Mallos do Riglos

click here to view Climbing in Riglos

Riglos is a nice place to climb and to see vultures near Pyrenees. Conglomerate rocks offer athletic and funny climbing. ”El Carnaval” is a 300 meters little overhanging and exposed climbing route. This “selfportrait” is taken at ”La Raya” , the most difficult and stamina part of the route. No fixed ropes were used from the top and no help from other climbers.

Another climbing selportrait VR, now in Vilanova de Meia (Lleida) special micro-climate in winter, good quality rock from 5 meters to 200 meters, all kinds of difficulties.

Climbing at Pas Nou: 120 meters wall. No fixed ropes used. Remote shutter.

click here to view Vilanova de Meia (Lleida) panorama

Las Bardenas mountain bike

"La Bardenas desert" Navarra (Spain) is a curious protected natural park and Unesco biosphere reserve, in the middle of a military training zone. (es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardenas_Reales)

There are many mountain bike routes, this VR shows one of the most poular places. No special technic was used for this VR , just a remote shutter.

click here to view Las Bardenas mountain bike panorama

Last meters of Maribel coulouir

click here to view Last meters of Maribel coulouir panorama

Peña Telera in the night

In “Valle de Tena” , Pyrenees , Peña Telera, 2764 m. It is a very popular place for climbing ice couloirs.

Maribel is 500 meters long , medium difficult. Every winter the snow volume decreases more and more. From the top of Maribel you can reach Peña Telera summit easily. You have to pay attention going down since the descent can be very dangerous.

Peña Telera descent:

click here to view Peña Telera descent panorama

The same view in summer

click here to view Peña Telera descent in summer panorama

La brecha de Rolando:

click here to view Brecha De Rolando panorama

In winter Taillon peak (3144 m) in the Pyrenees, offers some beautiful ice climbing. That day I began to go up from San Nicolas de Bujaruelo valley (1400 m). I climbed Taillon W face couloirs, with some climbers I met at the base of Taillon.

After climbing it, I went back to Bujaruelo, crossing "la Brecha de Rolando" 2804 m., a natural and narrow pass between France (Gavarnie) and Spain (Ordesa National Park) at Monte Perdido massif.
Legend says La Brecha was made with Rolando´s sword "Durandarte", when he was running out after Roncesvalles battle defeat.

Juan at Ladhak (India) during a mountain expedition.

Juan having dinner on a portal-ledge during a 6 days wall climbing at “el Capitan”, Yosemite (USA).

Juan climbing in the desert (Utah,USA).

We had a talk with Juan, who unveiled some interesting facts about his passions, the best places to go climbing, and the techniques he uses to shot VRs.

Can you please tell us more about your general background and passions?
I began to take photos when I was 12 years old, with a fantastic Zenith camera. I liked the dark room and I was spending a lot of time reading and experimenting any kind of photo technique.
At about the same time, I began to go to the mountains and climb any kind of wall. I liked to go to climb in the Alps every summer. I wasn't a very successful student and began working in a pharmacy for some years. Then, I went to India, Pamir, Yosemite and Patagonia to climb walls.The ones I liked most were the “big walls” :1000 meters, very steep, requiring some days to ascend them: ”El Capitan” in Yosemite valley (California) is one of my favorite ones.
I sometimes worked as a mountain instructor, as scaffolder or as wedding photo assistant. I studied to become video camera operator and made some short climbing videos, but I found my fulfillment in high level alpinism.

When and how did you start VR photography?
When digital photography started off, I was very skeptical about it, because of its lack of quality and the cost of equipment. I did not have any knowledge about computers, but then I got an "iMac" and began to discover "strange" panoramic photos and computer techniques: Helmut Dersch, "Philo" and Nyberg - among others - were the habitual names shining at my iMac's screen. Well, I started to take panoramic photos and VR´s scanning paper photos (film scanner were very expensive) applying success-mistake techniques.

You run aragon360grados.com, can you tell us more about your site?
Aragon360grados.com at the moment is a mixed web-blog I created to show part of my work. Aragon is where I live in Spain. It s a very mountainous region with a wide variety of landscapes. It is not only for extreme VRs or local works.The site examines a wide variety of subjects and mountain is the most important one. But on the homepage, there is some practical information for bike rides, skiing tours or climbing routes, which I have done and which I show in a VR format.

Which equipment do you use?
In general I use the lightest gear I can get my hands on: panorama equipment is an extra weight I have to take on my back on any climb or bike excursion.
At the beginning I used a SLR film camera, but now I use an "APS" sensor size DSLR, one of the lightest ones. Lenses: fisheye 8 mm and 16 mm plus a standard zoom lens. I have three tripods (from very light to medium size) with some self made modifications. I sometimes use a modified ski pole and a real photo monopod. I make the Pano heads by myself and one of these is very light, being hence the one with me most of the time. For some works I use two radio triggered flashes and a remote shutter. Right now, I'm testing some new inventions...

Which professional services do you offer?
Virtual tours for real estate, interactive CDs, posters, and all kind of mountain photos or images from unaccessible places.

Future projects at the horizon?

I´d like to learn scuba diving and underwater photography; improve my forgotten para gliding technique and...well, there may be a mountain expedition in the next future. Moreover, I'm focusing now on new techniques to grab panos.

Links:
Aragon360grados.com
Email: juanpeque at yahoo.es