Reel Rock Tour Thoughts

Last night we checked out the Reel Rock tour in Glenwood. It’s always fun to see climbing flicks on the big screen, and this year’s tour had some good and some so-so. Here’s a brief rundown of what we thought:

It started off with the filmmaking competition winners, which were both excellent. Top Rope Tough Guys is good fun, and Roxxx is simply hilarious. After this things started off proper with Sharma’s First Round First Minute project. Chris is a humble and likable guy, and it’s always fun to see him getting after it on beautiful Spanish stone. One memorable scene in particular followed him up a huge blue tufa for 60 feet or so, incredible!

The Lisa Rands/Peter Croft segment was excellent, and probably my favorite of the night. Seeing Rands step outside her comfort zone to embrace alpine trad climbing speaks volumes about her personality. Many climbers, and especially pro’s, stay within a style they are comfortable with, and that they can excel at. But here she is, fiddling in gear, getting scared and pumped and taking the whip, high up on a peak in the Sierras. It doesn’t matter what grade you climb, if you’ve ever pushed your self on a trad route, you know what she was feeling during that scene, and it’s those connections that make for a truly fun movie experience.

Fly or Die spotlighted Dean Potter’s exploits involving free soloing with a parachute. This guy is so far out on the fringe he’s almost irrelevant, and this isn’t something that will ever catch on. It was mildly interesting the first time around, now it just feels old and tired.

Down and Out, and Under was filmed in Australia and provided a good shot of humor for the evening. This segment had little to do with actual climbing and was more about the misadventures of this group of Americans in Oz. From getting lost on approaches, to Jujitsu fights over old grudges, it provided continuous laughs, with occasional shots of some stunning climbing in between.

The second half of the show personally did little for me. I have nothing against bouldering, but I thought The Hardest Moves was one of the weakest bouldering segments I’ve ever seen. By comparison, I really enjoyed the Rocklands piece in Progression with Daniel Woods and Paul Robinson, which had good scenery, cool looking climbs, and an interesting dynamic between the young guys and Tommy Caldwell being on the trip. This had very little in the way of scenic shots, showed the same move over and over, and went way too far into the mindless process of obsessing over a route until it succumbs. No thanks.

And then there was the Swiss Machine, about speed climber Uli Steck. Sure, it’s impressive what he is doing, but he came across as super self absorbed in his singular pursuit of speed. I appreciated the sick footage of him romping up El Cap and peaks in the Alps, but there was too little backstory. What makes him tick as a person, what’s his family like? I guess we’ll never know.

Climbing movies seem to be segmenting into two different directions. On the one hand, you have more story oriented films like King Lines and the First Ascent box set (review coming soon), where you not only see some rad climbing footage, but you learn about the person behind the climbs as well. You go into their house, meet their friends, find out what they were like as kids. And the other type of climbing movies is the focus on pure climbing, the climbing “porn,” which I was bored with years ago.

Regardless of what YOU enjoy, the Reel Rock Tour has something for everyone, be sure to check it out if you can this fall. At some point you’ll probably laugh, whince, and feel your palms sweat as the inspiration creeps up your spine.