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Originally Posted by Engine09
I still don't get it, the amount of physical torture and incredibly uncomfortable situations he puts himself in is unbelievable. Not just the sub zero temps spending the night on those mountains but the injuries to his hands, etc.
What was the face he climbed in Banff? Was it Stanley Peak or Storm Mountain? Just south of Hwy 1 and Hwy 93. Also made me realize I've never been West of Jasper and have not seen Mount Robson.
The footage of Torre Egger is incredible. I remember watching documentary on the Andes range that started in the north and finished up in that area. Gotta find the name of that.
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https://albertamagazines.com/wp-cont...eadsLowres.pdf
Here's a little bit of an extra excerpt that gives more insight into the thought process. It's kinda like any activity that has a sense of "torture" to us laymen but is just part of the journey for someone hardcore into an activity. Like running a marathon or being a triathlete etc. or playing hockey and be constantly covered in injuries. There's something about overcoming yourself as well as your circumstances/environment and feeling that hard to describe sense of accomplishment at the end. The injuries are just a minor thing in the end.
Like, hiking up to the top of Ha Ling Peak and looking down makes that effort worth it. I imagine the feeling is amplified if you climbed up the side of the mountain vs a pre-established path. I enjoy looking down from mountains. I just assumed this is the same for him, but completely different approach on how to get to the top and the dedication of what was considered possible in his mind.
I agree that I can't truly understand the climbing mentality and the sacrifices and injuries one has to endure to get to that level, but I have some friends who moved out to Squamish and somewhere in California and they do this stuff daily as if it was a daily jog + workout or something. They just can't see a world with a mountain where they'd wonder if they could do it, and if they felt they could within a certain amount of risk parameter, they're going to try. I have a few friends in Calgary who love hiking, rock climbing as well as diving and stuff like that when they go on trip and they too mentioned how they love the exploration aspect of places that few others typically go.
In the documentary, they'd mention how Marc would have this glow after a good climb that would stick around for a while. Alex Honnold also highlighted how different his world and Marc's was. Alex free solos rock. It's challenging, but it's basically a fixed medium in comparison to what Marc was doing. Marc was free soloing combinations of rock, ice and snow on certain mountains that others had not done. Ice and snow could easily break and melt an refreeze in different formations. Add on the fact that Marc typically preferred to show up and just do the climb "on-sight". Many other alpinists and climbers considered that an insanely high level gold standard of climbing. It wasn't enough he was taking on these crazy peaks. He had to do it on sight.
A few comments hinted at the thought process such as the feeling of being so small, being in an environment that was so finite, moving over a mountain unencumbered is the closest a climber can get to sprouting wings... etc. I've watched the documentary a few times just focusing on these ideals/philosophies that these interviewees are describing.
As for the specific mountains nearby, I'm not sure. Supposedly he did a ton of them in the area and for a bit he lived in a cave somewhere so that he could spend a bunch of time climbing combinations of rock and ice. Supposedly he'd spend a bunch of time hiking deep into the mountains and set up camp and just randomly climb a whole bunch of areas nearby. I'm pretty sure he did the same in the Canmore/Banff/Jasper area as well as a few other remote areas.
This blog entry below from his Robson ascent just has a ton of random Rockies locations thrown all over the place.
http://marcleclerc.blogspot.com/2016...-infinite.html
This seems to be hinted as in the "jog" as described by Bernadette McDonald in the other link above. I assume similar things exist for his time in the Canmore/Jasper/Banff area. He'd just randomly do climbs for fun without really keeping track of it in detail. It made me wonder what it would be like to hike to the top of some of the mountains we drive by on the way to Banff without a second thought. Nothing insane, but something rarely attempted by others.
The Robson ascent scenes were amazing. At first I was wondering who he was climbing with as a partner for some of those shots and then the drone zoomed out and I was speechless.