‘The alpinist” movie now on Netflix

[genepires]

Now on Netflix if you wanna watch for free

[mneagle]

Thanks for the heads up. Watched it tonight. Even when you know the ending, it's still brutal. 

 

[genepires]

The brightest candle burns shortest.  His candle went solar.

Edited December 7, 2021 by genepires
thought that term supernova was inconsiderate and didn't want to imply anything other that he went full on in the game.

[seano-]

Finally saw this a couple of nights ago.  Watching him pull that roof before the Stanley Headwall sequence, blindly sticking a tool into the ice and kicking his feet free, was mesmerizing.  It was noticeable to me that he was never speed climbing, but always methodical, searching around for placements and footholds and testing them, but then supremely confident that they would hold.  RIP.

Edited December 7, 2021 by seano-

[olyclimber]

Watched it for the first time too.

What struck me most was just how Marc lived.   He could have been anything, but the way he lived and his focus on what was important to him.  Living in a stairwell, a tent, in a snow cave. Ignoring the pressures other put on him that didn't fit with the pure vision that he had, of what he was trying to obtain.  All the while just just presenting a face of goofy kindness to anyone he interacted with.

Thats what I admire most about him, and wish that I could better implement into my own life....and also what I wish for my son or anyone.  The level and type of climbing he was doing is something foreign to me that  I can't begin to understand, and I'm sure I never will. But I can understand and admire the example that he lived outside of that.

[genepires]

17 hours ago, olyclimber said:

Watched it for the first time too.

What struck me most was just how Marc lived.   He could have been anything, but the way he lived and his focus on what was important to him.  Living in a stairwell, a tent, in a snow cave. Ignoring the pressures other put on him that didn't fit with the pure vision that he had, of what he was trying to obtain.  All the while just just presenting a face of goofy kindness to anyone he interacted with.

Thats what I admire most about him, and wish that I could better implement into my own life....and also what I wish for my son or anyone.  The level and type of climbing he was doing is something foreign to me that  I can't begin to understand, and I'm sure I never will. But I can understand and admire the example that he lived outside of that.

don't beat yourself up so  much.  Ya gotta remember that all that goofiness and dedication was in his early 20's, a time when it is easier to avoid the rigors of life demands.   I sure wish he was around to inspire us in his early 30's.

 

[olyclimber]

I try not to @genepires .   but i was no where near the human being he was at that age. I think "hoped I died before I got old" as the song goes.  But this isn't about me, I'm ok with who I am and was and I still do aspire to be a better person because it isn't over yet.

This passage below from his blog @cheamclimber (Marc) that @Rad quoted in the thread from when he went missing struck me too as way more mature and brave of a vision for a young man.   I admit at that age I cared way too much about what other people thought about me or what I was doing.   That is the bravery, vision, and imagination that I admire.  To step way from from all that.  He was clearly unique.  Perhaps that captures  is the spirit of "alpinism" when it comes to the desire to leave the established path and find a new way up.   And this is all apart form the audacity of his uncomprehendible climbing achievements. 

From LeClerc's blog on his Emperor Face ascent on Mt Robson: 

"It was now my fourth day alone in the mountains and my thoughts had reached a depth and clarity that I had never before experienced. The magic was real.

 I thought to myself that the essence of alpinism lies in true adventure. I was deeply content that I had not carried a watch with me to keep time, as the obsession with time and speed is in fact one of the greatest detractors from the alpine experience. I was happy that my entire experience had been onsight, on my first visit to the mountain, and that the route had been in completely virgin condition. One of the greatest challenges of mountaineering is in dealing with the natural obstacles the mountain provides. So often in modern alpinism, routes will be fearsomely difficult for the first party of the season, and then once the obstacles have been cleared, a track established or the ‘tunnels’ dug it becomes easy for those who follow.

Climbing routes that have been cleared, with an established track,simply in order to attain the summit, or keeping time in order to set records is in fact reducing the adventure of alpinism more to that of a sport climb, and strips the route of its full challenge making it more of a ‘playing field’ of a team sports athlete or like a barbell at an indoor gym where a jock tries to lift his personal best.

 

As a young climber it is undeniable that I have been manipulated by the media and popular culture and that some of my own climbs have been subconsciously shaped through what the world perceives to be important in terms of sport. Through time spent in the mountains, away from the crowds, away from the stopwatch and the grades and all the lists of records I’ve been slowly able to pick apart what is important to me and discard things that are not.

Of course the journey of learning never ends but I’ve come to believe that the natural world is the greatest teacher of all, and that listening in silence to the universe around you is perhaps the most productive ways of learning. Perhaps it is not much of a surprise, but so often people are afraid of their own thoughts, resorting to drowning them out with constant noise and distraction. Is it a fear of leaning who we actually are that causes this? Perhaps so many of us are afraid to confront our own personalities that we go on living in a world of falseness, filling the void of true contentment by being actors striving to be perceived by the world around us as something that we ‘supposed to be’ rather than living as who we are."

[bigeo]

What I get from that quote is that Marc had come to realize that he was not there to "inspire us".

[olyclimber]

37 minutes ago, bigeo said:

What I get from that quote is that Marc had come to realize that he was not there to "inspire us".

Yep, that exactly what I'm talking about.  Maybe its terrible for me to say it, but it's exactly that that inspires me most of all.

[Rad]

I found it hard to see the last segment of the film because there was a waterfall pouring out of my eyes. Knowing the ending just made it worse.

I thought it was better than Free Solo. Peter Mortimer is a great visual story teller. 

 

[aikidjoe]

I agree with you Olyclimber. We live in a society that now seems to rewards narcissism and egotism (often disguised in false humility), and it was so wonderful to be reminded of how such an incredible athlete and climber could live with such sincerity and integrity despite the pressure for the opposite. To be at such a high level for your chosen path and do it with such integrity, definitely an inspiring example for how to live, however short it was.

And the climbing! Good lord, so beautiful (and scary) to watch. Watching him soloing on the Stanley Headwall was amazing to me.

Anyhow, great documentary on a great climber and person! Such a tragedy.

[wayne]

  My own conjecture would be that Mark was both inspired by our cascade climbers reports, and a bit put off by the self-promotion media that we rolled at the time? 
    Being one of the few solo climbers att, I wanted to be real careful how I presented the game and not pull any punches with how different and risky it can be. Yes I romanticized it, and that game can be rewarding af, but it becomes pretty obvious quick that the stakes are all in. 

I wish I could have met him, and I recently ran across Brett, but didn’t want to assert my need to connect at the time. It’s pretty easy to see being friends with either of them.

It’s so cool that we have a era frozen in time that we can pass on to future generations!

[bigeo]

I related this annecdote on the thread here that followed Marc's death, but I'll throw it out again. Our party encountered Marc and partners descending Slesse after climbing the NE Buttress. He was with a quite elderly Austrian and a guy from WA whom he had hooked up with through the CCs partners forum. He told us about he and the Austrian retreating from  Slesse a short time before in a storm and leaving his rack behind. He seemed to me very much the goofy kid (still in high school at that time) whose posts I had seen on this site and I mentioned this to my partners after we continued on. My friend Grahm, who has gone on to become a worldclass alpinist (LInk Sar, Piolet d'or among other notable accomplishments), had a different take: "you'll be hearing about that kid" was his reply. I guess it takes one to know one.

Edited December 17, 2021 by bigeo
grammer