BURSTOver 20 years ago, I organized a climbing film festival in northwestern Ontario. Since then, I’ve been to film festivals around the world, have been a judge at events and have helped create climbing movies. I watched a lot this year about climbing, probably you did too, so you might have noticed what I did – two American-made movies stretched the truth. They included unnecessary garbage, which has ultimately taken aways from the awesome-ness of the films.
In 2022, Alik Berg and Quentin Roberts established a new 1,100-metre route on Nevado Jirishanca, a 6,094-metre peak in the Cordillera Huayhuash, which they graded M7 5.8 90°. “We’re calling the route Reino Hongo,” said Roberts, “like mushroom kingdom in Mario.” Berg and Roberts ran into Josh Wharton and Vince Anderson on the summit, who had just completed the first ascent of a climb they graded 5.13a M7 WI6. The film Jirishanca about Wharton and Anderson’s ascent included summit footage that edited out Berg, which is weird. See Berg’s social media post below.
And The Devil’s Climb, which follows Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell on some weird North American bike tour meant to be about fighting climate change while bringing crews of flown-in videographers with them, has several misleading scenes. From not being truthful about what’s happening in the Bugaboos to the route they climbed in Alaska, it’s odd. I know some locals in Alaska who had their new-route push interrupted by the film, weird stuff man. I heard something about bamboo toilet paper while people involved were complaining about the Canadian forestry industry.
Climbing film companies have stretched the truth in the past, including with the cover of The Alpinist, a film about the late Marc-André Leclerc. American climbing film companies are taking liberties with their storytelling that maybe not everyone is on board with. As climbers we need to ask ourselves, do we want entertainment or do we want the truth.
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