From our alpine perch in the Torre Valley I held up my painting to the subject, my headlamp illuminating the Torre towers like that of the moon. It was the morning before my friend Whitney Clark and I climbed Chiara De Luna on St Exupery, one of the peaks in the Fitz Roy range. This painting snaps me back to how I felt my heart swelling and palpitating at the same time. I like to think these paintings are vessels of those moments. The anticipation is stained on the paper, shades of purple signifying my reverence for mountains of this magnitude. ⁠ ⁠ Whitney and I set out to climb the following morning. As we arrived at our planned bivy about two-thirds of the way up the route, I glanced across again at the Torre towers, now at eye level directly across the valley from us. I fell asleep watching the outline of Cerro Torre fade into the night. We awoke the next morning to violent weather and had no choice but to fight our way upwards to reach an anchor that we could safely retreat from, several pitches from the summit. During the descent, our ropes ripped away from us and flew into the sky above, a tangled mess whipping out of sight. At one point I had my knife in my hand ready to cut the rope, as it was hopelessly stuck around the corner. We gave it one last tug and it miraculously came free. I sighed a monumental exhale of relief, then continued to hold my breath until we made it back to camp safely. ⁠ ⁠ To this day, that was the most intense climbing experience of my life. It gave me the utmost respect for these mountains. These paintings are personal journal pieces, and they bring back those experiences in a way that a photograph cannot. ⁠ ⁠ Rhiannon is an artist and climber who creates watercolor interpretations of landscapes based upon her experience with them. Whether she's climbing a wall in Yosemite or scrambling peaks in the Wind River Range, she always carries paints and paper to capture the essence of the environment.⁠ Check out the link in bio to learn more about her art and adventures.⁠ ⁠ Words + Images: @rhiannon_klee Photo: @tedhesser