National Geographic has a great interview up with filmmaker and photographer Corey Rich, who just finished up documenting two climbers’ historic free climb of the 3000 foot Dawn Wall in Yosemite. If you have ever been curious not only about what it is like to climb a monumental rock face like El Capitan, but also to know the back story of how one documents the process, this piece and the accompanying photos are a must see.

Rich discusses the difficulties of capturing varied and interesting images while shooting in a vertical plane, problems of lighting when most of the climbing is actually occurring at night, and what it’s like to hang around above a thousand feet hauling a lot of gear. Check out the interview here.