“The weather conditions, the location, the light, the athlete. All this needs to fit together for the perfect shot,” said Thomas Klocker, a former professional snowboarder turned photographer.
Klocker was speaking to the Illume Awards, a major outdoor and adventure photography contest. And the photographer, who’s based in Tyrol, Austria, was recently named the winner of the Climb category at the 2026 edition of the competition.
The Austrian took the crown with an image of fellow climber and compatriot, Mario Andexlinger, scaling the remote Katla Ice Arch, located within Iceland’s Kötlujökull glacier.
Thomas Klocker’s gear and settings
- Camera: Canon EOS R5
- Lens: Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS USM
- Focal length: 35mm
- Exposure: 1/1000 sec, f/4, ISO100
“There’s always so much story behind the image,” said Klocker, who explained that, to get to the remote shoot location, they needed a three-hour ride in a local’s “huge” off-roading truck before hiking for half an hour through the deep winter snow.
“On the internet you can see the shot, but most people don’t know the background, like getting there or how cold you were,” said Klocker. “I think that’s the hardest part, but we made it and it was definitely worth it.”
Klocker explained that on the day, he and Andexlinger were the only ones at the Katla Ice Arch – and may well have been among the last people to climb it.
The arch, which had become a famous natural landmark among landscape photographers, collapsed in June 2024, an event believed to have been caused by natural glacial melting cycles exacerbated by human-caused global warming.
As the winner of the Climb category at this year’s Illume Awards, Klocker got his hands on a suite of prizes, including a Leica D-Lux 8 camera.
His winning photograph will also be published in The Illume Photobook 2026. Head to the 2026 gallery on the Illume Awards website to see all of this year’s commended images.
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