Didn't know they made it to a movie

youtube.com/watch?v=dVZmnG-…

Ha ha, ya it was made for TV... Cheesy as hell! Can't wait till The Summit is released. Selected at Sundance. About the 2008 K2 climb.

Of course, the best all time climbing movie, with all it's campiness, is K2 with Michael Baene. As bad as it is, I absolutely love it!

no way. Eiger Station!

Just Solo wrote:Ha ha, ya it was made for TV... Cheesy as hell! Can't wait till The Summit is released. Selected at Sundance. About the 2008 K2 climb. Of course, the best all time climbing movie, with all it's campiness, is K2 with Michael Baene. As bad as it is, I absolutely love it!

By K2, you meant the movie named "K2" right, not the "Verticle Limit" right?

Come on! It's the Eiger Sanction.

Bang wrote: By K2, you meant the movie anmed "K2" right, not the "Verticle Limit" right?

Yes... Vertical limit was just stupid. Amazed Viesters had anything to do with it. That scene at the beginning with the team simul-climbing and the rope cut was just ridiculous!

Eiger Sanction was good, but not a strictly climbing movie...

Just Solo wrote: Amazed Viesters had anything to do with it.

He got paid, yo!

And all of the guys that worked on Cliffhanger had a blast and got paychecks as well. Honestly, wouldn't you want to get paid to work on the cheesiest movie about climbing ever made? It would be even sweeter if you got a walk on role delivering some super serious line.

"He's dead, Jim."

Yeah, you've hit up on some of the top movies ever made for cheese factor....but what the hell if the paychecks are good just laugh about them all the way to the bank I say. My vote for realism is Eiger Sanction from the mid 70's....a classic that broke the mold for Hollywood action climbing flicks to follow the next 25 years.

The Eiger Sanction by far. Cool picture of Clint on the cover of the most recent Alpinist (41) with some nice back story.

Just before he cut the rope in the climatic scene, Clint asked one of the rope guys, Hamish MacInness: "Is this safe?"

MacInness replied: "It's safe enough, but I wouldn't do it.

I saw a guy act out that beginning scene from Vertical Limit after finding out I was a climber. He got into it, too. Shouting out dialogue and wildly gesticulating. He then got really quiet and asked, "Is that what it's like going climbing?"

I so badly wanted to turn and sprint away as fast as I could. Alas, I'm not that cool. So I weakly explained to him that Vertical Limit is a movie and that kinda shit doesn't happen. At least not where I climb.

He seemed disappointed. I remember thinking that was weird.

I think the best actual climbing movie to date is Touching the Void. Or, if you haven't seen it, get on netflix and watch the german movie, The North Face. It's about the first german ascent of the Eiger. Fantastic movie. Great scenes, and I think a good portion actually filmed on the Eiger itself. Could be wrong about that one.

Just Solo wrote:I think the best actual climbing movie to date is Touching the Void. Or, if you haven't seen it, get on netflix and watch the german movie, The North Face. It's about the first german ascent of the Eiger. Fantastic movie. Great scenes, and I think a good portion actually filmed on the Eiger itself. Could be wrong about that one.

Both are great, but I consider them more of documentary types, not just hollywood entertainment stuff. Nordwand' was pretty dam cool with all the old gear they used.

Well, also the German movie "Nanga Parbat" about the Messner brothers

Bang wrote:Well, also the German movie "Nanga Parbat" about the Messner brothers

Agree, if we open it up to lots of unknown great foreign climbing films, the list will certainly grow by quite alot. There are many good ones out there..think Nordwand' was the most famous to cross over into the US markets.

One thing though, the effort/sadness of the guides came across well, and I understand that the author was there to write an article, but I didn't get the impression that the story adequately portrayed the authors climbing experience. I remember the R&I article that he wrote about the Eiger N Face and I articles about routes in AK and climbing in New England. The story is tragic, but I got the impression from the movie that the author was a writer with limited climbing experience, rather than a climber turned author.