ENTOURAGE - #7 > October/November 2005

Keith Ladzinski
It was nearly a decade ago when Keith was hanging out at a skate shop when his friend, who worked at a nearby pet store, brought in a "crazy little mouse-like thing." Within moments, Keith's skate photog friend Atiba started taking pics of the animal in silly poses with skate hardware as props. Intrigued, Keith wanted a camera too, in hopes of documenting "silly stuff." And so, a week later, Keith was daydreaming about Pentax cameras from pawnshops. After he received his tax refund, he had himself a camera in a matter of months, just to shoot silly stuff. While photographing skateboarding, he also began shooting landscapes, which he still does (it makes up a majority of his professional portfolio and allows him to still shoot his sporting passions). Completely self-taught (he's devoured tomes of photo manuals and textbooks), he's burned a whole lot of film along the way.
Growing up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, gave Keith effortless access to the outdoors. Climbing, mountain biking, mountaineering and virtually any other outdoor activity is a stone's throw away. But it wasn't until 2001, when Keith put on his first harness after an offer from his friend Ty Robinson. "I always thought it looked fun but I was too busy skateboarding to care," says Keith. One day of climbing was all it took. An outdoor enthusiast at heart climbing offered a whole new experience and reason to travel to unseen places. "Shooting climbing is entertaining to say the least; it can get pretty ridiculous - what you have to go through to get a good angle. I guess if it was easy it wouldn't be fun." Keith is a regular contributor to UCMAG and "Castlewood Canyon" is his first feature with us. Check out more of Keith's photography at www.ladzinski.com.

Louie Anderson
Unless you live in Southern California, you may only know Louie Anderson in association with the hundreds of handhold designs that he has done for top hold companies, or for his climbing gym designs and construction. If you're from So Cal however, you know Louie as being one of the most active new route developers around. With well over a thousand first ascents to his credit, Louie is responsible for discovering and developing many new areas in and around So Cal and for expanding climbing options at many of the existing areas. Primarily focusing on regional sport climbing these days, he's also enjoyed high-end bouldering, crack climbing, big walls and overseas sport climbing in years past.
Having learned to aid-climb at the Riverside Quarry in California in the early 80's and then freeing aid lines there sporadically over the next decade, Louie has always had its further development in the back of his mind. The Quarry is one of his most recent contributions to the climbing community, and in the last few years he's seen what was once an overlooked crag turn into one of the most popular (and best) sport climbing venues in So Cal. The area may very well be his best contribution to date. While shooting photos for the area guidebook, he amassed quite a collection of quality shots. That collection led to this issue's feature, Quarry Revival. This is his second submission to Urban Climber and his first feature article for us.
Louie lives in a rural area of Orange County, California, with his wife of sixteen years and their two daughters. The family's home is one that they built themselves and one that is in an ever-evolving state of construction. Next up: the billiards room and a pool/jacuzzi combo featuring sculpted boulders. Who knows, they may even be large enough to climb on.

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