Reel Rock is premiering in 4 days!
Our favourite autumn climbing film tour is back with four epic reels for your viewing pleasure.
In Aussie and NZ cinemas from March, this selection covers an awe-inspiring ascent in the Andes, gets philosophical with climbing purist Sachi Amma on Mt. Mizugaki, heads to Mallorca for camaraderie and deep water soloing with Angie Scarth-Johnson and Hazel Findlay, and follows a tight knit Ukrainian climbing community in the midst of war
Climbing Never Die
Filmmaker Matt Groom chats to VL about the story he was prepared to risk everything for.
Indoor speed climbing may not be an obvious subject choice for Reel Rock, but when Matt Groom met Ukrainian Danyil Boldyrev he saw a film that needed to be made.
As an IFC commentator and filmmaker, Matt was at a comp in Munich where Danyil competed and won. When Danyil told Matt he was considering going back to Ukraine for the Nationals in Kiev, Matt said something just clicked. “I didn’t really have a plan [but] I had this absolute certainty that there was a story in Ukraine,” he said. Matt was struck by the idea that even in the middle of a war zone, people still wanted to climb. But, he explained, it made sense—he himself turns to climbing when he feels sad or down, so why wouldn’t Ukrainian climbers do the same?
To make the film, Matt said he was lucky to be guided by Danyil who took the lead in organising logistics and showing Matt his country.
“I went with Danyil and crossed the border,” said Matt. “I traveled 3,500 km in a few weeks, gradually moving further east. I ended up by myself in a place 30km from the Russian border—it was an active war zone, we were there during a Russian offensive.”
“We found some stories that the world needed to see and needed to be told,” said Matt. “I’ve always struggled with the idea that sport and politics shouldn’t be linked. Politics is a fundamental part of any sport. My job is to go to climbing comps and talk about what happens in that moment, but there is so much that happens outside those two hours.” As he explored the Ukraine and interviewed climbers, Matt said he was struck by the juxtaposition between the joy they took in climbing and the death and the destruction surrounding them.
“We see these athletes compete, and we need to see what their country is going through,” Matt said. “I went to a competition and as we left an enormous air raid siren sounded, and yet people were walking around like nothing was happening. Any one of those competitors could be killed at any moment.”
Heading into a war zone would alter the worldview of most people. And Matt is no exception.
“For me it was and is the most important thing I’ve ever done. As fulfilling as what I’ve done in life is, this is something above that,” he said.
“I went there for quite selfish reasons. I went there because I needed to film something and I needed to find something. Along the way I realised that that sense of ego was a bit pathetic when actual people's lives were at stake.”
Matt said that he came away with a sense of responsibility to make a film that honoured the people who let him into their lives and trusted him with their stories.
“Danyil Boldyrev is the most incredible person. He’s struggling with the idea that he should be fighting, but instead he’s competing to win medals,” said Matt. “It’s his story, without him none of this would have happened… He let me in and I happened to be there with a camera.”
Yeah Buddy
Australian climber Angie Scarth-Johnson has been setting records from an early age. In Yeah Buddy she teams up with veteran adventure climber Hazel Findlay to take on deep-water soloing in Mallorca, Spain. Angie takes us behind the scenes of Yeah Buddy and explains why Hazel was the ideal mentor to learn a new skill with.
The realities of deep water soloing slightly differed from my perception before I tried it myself. It looks like such a slow, easy process from the outside…and if you’re staying within your comfort zone it may be. But if you’re trying to push yourself, it’s a whole different story. Deep water soloing is truly based on your ability to manage the fear of pure uncertainty, and become well acquainted with one of the rawest feelings of vulnerability.
You're quickly overwhelmed. Senses go into overdrive, and you begin to take in more information than you're even capable of processing. You’re now hearing everything twice as loud, waves continuously crash and swell beneath you, the ocean breathes… there’s that lingering sea smell and your skin starts to sting from the salt. Slowly but surely, you're able to find some sense of comfort in the discomfort and it serves as a tool to navigate and gauge risk. ISSUE 46 | VERTICALLIFEMAG.COM AUTUMN 2024 39 If you're ever able to muster up the courage to commit to a move or climb higher than five metres above the water, you’ll surely experience what I call the “no turning back now" stage. The stage in which you’re either climbing up or, allowing gravity to do its job, nothing in between.
If you decide to take the fall, you're now free falling, frantically waving your arms to stabilise, trying your absolute hardest to not become one of those horror stories, like when someone told you about that one guy who couldn’t land straight… Well, I’m sure you can imagine.
The impact sort of hurts, it always does but not in a “I’m never doing that again” kind of way. Or maybe between swallowing sea water and trying to stay afloat you quickly forget.
The waves are rough, and it immediately dawns on you how insignificant and powerless you are. You're tired and worn but you stay composed, you really must... you need to pick the right moment to swim back. After a few times, you quickly learn to read the ocean's rhythm and it becomes routine. You also gain a sixth sense in jellyfish scouting… When someone’s shouting at you from above, “JELLY TO YOUR LEFT” the whole scene is just chaos. But that feeling and rush of adrenaline is what you start to crave.
Repeating this process to try a single line is like running a marathon. Each time draining you, physically and emotionally twice as fast as it would on a sport route. You learn to value each try, and you learn to stop when you know you're pushing it.
Being so outside my comfort zone and feeling like an absolute beginner at climbing again, I’m grateful that I had Hazel there with me. She has always been the face of bold scary climbing.
Before I met her I thought she must have an incredible ability to completely shut out fear. I thought I would have to learn to do the same to keep up. To my surprise, it was the opposite. Hazel had a very calming and comforting presence in moments that felt out of control. Her approach to fear was to not go against it at all. In a discipline very dominated by male climbers, her calm, feminine energy was quite noticeable.
The whole experience was a first, in several ways. I’d do it again
Sachi Style - Renowned alpinists Josh Wharton and Vince Anderson attempt a free ascent of the Jirishanca, an epic 20,000-foot peak in the Peruvian Andes. The duo will have to tackle 5.13 face climbing, horizontal ice roofs, technical mixed terrain and treacherous snow mushrooms as they reconcile the inherent risk of climbing with their love of alpine adventure.
Jirishanca - Renowned alpinists Josh Wharton and Vince Anderson attempt a free ascent of the Jirishanca, an epic 20,000-foot peak in the Peruvian Andes. The duo will have to tackle 5.13 face climbing, horizontal ice roofs, technical mixed terrain and treacherous snow mushrooms as they reconcile the inherent risk of climbing with their love of alpine adventure.