In 1994, New Zealand mountaineer, Mark Whetu, summitted Mt Everest with climbing partner and friend Mike Reinberger. However it was late in the day and after a freezing night on the summit, Whetu was faced with a terrible decision...to leave Reinberger or stay with him forever.
At 18,000 feet above sea level and over the course of 40 days last Spring, documentary filmmaker Dianne Whelan immersed herself in the challenging and captivating world of base camp at Mt. Everest. With spectacular footage of the mountains’ landscape as a backdrop, 40 DAYS AT BASE CAMP is an intriguing and intimate portrayal of three climbing teams and their journey to the peak.
Deceased but not forgotten. In 2017, Switzerland's most famous mountaineer, "Swiss Machine" Ueli Steck, fell to his death in the Himalayas when he was just 40 years old. Three close friends travel again to the Everest region where he died. His family in Emmental has to deal with premature death.
The great successes and tragedies in the life and work of Hans Kammerlander, the renowned mountaineer.
Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk ascend Northern India's Meru Shark Fin, one of the last great unclimbed alpine rock walls in the world.
Famous for his fast solos on the harshest north faces of the Alps, Ueli Steck decided to learn a new sport: paragliding! Not always easy learning, but useful learning, and Ueli didn't take long to perform under one wing. Paragliding allowed him to complete the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau trilogy in one day climbing the three peaks solo and depending on the paragliding faces from the peaks....
I am a cameraman specialized in shooting in high altitude and extreme condition. I participate in four sponsored expeditions to the Himalayas from 2009 to 2013 to shoot TV documentaries. Having observed success, failure and death of aspiring alpinist in the series of life risking challenges, I decide to make a film about the other side of the alpinist that has not been seen on TV.
Horia Colibasanu is a dentist, father of two boys and elite climber. In 2008, he refused to abandon, at 7400 meters on the Annapurna, his sick companion, the Basque mountaineer Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, implanted his own life in danger. His action dazzled the climbing community. Despite this tragic incident, he continued to climb in pure alpine style, without supplemental oxygen. In 2017, the 40-year-old Romanian athlete will return to Everest, after two unsuccessful attempts. For the first time, Horia is attempting a solo ascent.
“There’s a fine line between being bold and being a dumbass. And I think Brad did some time on both sides of the line.” Such are the words filmmaker and climber Cedar Wright uses to describe the subject of his new film. Meet Brad Gobright, 27 years old, busboy at a fine dining establishment, dirtbag, college dropout. Gobright’s diet consists of sprinkled donuts, scraps from work, glazed croissants, apple pie, and any and all junk food. And one other thing: Gobright is one of the best and boldest free solo climbers in the sport — who nobody has ever heard of. Safety Third shines the spotlight on Gobright, probably for a shorter moment than he deserves. But it doesn’t matter. His mind is elsewhere, focused on his next free solo.
Jim Bridwell was one of the best climbers in the world in the 70s, 80s. The documentary chronicles Bridwell's career from those early days to his final ascents in 2001. The film traces Jim Bridwell's journey through numerous interviews with other legendary free climbing personalities such as Leo Houlding and Ron Kauk. See him climb some of Yosemite's historic routes with today's young climbers paying homage to this true legend of free climbing. In an unpublished document from 1981, he is seen in one of his famous Zodiac ascents in El Capitan with and Fred East.
Documentary about Abdul Karim, the most famous porter of the Karakoram, born in Hushé, a small village in northern Pakistan where the only way to earn money to survive the harsh winters is to work as a mountain porter with the expeditions on the highest peaks in the country. He climbed with the greatest mountaineers: Messner, Kukuczka, Boivin, Bonington... But his last, most ambitious and revolutionary project of all was to create the first women's mountaineering team in Baltistan.
The documentary, born in collaboration with the Italian Alpine Club, talks about a mountain guide and an exceptional young pupil. Hervé Barmasse and Tudor Laurini - alias Klaus - venture to discover the Italian territory to spread the beauty of the mountain, promote the outdoor activities connected to it, defend and promote the culture of those who love and respect our planet. An itinerary to discover the values of the Italian Alpine Club.
A mountaineer and audiovisual director begins a trip through Argentina to reconvene with the two friends with whom he tried to make a summit in the Himalayas. Alone and with them, he will try to understand what happened to Dario, the fourth friend, who decided to keep going up, the only one who did not return alive from the expedition.
Two young cameramen are asked to film a Mount Everest expedition by German mountaineer Thomas Weber; a man wishing to climb Everest, in spite of his visual handicap. For cameramen Milan Collin and Kevin Augello this is a dream come true. They accept the challenge with full excitement In the first weeks Milan and Kevin are confronted with their own physical limitations. Are they capable of climbing this mountain? Surrounded by people who are prepared to die for their dream, giving up is not an option. They are confronted with accidents and death. In the isolated environment Milan and Kevin turn the camera on each other. This film is a personal story of two men confronted with the harsh and extreme conditions high up on the mountain.
