Jonathan Coppi won the 2024 Wilderness Outdoor Photographer of the Year with the visceral ‘Darran Mountains bivvy’. A product developer for Kathmandu, the 35-year-old from Maine has been based in Christchurch since 2019. He tells the story behind his award-winning photo.

Where did you take the photo?

We were on the Charismatic Wall, above Milford Sound Road. There are two fully established rock-climbing routes and a bunch of half-finished ones. Wild Dykes tops out at a 23. (Wild Dykes is a 453m grade-23 mixed trad climb put up by NZ Alpine Team members Llewellyn Murdoch and Daniel Joll in 2022.)

Where’s the bivvy in relation to the climb?

The approach to the climb is about an hour up a stream, then you do seven pitches of climbing to get to the start of the main route, the pitch terrace. The bivvy is on the terrace. Where I took the picture is where we got up and had breakfast and I belayed the first pitch, about 500–600m off the valley floor. 

The route itself is another 17 pitches. We didn’t complete the entire route – we did nine pitches before we called it a day and came back down. 

Why did you call it a day?

We weren’t super keen on spending another night on the ledge. We had planned to start climbing around 7am but when the alarm went off it was clagged in and drizzly. Given the later start we were guaranteed to be rappelling in the dark if we pushed to complete the entire climb, and the prospect of better sleep and food back at Homer Hut was too enticing.

Who is the climber in the image?

That’s my good mate, Ian Dorko. Ian’s a very rugged individual, the perfect partner for this. We’re both from Maine, but we met in Salt Lake City when we were working for Black Diamond. I’ve been climbing with him since 2012. We’ve had some incredible trips over the years and this one was definitely up there.

What was the protection like for the bivvy?

Ian rigged up a bit of a barrier between him and the edge with bags and slings. He did rig up some cordelette to keep himself from rolling off, but other than that he’s not clipped into anything. The blue sleeping bag to the left of the picture is where I was sleeping, and I actually wore a harness and clipped into the rope you can see running along the cliff. It took some work to get those platforms comfortable. 

Did you get any sleep?

I actually slept alright, it’s not the worst bivvy I’ve slept on. There was one night on El Cap (in Yosemite) when I didn’t get to sleep on the portaledge. I slept on the rock instead, that wasn’t great. This wasn’t terrible. 

Are you planning to give the route another go?

Not this season. A lot of things have to align – the time off, the weather window – and with stuff like this, you have to have the right partner. I’d love to give it another crack, but I’m already dreaming of snow.