I have talked extensively about the great “Stone Masters” from Yosemite’s past on here before; often not favourably. However, when Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer invited me to the Reel Rock 9: Valley Uprising premier in Boulder, CO, of course I said yes. I, like most climbers, look forward to crisp fall temperatures, and sending conditions, almost as much as I do the screening of the annual Reel Rock Tour. We are climbers, outcasts, dirtbags, and general dredges of society. Most of us will watch the same clip of Adam Ondra climbing Illusionist 5 or 6 times before knowing which film won ‘Best in show’ at Cannes.
The Reel Rock Tour is our film festival. This is what we look forward to each year. Oh I hear you, “what about the Banff Mountain Film Festival, Wes?” Are you kidding me? The Banff Mountain Film Festival has more to do with getting naked, beating a caribou drum, and giving thanks to our earth mother, than climbing. Sure, each year there’s a small cross section of Will Gadd ‘best of’ clips and whatever corporate beasts Jimmy Chin is serving will hobble together a slideshow or poster signing with Chin himself walking around signing you up for National Geographic subscriptions. We get it NatGeo, you’re cool now.
But dammit, this is the Reel Rock Tour! This is where the cutting edge of climbing meets 1080p! Past Reel Rock Tours have given us films like, Progression, The Swiss Machine, On Sight, The Sharp End, and King Lines. These are giants: films that have inspired us, got us off the couch, and showed us the kind of climbing we as weekend warriors have only dreamed of. Just look at this trailer for Reel Rock 2010:
Bad ass or what? Now… this gets me back to Valley Uprising. I suspect, that after 8 forays into adrenaline pumping movie mastery, the team behind the Reel Rock Tour thought they could pull the wool over our eyes and release a SINGLE film for this years tour, and somehow we wouldn’t notice. Valley Uprising is a passion piece – an art film made by film-makers who think we need more Shindlers List when all we really want is Cliffhanger. Sure, Yosemite has a rich history of climbing, cool stories, blah blah blah… We’ve all heard about the aid climbing, the drugs, freeing of the nose, speed records, naked solos, the plane crash filled with weed… These stories are tired, and I’m tired of hearing them. Google ‘John Long + Climbing + Yosemite’ and you’ll get the same old sound bites talking about the glory days. I can’t even read an anchor book without John Long mentioning to me how bad ass the stone masters were before the invention of the equallette. Railroad iron slung with webbing as protection? You don’t say…. that’s news to me!
Even though we’ve all heard the stories before, I could forgive a little rehashing of old classics, if not for the blatant use of film footage literally poached from dozens of movies we’ve seen a hundred times. They say that Valley Uprising is 10 years in the making… and I believe it, because apart from a few new interviews, and some old Yosemite photographs that have been made 3D through some fancy CG wizardry, all this movie has done is spliced together footage from old Reel Rock films, stock footage from the National Park service, and an overlay of some sick beats. This is what we’ve been waiting for all year? All decade?!
To be honest…. this movie could’ve been made by the same guys who make ‘fan-made’ trailers on YouTube. Or by whoever made this trailer, it is fucking brilliant:
That all being said…. Who am I kidding? You’re all still going to see this movie. I’m going to see it a few more times myself. Why? Because fuck the Banff Mountain Film Festival, that’s why!
Wesley
Rock Climbing Life 
Still in top form Wes. Don’t stop.
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A worthy piece of analysis. As a minor sidebar on the issue of paradise lost as Mr Bridwell once labelled the valley. I remember listening to plenty of comments in the early 80’s about the restrictive nature of trying to have our definition of fun in the valley. We wanted to haul ass in our beaters down to the lower valley to crag while sneering at others essentially doing the same thing we were up to; digging a place of stunning nature. It did dawn us though that although we used to joke “if it were any more fun, it would be illegal”, what we were up to was ultimately unsustainable as nature lovers and package tour wampum collectors overwhelmed the joint. To restore a natural experience, crowds need to be limited with an accompanying focus on size and number of vehicles that need to be reduced. Meanwhile a system of public service credits for conservation work in national monuments and parks would allow the dedicated to buy their way into the temple without the cash expense of an Awanhee indulgence. This minor soapbox session aside, Uprising is a solid piece of work and thanks be to the makers!
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Valley Uprising is to climbing as Riding Giants is to surf and Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) is to skate. The Sender crew looked around and saw there was no equivalent in the climbing world to the aforementioned documentaries. So this film is not for you, it’s for the masses.
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If ya don’t get it, ya don’t get it.
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Bah.
Climbing films are over rated! Who cares how hard or rad some climber is,
I’d rather spend my time going out and climbing a grade I can climb, rather
than watching someone on the boob tube or movie screen climbing 5.15.
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Nice to get a perspective from the outside. As a Yosemite climber, it was almost impossible for me not to love the movie simply because it’s about my home. I couldn’t tell whether someone who hasn’t climbed there or dreamed about climbing there would also love it. I guess not.
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First you bag on ’em then you prop ’em up. Your a douche and a half!
Do you even climb? (taken from you). I use that phrase all the time now. When I am adding bolts to a classic route with my homemade gear, and after I told my mommy that I climb, some one said to me “dude do you know thewestly, he is so rad” I was like Fuck you man, Do you even climb?”
I was at the grocery store and the clerk was like that will be $24.45, and I was like “fuck you, do you even climb?”
Still guiding in the gym? haha.
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too fn riught dUDE vbut at least he isnt poSTING SO much now !!!!!!!!!!!! f’me………
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If you only respond, it shows that you do not fedl excited
by sex but only consider it a duty towards your wife.
To forgive iis important primarily for yourself, not for tthe persokn you forgive.
The scene shows full female nudity, and you can clearly see the
act taking place when John walks in. Kaam in Sanskrit means sex while sutra means formula, joining these two
words together we get Kamsutra, formula to
make highly pleasurable and satisfying sex
each time. So it gives mme pleasure to know my work is still dangerous after all.
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thats awesome!!
visit my blog – climbing México
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