Many of you in the climbing community have probably seen Jeremy Ashcroft’s work — even if you don’t know who he is. Jeremy started work as technical illustrator, doing precision drawings of complicated equipment.

“I certainly enjoy doing big faces, big walls and crags. So, the climbing terrain, I really find that quite challenging. That’s the sort of place I want to be, so I enjoy drawing it.”

Jeremy was working on drawings for nuclear submarines when he had the idea to approach mountains with the same precision, capturing incredible detail in ways that conventional maps or drawings simply can’t.

“I was pretty bored with what I was doing and I thought, I could apply the same sort of stuff to mountains — I mean, as a mountaineer I was obsessed with that as well — And I thought, oh, if I can draw a complicated thing like a nuclear submarine, I can surely do the same for a mountain.”

“It Gelled with People. They Could see Familiar Locations. They Could see it from a High Viewpoint, but it was still Recognizable to Them on the Ground.”

Interview Notes

0:45 — Earliest memories art
2:00 — What is a technical illustrator?
4:30 — From nuclear submarines to mountains
6:00 — Jeremy’s time in the United States
8:35 — How Colorado 14ers differ from other mountains around the world
13:30 — The evolution of climbing resources
16:00 — Working for Trail Magazine
18:50 — How Jeremy picks his peaks to draw
22:00 — Finishing the 14ers project
23:00 — How to draw things you’ve never seen

If you’d like to check out Jeremy’s work: he sells prints of his drawings, You can also follow his work on Instagram or Twitter.

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