My Best Shot

Why skiing on a live volcano was worth the risk for Martin Hartley…

The location of the crosscountry skier in this shot may surprise you. He is in Kamchatka, a remote peninsula on Russia’s Far East coast, and is making his way up a 4750m peak called Kluchevskaya Sopka, which few people dare to climb. That’s because it is an active volcano, and has been erupting almost continuously for the past 300 years! Hartley and his fellow adventurers scaled the mountain with the intention of skiing down its slope.

“The shot was taken during a lapse in the 100mph winds that were battering us,” says Martin Hartley. “I was scanning the area through my 200mm lens, when I saw this area of perfect tones, everything from pure black to pure white. It seemed an obvious place to place a splash of alien colour.”

Risky undertakings are second nature to Hartley: he’s made a living out of shooting polar expeditions. Currently, he is skiing from the North Pole to Canada on the Arctic March, an expedition surveying the melting Arctic icecap.

Hartley was also looking for images that could be used by the outdoor gear brand which was backing the assignment. He showed the skier, Richard Hartley (no relation), the scene on the monitor of his D3x and where he wanted him in frame. “I explained where I wanted the skier to go and how I wanted his body shape in the image.”

The reaction

Barely a year later, this photo has been published only a few times, in National Geographic Traveler and on travel websites. Out of a career spanning more than 20 years, Hartley has no hesitation in rating this picture as his best, primarily because of the transience of the scene. “My timing was lucky,” he reflects. “Had I waited a day the scene would have gone. The next day the wind had blown all the snow away.”

Keith Wilson