Fantastic image.

Magnificent

Breathtaking

Another cracker, exposure spot on, hardly lost any highlights despite the head torches.

Thanks guys!!

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As always, absolutely love your shots, Ben Tibbets! You're a big inspiration to me :)
Did you use a very bright lens or merge two photos? Or just a very high ISO?
I'm not so good with low light photography, and would love to learn a bit more!

Hi Lena.. Thanks!
it is one photo @ISO 4000, handheld, no VR - 1/4 sec... took a bunch of shots and this was the one with almost no shake... exposure difficult to balance indeed with bright headtorches and low ambient... every morning there is a short period when still only just need a headtorch but can still see well without one .. It was shot at this time, hence the highlights are not too blown out. The key to all this is the incredible sensor on the Nikon D810... most cameras can't produce a usable images at iso 4000!

Thanks for such detailed answer Ben. Yeah, I was worried it could be high ISO, as photos from my camera (Nikon D90) above ISO 2000 can only to go to the bin...
Anyway, great photo!

Is that a headtorch much lower down on the route or a dead pixel?!

.. that's a headtorch... no idea what they were doing on that side of the arete though!... maybe they dropped something!

Maybe they dropped a headtorch!