A digital camera isn’t the only piece of equipment a photographer needs when hiking deep into Utah’s national parks looking to capture the perfect display of winter ice. A hardhat will help deflect falling icicles, and proper socks and shoes will keep feet warm and prevent slips on icy trails.

One particularly perilous place is The Narrows, the narrowest section of Zion National Park. The canyon walls are a thousand feet high. In winter, the warmth of the sun shining higher up on the walls above release icicles from their grip, sending them crashing below.

Jeff Foott, who at 80 said he’s “pretending” to retire, wears a hardhat in The Narrows, and whenever possible, stops under an overhang. When hiking in winter in The Narrows or any number of side canyons near Moab, Foott also wears special, um, footing. He owns two pair of Five Ten canyoneering boots with “sticky” rubber soles. You can’t buy Five Tens canyoneering shoes today. Foott’s boots are wearing out, but as he says, so is he.

Underneath his canyoneering shoes are Neoprene socks, and waterproof socks over them. Most important, he said, are dry suit pants over long underwear. Another part of his costume: thick gloves he wears over thin ones; he takes off the thicker ones when it’s time to take a picture. He carries his camera gear in a Patagonia waterproof pack, and walks with a ski pole for balances when navigating rocks and streams.

Foott has traveled for two decades, sometimes with his wife, fellow photographer Judith Zimmerman, to icy places in Utah. He’s especially interested in the combination of red rock, white snow and ice. Sometimes the ice itself is reddish, the water collecting red sand on its way into becoming an icicle.

Foott lives in Castle Valley, a town in Grand County with a population of 319 northeast of Moab. He explores the many side canyons nearby, in all seasons. The area is impossibly crowded in summer, he says, but offers solitude in winter.

Foott’s extraordinary precautions around ice and snow are rooted in a harrowing experience – a 1980 expedition up Mount Minya Konka, a 24,790-foot peak in the Sichuan province of China. The mountain’s snowfield is unstable, and an avalanche killed a member of Foott’s team.

The risks of winter hiking and climbing in Utah haven’t been quite as great lately. Foott reports seeing far less ice the last few seasons. The Colorado River doesn’t freeze over as often as it used to, he said. So, his photographs in this essay are somewhat historic. Going back to 2006, they capture images that have been more difficult to get. If winter drought continues, the photographs will be an increasingly valuable record Utah’s fire and ice.