ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY, THE WORK OF PEPPER K. ETTERS

Action and Adventure: Adventure

"Adventure is not in the guidebook, and beauty is not on the map. Seek and ye shall find."

--Terry Russell

The spirit of adventure draws us away from the comforts of our normal routines. It gnaws at our flesh until we rise up and cast away the bonds of monotony and flee to the paradoxical pleasures of discomfort. The very experiences we seek out are, in fact, those experiences that are the least expected and cannot be planned, just prepared for. By testing our will, our minds and our hearts we gain a greater understanding of ourselves, our world and our place within it. We return to our normal routines enriched, refreshed and enlightened.

An adventure racer pulls himself across the lines during a race on Vail Mountain.
   
  
A hiker is silhouetted against the east face of Mount Fitz Roy, Argentina.
     
  
   
  
Hikers ascend one of the Valley of the Moon's sand dunes in the Atacama desert of northern Chile.
     
  
   
  
A climber descends the first section of a 600 foot wall in Gore Canyon., Colorado.
     
  
A hiker traverses a ridge high in Colorado's Holy Cross Wilderness.
   
  
A skier takes in the sunset after a long climb to the Jackal Hut above Camp Hale, Colorado
     
  
   
  
A rider flies through a field on his farm near Futaleufu, Chile.