Although hanging off a cliff to get a shot of a rock climber or skiing down a mountain to catch a snowboarder in mid-air is exhilarating, the most difficult part of my job is dealing with the athletes. A lot of the athletes are extremely professional and a joy to work with, but there are those who feel they are doing something different from the average person and have outsized egos. Getting to the top is no longer necessarily the goal. Rather, the more difficult and harder moves are the climber's goal. It's become gymnastics.
Climbers get up on a severe overhang and hang on very small edges to do wild contorted moves.
What makes this possible is that they put bolts in the rocks very close together. This is called sport climbing. There were about 500 pinnacles, with rice fields in between. It is a magical place that has been immortalized in classic Chinese paintings. In this incredibly beautiful place, with spectacular summits to climb, this particular climber only wanted to sport climb.