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    Climbing Documentaries that Will Have You Scaling New Heights

    Full On Fella Posted on

    There are some sports that most people can only ever watch with their hearts in their mouths. See someone inch their way up a sheer rock face with little more than their fingertips and a bag of chalk to support them, for example, and the vast majority of us would start to feel sick long before the subject got anywhere near the top.

    Yet climbing is also one of those activities that almost all of us have dabbled in at one point or another, whether it was scrambling up a tree as a child or having a go on the wall at the local leisure centre. Doing it at the very top requires an entirely different level of nerve and ability, though, which is where documentaries come in.

    If you want to gain a sense of just what the world’s best climbers are willing to put themselves through, these documentaries are a good place to start:

    Valley Uprising

    If you want to understand where modern climbing came from and the misfits who helped to shape it, Valley Uprising is the best place to start. Directed by Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen and Josh Lowell, it tells the story of the climbers who turned Yosemite Valley into the spiritual home of the sport.

    It moves from the golden age pioneers of the 1950s and 1960s all the way through to the present day and the large numbers of people who climb there. Narrated by Peter Sarsgaard, the film traces the rivalries that defined each era, starting with the likes of Royal Robbins and Warren Harding and their competing ideas about how a mountain ought to be climbed.

    From there, it moves through the long-haired, rule-breaking Stonemasters of the 1970s and on to the modern generation of free climbers and base jumpers. What makes it such an enjoyable watch is that it is as much about counterculture as it is about climbing, with the ‘dirtbag’ lifestyle of those who lived in the Valley on next to no money proving every bit as fascinating as the routes they conquered.

    If you only watch one film on this list to get a feel for the culture, this one should really be it. It is a documentary about the people as much as the climbing, but it is no less enjoyable for taking that focus from the outset.

    Free Solo

    If Valley Uprising captures the romance of climbing, then Free Solo captures its sheer, white-knuckle terror. Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, it follows Alex Honnold as he sets out to climb El Capitan in Yosemite without any ropes whatsoever, which is a discipline known as free soloing.

    The film, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, doesn’t shy away from the obvious question of why anyone would willingly put themselves in a position where a single mistake means certain death. We get to know Honnold, his relationship and even the part of his brain that appears to be wired differently to the rest of us.

    There is a real tension running through the whole thing, not least because the crew filming it are visibly terrified of capturing a death on camera. When Honnold finally makes his ascent in the June of 2017, it is just about the most nerve-shredding thing you are ever likely to watch.

    The chances are high that you might well forget to breathe whilst watching him take on nature in its purest form. It is clear that Honnold doesn’t interpret fear the same way that the rest of us do, which is why it is that he’s been happy to take on countless different impossible tasks, all in the same manner that is captured so brilliantly in Free Solo.

    The Dawn Wall

    Sticking with El Capitan as the mountain being climbed, The Dawn Wall tells the story of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson and their effort to free climb one of the blankest and most difficult sections of the entire rock face. Directed by Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer, it follows the pair across the nineteen days they spent living on the wall back in 2015.

    What lifts the film above being a simple account of an impressive climb is Caldwell’s remarkable backstory, which takes in being held hostage by armed militants whilst climbing in Kyrgyzstan in 2000 to losing a finger in an accident with a table saw, which is the sort of thing that most climbers would assume to be career-ending.

    The Dawn Wall

    The relationship between the two men sits right at the heart of the film, particularly the moment when Caldwell has to decide whether to push on for the summit alone or wait for his partner, who is struggling badly with one especially brutal section.

    It is a story about obsession and loyalty as much as it is about climbing, which is something that anyone who has ever followed a football team, supported an international side in competition or simply had an unhealthy relationship will understand. The winner of numerous different awards like the Grand Prix Graz at the Mountainfilm International Film Festival Graz, this film is deserving of a place on the list.

    Meru

    Made by the same team that went on to give us Free Solo, Meru is, in many ways, the film that announced Jimmy Chin as a documentary maker, not least because he happens to be one of its three subjects. It follows Chin, Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk as they attempt the Shark’s Fin route on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas, which is a line that had turned back every expedition that came before them.

    Their first attempt in 2008 ends in failure, with the trio forced to retreat after being agonisingly close to the top and pinned down by a storm for days.  What follows is the question of whether they are willing to go back and have another go.

    That question is made all the more complicated by the serious injuries that both Ozturk and Chin suffer in the period between the two attempts. The fact that all three men are elite mountaineers and that Chin and Anker have both lived through experiences that would have killed most people gives the film an interesting perspective that other movies can’t always match.

    This is mountaineering at its most committed, where the margin between success and disaster is wafer-thin and getting things wrong could be cataclysmic. If you are someone that has backed away from a challenge rather than face your demons, this could give you the inspiration you need.

    Touching the Void

    For a film that proves you don’t need modern technology or a huge crew to tell an extraordinary climbing story, look no further than Touching the Void. Directed by Kevin Macdonald and released in 2003, it recounts Joe Simpson and Simon Yates’s attempt to climb Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes 18 years before.

    What ought to have been a triumphant first ascent turns into a nightmare when Simpson breaks his leg high on the mountain. With the pair slowly freezing as they try to get back down, Yates is eventually forced into the agonising decision to cut the rope, sending his partner plummeting into a crevasse and, as far as he knew, to his death.

    Touching the Void

    The film combines interviews with the two men (spoiler: Simpson survives) and dramatic reconstructions of what happened, with the result being an almost unbearably tense movie. The fact that we know from the off that Simpson somehow lived to tell the tale, the story is no less dramatic for that knowledge.

    The debate over whether Yates was right to cut the rope has rumbled on ever since and the film is more than happy to let you make your own mind up. The vast majority of climbers only really think about the ascent as being the tricky part, with this documentary showing that sometimes the way down can be just as difficult to master.

    The Alpinist

    The final film on our list is The Alpinist, which is a documentary that is every bit as moving as it is jaw-dropping. Directed by Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen, it introduces us to Marc-André Leclerc, a young Canadian who was quietly pulling off some of the most dangerous solo ascents in the world with almost nobody watching.

    Part of what makes Leclerc such a compelling subject is how reluctant he is to be filmed at all, regularly disappearing off the grid and leaving the documentary makers scrambling just to keep tabs on his whereabouts. He has no real interest in fame or sponsorship, climbing purely because it is what he loves to do.

    That makes him a refreshing sort of figure in the social media age, showing us that the love of the thing can be a driver in and of itself, never thinking about clicks or views. It would be unfair to give too much away, but anyone who knows Leclerc’s story will be aware that the film carries an enormous emotional punch.

    He left the climbing world far sooner than he should have done, and The Alpinist stands as a fitting tribute to one of the purest talents the sport has ever produced. That Alex Honnold, the subject of the aforementioned Free Solo, considered Leclerc to be such an influential figure in the sport tells its own story.

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