Boone Speed

Boone Speed, born on 29 August 1965, is an American photographer and rock climber, the only son of the Western sculptor Ulysess Grant Speed. He was raised outside Provo, Utah, and studied graphic design at Brigham Young University. He began climbing in the summer of 1985 near Salt Lake City and by 1987 had climbed the hardest routes in the region before travelling to Red Rocks, American Fork Canyon, the Virgin River Gorge and Logan Canyon. In 1994 he made the first ascent of Super Tweak at Logan Canyon, the first American route climbed at the grade of 5.14b, and in 1997 he made the first ascent of Ice Cream, 5.14c, becoming one of the first ten climbers in the world to climb that grade. He appeared on the cover of Climbing magazine twice, discovered bouldering at Joe's Valley in 1995 and worked as a climbing equipment designer, shoe designer and photographer for several companies.