the safe position we will put the equipment away in its case together with any accessories. At this point you tell your rope team companions that you intend to set off again and, carefully, you can get up and carry on climbing.