Emmerson Wilken, Ridge Line,Queenstown. 1/2500, ISO 500, f/6.3

Two days before Christmas is not the most ideal time to plan for an overnight adventure into the backcountry. But when conditions prevail you go all in. It didn’t go all according to plan but that’s what makes it so much more satisfying in the end.

About a month before the shoot, I spent a day hiking the mountains right behind Queenstown. I was in the middle of recovering from a broken hand and ribs (took a tumble off my bike). Hiking was keeping my soul in check and providing the oppor-tunity to scout new locations. The mountains around Queenstown have been shot to death over the years and I wanted to create something a little different. During my hike back down the mountain I could see a clear view down to the lake and looking to the left, a view across to the Remarkables. This gave me a couple of ideas for a shot but they both had to be done at sunrise to capture the light. With this in mind, there were two ways to get to the location. Ride up at 3am or camp overnight on the side of the mountain. Not being much of a morning person I liked the idea of camping.

After my trip I was chatting with Emmerson Wilken, my riding buddy, and he was stoked with the idea. Over a month went by and out of the blue I got a phone call. “Hey Q, you keen for the Ridgeline Shot”. A plan was hatched to go up within the week. We had amazing settled weather, but neither of us had tents or sleeping mats. We were not set up for bike packing. A few emails and a trip to Torpedo7 we had the gear. Two tents and a sleeping mat.

So the day was set. We were both working full time jobs so we planned to meet, grab a quick dinner in town, make the last Gondola up Skyline, and then ride up to the Ben Lomond Summit. Now the adventure starts…

Emmerson went for a quick wakeboard before meeting up. The boat broke down in the middle of the lake. Finally, he got back into town, we grab dinner and make the mad dash catching the last gondola up to Skyline. We ate our almost cold burgers at the top of the gondola.

We set off up to the Ben Lomond saddle. 8:30pm, plenty of time as the sun sets after 10pm. A short way up the trail we run into the famous Wednesday night dig crew. They are short of a few diggers and want to finish the new climbing trail (they called it Beeched As). We can’t leave them to it; we help the boys. So we spend an hour digging and help finish the trail. All set for Christmas. Only I am looking at my watch thinking we will not make my camping site before night fall.

The trail is complete!

Now what shall we call it?

We finally set off at 9:45pm for the Saddle. I am thinking we are not going to make it. I start formulating plan B. I knew of a lower saddle we can camp in. It would pro-vide access to the Ridgeline I wanted to shoot. The only drawback is it would be a ride up in the morning.

Upon reaching the lower saddle we make the decision to make camp. Light was fading fast. We pitched our tents as darkness set in. We were under the light of the full moon so we decided to take a walk, scout out and make a plan for the morning. Excitement was rising for us both. It’s a special location. Alarms were set for 4:40am. This would provide us with plenty of time as the sun was not due to rise over the Remarkables until 6:10am.

Alarms go off, and we are up. A little slow as neither of us had a great sleep as we could hear footsteps all night as people were hiking up to the summit under the full moon.

5am and the city sleeps below

Waiting for the sun

After a short hike uphill we were in position to start the shoot. All we had to do now was wait for the sun to poke over the mountains. Once it did, we would only have about 20 minutes to get the first set of shots I had in mind.  Timing is everything is photography.

Emmerson Wilken, Ridge Line,Queenstown. 1/8000, ISO 1250, f/5.0

Emmerson Wilken, Ridge Line,Queenstown. 1/2500, ISO 500, f/6.3

In the short timeframe we had, we got busy making the shots happen. After the golden hour was over, we worked our way back to the camp site, which was a quick blast down the ridge. I was super happy with the images I had shot. Everything I had in mind had worked. Emerson had the idea to push up the next ridge to see if there was anything worth shooting. I had never scouted the location but we had 3 hours before being due at work so we decided to give it a crack.

We managed to capture my favourite image from the trip (the title image) and a couple of other great pics from this quick side mission.

Emmerson Wilken, Ridge Line,Queenstown. 1/1000, ISO 640, f/6.3

We then made a quick dash back to pack up the tents; strapped them to our bikes and made the descent for breakfast and a much needed coffee. It’s a wrap at 8am and we are off to our 9-5 jobs.

Thanks to Torpedo 7, Mons Royale and my athlete Emmerson Wilken, whose commitment to a great shot is a godsend. See you out there.

About the Photographer

Quentin Kenning • Age: 38• Years Shooting : 6

Quentin Kenning was a snow bunny for 15 years. Spending winters in Aspen Colo-rado, Australia and Japan. After a run-in with United States labour dept he was forced into having his first summer since 98. With a dream in his mind he packed up and moved back to New Zealand to pursue action / adventure photography. When not found behind the lens he can be found riding his bike or Snowboard around the mountainsides of the South Island of New Zealand. www.qfoto.co.nz