Ace Kvale’s photography is a celebration of the human element—a study of rich cultures and extreme climates, a record of first ascents and descents. His images are powerful yet humble, and his passion for storytelling has translated into a remarkable talent for weaving a complete narrative through pictures.

 

Ace began his relationship with photography working in front of the lens as a ski model in the early eighties. This relationship shifted

Campbell has become a dedicated journalist and ambassador of mountain culture - unearthing important stories born from the tribe of climbers and adventurers. Through landmark expeditions, scrambles along exposed, knife-edge ridges leading to lofty summits world-wide, he has demonstrated a profound spiritual commitment to understand distant cultures and the natural world.

 

 

 

Recent Highlights:

 

SEPU KANGRI - In the fall of 2002, Campbell and a team of six climbers including Carlos Buhler, Mark Newcomb and Ace Kvale, placed two climbers on the summit of the remote 22,990-foot Sepu Kangri making the first ascent of the mountain. The expedition was chronicled in Powder (USA) and Desnivel (Spain) and in two documentary films – including one for National Geographic Adventure Challenge.

 

NORWAY - Campbell joined the editors of Backcountry – Adam Howard, John Howard and Chuck Waskuch in 2004 to unearth the myths of Telemark Skiing in the Hurrangane Alps of Norway. The story, “Heroes of Telemark” was featured in the December, 2004 issue of the magazine.

 

SIGHT-TO-SUMMIT - In the spring of 2005 Campbell joined North Face Athletes Pete Athans, Kevin Thaw, Abby Watkins and Conrad Anker on the historic Sight-to-Summit expedition. The team assisted Dr. Geoff Tabin with over 250 Cataract Surgeries in two remote eye camps and then climbed the southwest ridge of Cholatse (21,500 feet). The expedition was featured in the November 2005 issue of Outside. The expedition was also made into the award-winning film, “Light of the Himalaya” produced by Michael Brown, Dave De’Angelo and Rush HD Television.

 

AMA DABLAM - Campbell returned to Nepal in the fall of 2005 as a climber and a journalist. With members of the Telluride Search and Rescue, he climbed 22,450-foot Ama Dablam and chronicled Nepal’s on-going civil war for Climbing. His story, “Fear is Ruling Here”, is featured in the September 2006 issue.

 

Climbs and Expeditions: 1992 Thalay Sagar, (India); 2000 Alpamayo (Peru); 2001 Dolomites, (Italy); 2002 Pyrenees (Spain), 2002 Sepu Kangri (Tibet); 2003 Mont Blanc Massif (France); 2004; Hurragane Alps (Norway); 2005 North Face Sight to Summit Expedition, Cholatse (Nepal); 2005, Ama Dablam (Nepal); 2006 Mount Sanitas, Boulder (USA)

 

Media: Magazine & Print: Climber, Outside, Powder, Backcountry, Desnivel, Montagna, Denver Post, Aspen Times, Boulder Camera. Film: Secrets of the Snow God (National Geographic Adventure); Last Horizon: First Ascent of Sepu Kangri (Rattlecan); Light of the Himalaya, (Rush HD, Serac Adventure Films)

 

 

Sponsors: Jordan is a CAMP-USA athlete and a brand ambassador for Marmot Mountain Ltd.

 

 

when he hitchhiked through Africa for five months, carrying a small manual Rollei camera. When he returned and showed his images to the professional photographers he knew, they urged him to make it a career. Ace had witnessed the world in a different way—through a viewfinder—and he’s never looked back since.

 

Thirty years later, now one of the world’s top adventure photographers, Ace has traveled to more than sixty countries. He’s participated in twenty-five expeditions to Asia and the Himalaya, and he’s worked with many of the world's best athletes. He’s hung from helicopters in the Alps and skied first descents in Alaska. His images have appeared in dozens of magazines, from National Geographic to The National Enquirer. He’s contributed imagery to dozens of books and movies, and shot portraits of celebrities from Jerry Garcia to Tiger Woods.

 

These days Ace is once again finding a different way of looking through the viewfinder: photography as an opportunity to raise consciousness. Through recent work with vanishing cultures and international philanthropic organizations, he’s discovered new inspiration and purpose by using his skills to help people at risk. Ace has traveled with the Himalayan Cataract Project to Nepal to document mobile eye clinics, with the Dzi Foundation to Ladakh, where they built a community kitchen, and with the Kashmir Earthquake Relief Effort to document the plight of the millions affected by the devastating quake of October 2005. “It’s not the places we go, it’s the people we meet when we get there. My focus now is on giving back to cultures I’ve come to love.”

 

Ace has also made time in recent years to achieve some very personal goals. He’s earned his black belt in Kenpo Karate, hand-built a solar, one hundred percent off-the-grid timber frame house, and raised his son, Walter. Ace now makes his home in a tiny, remote town in the canyon country of Southern Utah with his dog Ghengis. Here his love of all things ancient and sacred finds daily inspiration in prehistoric rock art, Anasazi ruins, and the vast canyon wilderness that surrounds him.

Climber & Skier, Photographer & Journalist

 

“Alpinists are ambassadors of the human experience, reaching ethereal heights in remote corners of the globe, circling home with untold stories where mountains and people come together.”

 

For Jordan Campbell, the idea of international climbing is only a part of a greater story of cross-cultural stewardship and awareness. In an era of globalization,

PHOTO: ACE KVALE

 

PHOTO: ACE KVALE

 

PHOTO: JORDAN CAMPBELL