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(footsteps rustling)
2
00:00:34,993 --> 00:00:37,579
(gentle music)
3
00:00:51,343 --> 00:00:54,179
(engine whirring)
4
00:01:21,164 --> 00:01:24,543
(aircraft radio playing)
5
00:01:36,013 --> 00:01:38,473
(music continues)
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00:01:38,473 --> 00:01:43,312
(aircraft radio continues intermittently)
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00:01:55,490 --> 00:01:58,493
(music intensifies)
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00:02:48,794 --> 00:02:51,546
(acoustic music)
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00:02:55,967 --> 00:02:57,844
- [Freddie] Most people
have never heard of
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00:02:57,844 --> 00:03:00,263
the Great Gorge in the Shadow of Denali,
11
00:03:03,475 --> 00:03:06,061
but we keep coming back
here year after year.
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00:03:12,943 --> 00:03:16,363
(guitar music continues)
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00:03:26,581 --> 00:03:29,793
- [Renan] In the lower 48,
everything's really busy,
14
00:03:29,793 --> 00:03:31,420
people moving around,
15
00:03:31,420 --> 00:03:35,090
running off to their
jobs or responsibilities.
16
00:03:38,552 --> 00:03:41,346
(guitar music continues)
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00:03:41,346 --> 00:03:45,559
You're in a world that's white and black,
18
00:03:45,559 --> 00:03:47,728
sometimes golden rock.
19
00:03:47,728 --> 00:03:48,729
And that's about it.
20
00:03:49,813 --> 00:03:51,189
It's a pretty special place.
21
00:03:55,235 --> 00:03:56,862
- [Zack] You know,
usually you go somewhere
22
00:03:56,862 --> 00:04:01,867
and there's one, two truly
inspiring world-class peaks.
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00:04:03,243 --> 00:04:06,288
And this, this gorge is just full of them.
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00:04:07,831 --> 00:04:11,668
- [Freddie] It's always been
just kind of below the radar
25
00:04:11,668 --> 00:04:14,296
because the climbs are
all really challenging.
26
00:04:16,173 --> 00:04:19,426
It's not the place you come
to bag some easy ascents.
27
00:04:19,426 --> 00:04:20,719
It's more of a place, you know,
28
00:04:20,719 --> 00:04:22,721
for people who don't mind failing
29
00:04:22,721 --> 00:04:26,767
and kind of like to
like to flog themselves.
30
00:04:26,767 --> 00:04:28,018
Like the beat down.
31
00:04:35,317 --> 00:04:37,235
- [Renan] 14 Hours in.
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00:04:37,235 --> 00:04:39,404
And yeah, there's a lot of rock up there.
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00:04:40,489 --> 00:04:43,074
(wind blowing)
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00:04:45,202 --> 00:04:50,207
- [Freddie] For young
climbers who are out there
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00:04:50,373 --> 00:04:52,626
seeking adventures,
36
00:04:55,378 --> 00:04:58,256
and little swaths of mountain
37
00:04:58,256 --> 00:05:00,509
to explore where nobody's been,
38
00:05:02,093 --> 00:05:03,678
the big challenge is like finding
39
00:05:03,678 --> 00:05:05,639
any blank spots that are left.
40
00:05:09,351 --> 00:05:11,853
- [Renan] When you do
discover a big climb,
41
00:05:11,853 --> 00:05:13,271
that's never been done,
42
00:05:14,231 --> 00:05:16,608
it kind of feels like falling in love.
43
00:05:21,071 --> 00:05:26,076
- [Freddie] Who knows why some
ideas spark into obsessions,
44
00:05:27,035 --> 00:05:30,163
but this one took seven years,
45
00:05:30,163 --> 00:05:32,791
and it all started with a
black and white photograph.
46
00:05:39,923 --> 00:05:43,677
- [Renan] Anzel Adams wrote,
"you recognize the explorer
47
00:05:43,677 --> 00:05:46,054
in Bradford Washburn at first sight.
48
00:05:47,848 --> 00:05:51,601
There's something about the
eyes, the set of the chin,
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00:05:52,477 --> 00:05:55,146
not fierce, just determined.
50
00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:03,405
He doesn't immediately remind
on of the vast bulk of Denali,
51
00:06:03,572 --> 00:06:06,908
but he has in fact conquered
this extraordinary mountain
52
00:06:06,908 --> 00:06:08,702
three times.
53
00:06:08,702 --> 00:06:11,788
Not only Denali has
commanded his eye and heart,
54
00:06:11,830 --> 00:06:16,626
the Grand Canyon, the great
peaks of the Western Yukon
55
00:06:16,626 --> 00:06:19,212
and the Himalaya have all come under
56
00:06:19,212 --> 00:06:20,964
his acquiring attention
57
00:06:20,964 --> 00:06:23,466
and the well-directed eye of his camera."
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00:06:30,056 --> 00:06:32,684
- [David] Brad didn't
have many mentors himself.
59
00:06:32,684 --> 00:06:35,979
He was too much his own
man, too self-taught.
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00:06:35,979 --> 00:06:38,773
But, photographically,
the great influence on him
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00:06:38,773 --> 00:06:40,108
was Vittorio Sella.
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00:06:41,902 --> 00:06:46,323
Sella's dictum was big
subjects need big photographs.
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00:06:46,323 --> 00:06:48,742
Brad would quote this all the time.
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00:06:48,742 --> 00:06:51,745
- [Bradford] Use big negatives
to take big subjects.
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00:06:52,704 --> 00:06:55,916
There's nothing like Mount
McKinley or any one of the great
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00:06:55,916 --> 00:06:59,419
peaks of Alaska when photographed
with a camera like this.
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00:07:00,378 --> 00:07:02,547
- [John] One of his favorite
cameras in the early days was a
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00:07:02,547 --> 00:07:03,924
Fairchild camera.
69
00:07:06,801 --> 00:07:10,847
Something that was really
developed for flying over cities
70
00:07:10,847 --> 00:07:13,850
and mapping them for wartime,
military reconnaissance.
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00:07:13,850 --> 00:07:16,102
And these large cameras
were very heavy,
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00:07:16,102 --> 00:07:18,396
very hard to use, all manual.
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00:07:19,856 --> 00:07:22,525
- [Bradford] The crank
would advance the film
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00:07:22,525 --> 00:07:24,319
and also set the shutter.
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00:07:24,319 --> 00:07:27,280
They would put it in and it would go.
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00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:30,575
And I want to show you
the size of the spool of
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00:07:30,575 --> 00:07:31,701
the film we've got in here.
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00:07:31,701 --> 00:07:35,789
Now this takes a 125 eight by ten
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00:07:35,789 --> 00:07:39,793
inch pictures in a single roll.
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00:07:39,793 --> 00:07:41,962
I will take this out and show you it
81
00:07:41,962 --> 00:07:46,967
and look at that compared with
a little bit of an ordinary
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00:07:47,384 --> 00:07:52,347
roll that carries 36
35 millimeter pictures.
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00:07:54,975 --> 00:07:56,810
- [David] But what Brad
realized that almost no one
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00:07:56,810 --> 00:08:00,897
before had been able to figure
out how to solve was that
85
00:08:00,897 --> 00:08:03,858
when you look at a big
mountain from the base, well,
86
00:08:03,858 --> 00:08:05,860
it looks like four fifths of the way up is
87
00:08:05,860 --> 00:08:07,195
actually only halfway up.
88
00:08:08,405 --> 00:08:11,658
If you get up in an airplane
and see it from mid height,
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00:08:11,658 --> 00:08:14,536
you're getting a God's
eye view of the peak
90
00:08:14,536 --> 00:08:15,662
as it really looks.
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00:08:18,707 --> 00:08:22,002
We all know Ansel Adams'
famous picture of Denali from
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00:08:22,002 --> 00:08:22,919
Wonder Lake,
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00:08:27,465 --> 00:08:32,345
but in Brad's pictures, you
see that same face from midair.
94
00:08:36,850 --> 00:08:39,644
And it's so much more stunning.
95
00:08:39,644 --> 00:08:42,647
(orchestral music)
96
00:08:42,647 --> 00:08:47,277
- [Kurt] One year I got a
book of Bradford Washburn's,
97
00:08:47,277 --> 00:08:48,862
and as I looked at it,
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00:08:49,988 --> 00:08:53,575
I had that sense of
beginning all over that
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00:08:53,575 --> 00:08:55,285
I didn't really know anything.
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00:08:56,369 --> 00:08:59,497
With Brad's pictures,
suddenly I saw mountains as
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00:08:59,497 --> 00:09:04,461
individuals that they stood
among other mountains.
102
00:09:05,670 --> 00:09:09,591
Brad takes something
colossal and makes it human.
103
00:09:14,888 --> 00:09:16,723
- [John] He's the greatest
aerial mountain photographer
104
00:09:16,723 --> 00:09:18,683
of all time bar none.
105
00:09:20,310 --> 00:09:22,562
- I can talk to the pilot and say,
106
00:09:22,562 --> 00:09:24,773
get that left wing a little higher.
107
00:09:25,940 --> 00:09:27,734
Now, pull back your stick.
108
00:09:27,734 --> 00:09:30,153
And in that way, the pilot is framing
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00:09:30,153 --> 00:09:33,490
the picture of shoot me rather
than they trying to play
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00:09:33,490 --> 00:09:35,825
around with it, with the camera.
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(orchestral music)
112
00:09:39,537 --> 00:09:41,623
When I can I like to
get a little figure in
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00:09:41,623 --> 00:09:44,167
to give some idea of the
magnitude of the scene.
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00:09:45,543 --> 00:09:48,463
(orchestral music)
115
00:09:52,467 --> 00:09:55,261
- [John] You look at this
colossal landscape and suddenly
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00:09:55,261 --> 00:09:56,679
you realize down in the corner,
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00:09:56,679 --> 00:09:58,681
there are two tiny little figures.
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00:10:00,934 --> 00:10:03,394
- [Mike] He knew that you
couldn't really appreciate this,
119
00:10:03,394 --> 00:10:08,149
large landscape until you
had scale or to sort of give
120
00:10:08,149 --> 00:10:11,111
people that just visceral feeling
of being in the middle of
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00:10:11,111 --> 00:10:13,238
this vast wilderness.
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00:10:13,238 --> 00:10:16,157
(orchestral music)
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00:10:35,677 --> 00:10:37,262
- [Brian] He knew the mountains
through a mountaineer's
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00:10:37,262 --> 00:10:41,975
eyes, a person who wasn't a
climber wouldn't photograph
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00:10:41,975 --> 00:10:43,601
in the same way he did.
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00:10:45,645 --> 00:10:48,189
- [John] But do you think
he devoted himself to the
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00:10:48,189 --> 00:10:50,775
printing, making beautiful prints?
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00:10:50,775 --> 00:10:55,196
No, he was happy with an eight
by 10 contact and he could
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00:10:55,196 --> 00:10:59,284
draw on it so he could show
climbers, Hey, try this.
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00:10:59,284 --> 00:11:01,119
This could be a first descent.
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00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,998
- [David] Before Brad got on
the scene in the early 1930s,
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00:11:04,998 --> 00:11:10,003
the Alaska range had had a
handful of monumental ascents
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00:11:10,295 --> 00:11:12,630
but all the other peaks were unclimbed.
134
00:11:14,090 --> 00:11:15,758
He was like, my God,
135
00:11:15,758 --> 00:11:17,969
let's go get them before
somebody else does.
136
00:11:20,263 --> 00:11:23,808
- [Bradford] In a way, we were
lucky to be able to go into
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00:11:23,808 --> 00:11:26,477
that wilderness and be the
first people to see it.
138
00:11:28,646 --> 00:11:30,064
Those were experiences that people
139
00:11:30,064 --> 00:11:32,483
are very rare to have nowadays.
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00:11:41,534 --> 00:11:44,120
- [Freddie] I was going
up to Alaska every spring,
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00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:46,164
working as a guide on Denali.
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00:11:49,292 --> 00:11:51,878
And on days off in Talkeetna,
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00:11:51,878 --> 00:11:55,048
I'd go down to the ranger station
where they have this great
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00:11:55,048 --> 00:11:57,759
resource of old Brad Washburn photos.
145
00:12:00,011 --> 00:12:03,306
Just looking for inspiration
for something new to climb.
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00:12:08,102 --> 00:12:09,062
And for some reason,
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00:12:09,062 --> 00:12:11,564
I kept on circling back
to the Moose's Tooth
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00:12:11,564 --> 00:12:13,650
in some of the shots of the range.
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00:12:15,151 --> 00:12:18,363
The Moose's Tooth is known
as this iconic complex peak
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00:12:18,363 --> 00:12:20,573
that's the centerpiece of the Great Gorge.
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00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:25,578
It's less of a singular mountain
and more like a jawbone of
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00:12:25,578 --> 00:12:28,122
many interconnected spiky teeth.
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00:12:29,791 --> 00:12:31,751
Most of the summits had been climbed,
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but nobody had tried to traverse
all of them in a single go.
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00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:49,310
Spring of 2009,
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00:12:49,310 --> 00:12:53,398
I was traveling through Colorado
with a good friend of mine,
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00:12:53,439 --> 00:12:58,403
Micah Dash, and Micah and
I ended up in Boulder,
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00:12:58,820 --> 00:13:02,615
crashing on the couch of
his friends Renan and Zack.
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00:13:03,700 --> 00:13:07,829
They were heading to Alaska
that spring to the Ruth Gorge.
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00:13:07,870 --> 00:13:10,707
And one night after a few beers,
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00:13:10,707 --> 00:13:13,459
I let my secret slip
about the Tooth Traverse.
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00:13:15,795 --> 00:13:18,214
- It was certainly one of
the most creative lines
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00:13:18,214 --> 00:13:19,215
I'd ever seen.
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00:13:20,049 --> 00:13:22,093
It's a type of climb where you're
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00:13:22,093 --> 00:13:24,679
climbing on a skyline the entire time.
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00:13:27,056 --> 00:13:28,975
It's like you're always on a summit.
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00:13:30,935 --> 00:13:31,769
- [Freddie] Later that spring,
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00:13:31,769 --> 00:13:33,938
we all sort of went our separate ways.
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00:13:37,358 --> 00:13:39,152
I went home to New Hampshire.
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00:13:40,069 --> 00:13:42,947
Micah left on an expedition to China.
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00:13:42,947 --> 00:13:45,199
- [Micah] Probably
snowing at midnight or so.
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00:13:46,284 --> 00:13:49,537
It's about five now,
just kind of hanging out
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00:13:49,537 --> 00:13:52,957
in this pretty sick location.
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00:13:54,250 --> 00:13:58,546
- And Renan and Zack were
about to leave for Alaska.
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00:13:58,546 --> 00:14:02,342
When one day we got this phone call.
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00:14:03,259 --> 00:14:06,220
The bodies of our friends in
China and just been found.
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00:14:10,892 --> 00:14:15,897
- My life is completely
driven by the mountains.
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00:14:16,064 --> 00:14:18,858
And it's given me some
of the best experiences,
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00:14:18,858 --> 00:14:25,490
but also the worst and probably the time
180
00:14:25,615 --> 00:14:31,621
where it hit hardest on that
negative side was when we got
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00:14:31,704 --> 00:14:33,581
the call that Johnny and Micah
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00:14:33,581 --> 00:14:36,709
had died in an avalanche in China.
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00:14:40,922 --> 00:14:42,924
Micah held my hand and brought me
184
00:14:42,924 --> 00:14:44,467
into the climbing community.
185
00:14:48,930 --> 00:14:50,932
And to lose someone that close to you
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00:14:50,932 --> 00:14:53,184
is something that affects you deeply.
187
00:14:58,439 --> 00:15:00,608
But in the face of that,
188
00:15:00,608 --> 00:15:03,569
Zack and I still decided
to go to the Ruth Gorge.
189
00:15:07,949 --> 00:15:12,954
We left just a few days after
the memorial ceremony and went
190
00:15:13,037 --> 00:15:15,498
into the mountains, not
knowing what we would do.
191
00:15:17,458 --> 00:15:22,422
It's super counter intuitive
to have your best friends die
192
00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:25,842
and then head straight into
the mountains and do something
193
00:15:25,842 --> 00:15:27,301
equally as dangerous.
194
00:15:28,803 --> 00:15:31,305
But after a certain amount of time
195
00:15:31,305 --> 00:15:36,269
for us, it was just healthy to
go to a space that was quiet
196
00:15:36,269 --> 00:15:39,272
and beautiful, where we could
process our own thoughts.
197
00:15:40,231 --> 00:15:42,984
(acoustic music)
198
00:15:45,611 --> 00:15:46,487
It took a few days,
199
00:15:46,487 --> 00:15:50,533
but eventually the mountains
pulled us in and we were there
200
00:15:50,533 --> 00:15:54,078
and we decided to go test ourselves.
201
00:16:00,626 --> 00:16:02,962
We look over at the Tooth Traverse,
202
00:16:02,962 --> 00:16:05,590
which our friend Freddie
had told us about.
203
00:16:08,050 --> 00:16:11,804
And it became obvious that
that was the objective.
204
00:16:15,224 --> 00:16:16,392
There was no planning.
205
00:16:17,393 --> 00:16:18,978
Our head space was fucked.
206
00:16:20,188 --> 00:16:24,233
We pretty much just tried it on a whim.
207
00:16:25,860 --> 00:16:29,113
(stream trickling)
208
00:16:29,113 --> 00:16:33,910
So the climb begins to express a gap.
209
00:16:40,124 --> 00:16:41,083
Nice job, dude.
210
00:16:45,296 --> 00:16:46,631
- [Zack] Pretty sweet, woo!
211
00:16:48,132 --> 00:16:52,595
- [Renan] We were so unprepared
that we were extremely light
212
00:16:52,595 --> 00:16:55,264
and the conditions were
really, really warm.
213
00:16:55,264 --> 00:16:58,518
And that allowed us to make
it really far, really fast.
214
00:17:00,269 --> 00:17:01,103
- [Zack] Anyone.
215
00:17:02,146 --> 00:17:04,815
- [Renan] You're able to
make it past the big corner
216
00:17:04,815 --> 00:17:07,235
sections of the eye tooth very quickly.
217
00:17:08,194 --> 00:17:12,323
We made it all the way up
until that unknown unclimbed
218
00:17:12,323 --> 00:17:15,076
section between the missing
tooth and the bear's tooth.
219
00:17:16,911 --> 00:17:18,996
(groans)
220
00:17:21,499 --> 00:17:25,461
We hit that section after we
basically sat and shivered
221
00:17:25,461 --> 00:17:27,630
the night on a small ledge.
222
00:17:29,799 --> 00:17:33,010
- [Zack] It was a long night for a place
223
00:17:33,010 --> 00:17:34,303
that doesn't get dark.
224
00:17:38,432 --> 00:17:40,601
- [Renan] When we got up in the morning,
225
00:17:40,601 --> 00:17:44,355
it was clear that neither one
of us was really feeling it.
226
00:17:48,568 --> 00:17:50,361
What's the deal with that guy?
227
00:17:51,404 --> 00:17:56,409
- [Zack] This guy right here
is off of Micah's chess set.
228
00:17:56,951 --> 00:17:59,662
We spent a lot of time playing and
229
00:18:01,956 --> 00:18:06,961
that chess set went to
China and came back.
230
00:18:09,755 --> 00:18:12,466
Came back to us.
231
00:18:12,466 --> 00:18:15,386
If you look, it kinda looks like him.
232
00:18:16,304 --> 00:18:19,181
The big nose, beady
eyes full of attention.
233
00:18:22,143 --> 00:18:25,771
So just a nice little
piece to bring along.
234
00:18:28,774 --> 00:18:32,320
Little piece of Micah right there
235
00:18:33,613 --> 00:18:34,655
looking after us.
236
00:18:39,452 --> 00:18:40,369
It's perfect, huh?
237
00:18:42,079 --> 00:18:43,456
- [Renan] I'm really glad we have it.
238
00:18:43,456 --> 00:18:44,290
- Yeah!
239
00:18:47,668 --> 00:18:50,254
- [Renan] We had just come from
the funeral with hundreds of
240
00:18:50,254 --> 00:18:52,381
people in the community weeping,
241
00:18:54,342 --> 00:18:56,844
and you have to push it
on some of those climbs.
242
00:18:56,844 --> 00:18:58,554
It's just how it goes.
243
00:19:00,014 --> 00:19:04,352
But for the sake of the
community and for the sake of our
244
00:19:04,352 --> 00:19:06,020
friends and family,
245
00:19:06,020 --> 00:19:09,857
it just wasn't the time to take
another one of those risks.
246
00:19:14,820 --> 00:19:16,197
As soon as we got down,
247
00:19:16,197 --> 00:19:18,032
we knew we had to contact Freddie
248
00:19:19,116 --> 00:19:22,328
because he's the one who saw
the line on Washburn's photo
249
00:19:22,328 --> 00:19:23,454
in the first place.
250
00:19:34,215 --> 00:19:36,967
(acoustic music)
251
00:19:51,357 --> 00:19:53,609
- At the end of 2009,
252
00:19:53,609 --> 00:19:56,529
I was trying to simultaneously
be a climbing guide,
253
00:19:58,572 --> 00:20:02,952
a freelance writer and
good partner to Janet.
254
00:20:09,458 --> 00:20:13,087
We were living in this small
12 by 12 cabin we built.
255
00:20:14,171 --> 00:20:17,550
We chose to live that way
without a flushing toilet or a
256
00:20:17,550 --> 00:20:19,593
shower or even a closet.
257
00:20:23,472 --> 00:20:26,892
But we did have this incredible
freedom to pack up and leave
258
00:20:26,892 --> 00:20:29,270
for a three month expedition if we wanted.
259
00:20:36,569 --> 00:20:39,905
Then one day I got an
email from Renan and Zack
260
00:20:40,865 --> 00:20:43,534
and lo and behold, they had gone and tried
261
00:20:43,534 --> 00:20:44,869
the Tooth Traverse.
262
00:20:46,162 --> 00:20:49,206
(gentle music)
263
00:20:49,206 --> 00:20:52,501
I wasn't upset or wronged.
264
00:20:54,211 --> 00:20:55,838
Nobody owns these mountains.
265
00:20:56,881 --> 00:20:59,675
But I would have been
disappointed if they had just
266
00:20:59,675 --> 00:21:01,677
walked up to the climb and done it.
267
00:21:03,304 --> 00:21:04,513
At the same time,
268
00:21:04,513 --> 00:21:07,016
it didn't surprise me at
all that they had failed.
269
00:21:11,103 --> 00:21:13,689
The Tooth Traverse is a big,
big route to piece together.
270
00:21:13,689 --> 00:21:18,694
And it has a lot of snow climbing
and steep ridge traverses.
271
00:21:22,114 --> 00:21:25,618
And that sort of climbing
suits my strengths.
272
00:21:28,871 --> 00:21:32,082
So the more we talked about
it, the more it was obvious,
273
00:21:32,082 --> 00:21:33,876
we should just go up
there the next spring and
274
00:21:33,876 --> 00:21:35,669
give it a try as a team of three.
275
00:21:40,424 --> 00:21:43,427
At the time, I didn't know
much about Brad Washburn
276
00:21:43,427 --> 00:21:44,804
beyond the photos,
277
00:21:46,096 --> 00:21:48,432
but the more I got psyched on the climb,
278
00:21:48,432 --> 00:21:51,227
the more I became fascinated by his story.
279
00:21:51,227 --> 00:21:54,146
And it began right here in the
mountains of New Hampshire.
280
00:21:55,064 --> 00:21:57,274
- [Bradford] For the
first 10 years of my life,
281
00:21:57,274 --> 00:21:59,985
I had perfectly terrible hay fever.
282
00:22:01,195 --> 00:22:04,240
And I've had a cousin who
took me up to the top of Mount
283
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:08,369
Washington, the summer of 1921,
284
00:22:08,369 --> 00:22:10,579
which got me immediately
interested in climbing.
285
00:22:10,579 --> 00:22:12,206
Because every time I went
on a trail up a mountain,
286
00:22:12,206 --> 00:22:13,791
there was no hay fever.
287
00:22:15,209 --> 00:22:18,295
- [Mike] He had a loving family
that encouraged exploration
288
00:22:18,295 --> 00:22:20,339
of the mind and the
physical exploration.
289
00:22:21,507 --> 00:22:23,133
They came from some wealth.
290
00:22:23,133 --> 00:22:26,053
So they had a summer home
up in the white mountains.
291
00:22:26,053 --> 00:22:28,556
You had a mother who
gave to her young son,
292
00:22:28,556 --> 00:22:31,308
a small little pocket
camera where he learned,
293
00:22:31,350 --> 00:22:33,185
self-learned had to take photographs.
294
00:22:34,645 --> 00:22:36,021
When he was in the white mountains,
295
00:22:36,021 --> 00:22:39,191
he was making hand drawn
maps of Squam Lake.
296
00:22:40,109 --> 00:22:42,361
So you have this affinity for cartography.
297
00:22:45,698 --> 00:22:49,326
Years later, Alaska
combined all of his talents
298
00:22:49,326 --> 00:22:50,327
with opportunities.
299
00:22:51,912 --> 00:22:55,749
- [Bradford] My first
trip to Alaska was 1930,
300
00:22:55,749 --> 00:22:58,502
we organized during my freshman year,
301
00:22:58,502 --> 00:23:00,337
we wanted to climb Mount Fair weather.
302
00:23:05,885 --> 00:23:08,304
- [David] He had the
tremendous fear of failure.
303
00:23:09,555 --> 00:23:12,433
The only two failures among
his expeditions were his first
304
00:23:12,433 --> 00:23:14,518
three, the Fair weather and Crillon.
305
00:23:17,563 --> 00:23:20,482
Every time after that,
he got to the summit.
306
00:23:20,482 --> 00:23:23,402
And those early failures really fueled
307
00:23:23,402 --> 00:23:26,655
his perfectionism and his high achieving.
308
00:23:29,533 --> 00:23:31,994
- [David] The map that
they had of the region
309
00:23:31,994 --> 00:23:34,914
was woefully under
representing the landscape.
310
00:23:34,914 --> 00:23:37,291
It almost told you nothing.
311
00:23:37,291 --> 00:23:40,294
(adventurous music)
312
00:23:45,341 --> 00:23:48,844
When I read the early
accounts of exploration,
313
00:23:48,844 --> 00:23:52,139
all I can think about is a
circus act without a net.
314
00:23:53,807 --> 00:23:55,935
There was no one to come save them.
315
00:23:56,936 --> 00:23:59,939
- [Brian] Many of these
early exhibitions used horses
316
00:23:59,939 --> 00:24:01,565
for packing your gear in.
317
00:24:01,565 --> 00:24:05,611
The bugs were just eating
the men and horses alive.
318
00:24:05,611 --> 00:24:09,615
The rivers were cold,
swift, full of glacier silt.
319
00:24:12,284 --> 00:24:13,869
- [David] From a geographic standpoint,
320
00:24:13,869 --> 00:24:16,789
Alaska was this unknown territory.
321
00:24:18,082 --> 00:24:20,834
But Brad's use of the airplane
transformed it because
322
00:24:20,834 --> 00:24:22,086
to be up in the air,
323
00:24:22,086 --> 00:24:24,046
it allowed him to take the photographs,
324
00:24:24,046 --> 00:24:26,382
but he'd also used those
photos to create maps.
325
00:24:31,387 --> 00:24:33,138
- [Brian] He was able
to correlate with the
326
00:24:33,138 --> 00:24:36,976
aerial photography, very
accurately the position of
327
00:24:36,976 --> 00:24:40,521
everything in the range,
including the Ruth Gorge.
328
00:24:41,563 --> 00:24:44,608
And the range comes alive in his map.
329
00:24:50,364 --> 00:24:52,449
- [John] When you think about exploration,
330
00:24:53,409 --> 00:24:56,328
it all comes down to logistics.
331
00:24:56,328 --> 00:24:57,997
With the advent of the aircraft,
332
00:24:57,997 --> 00:25:01,083
suddenly you had a perspective
where you could see
333
00:25:01,083 --> 00:25:04,211
over that next hill, you could
see over that next range.
334
00:25:04,211 --> 00:25:07,214
You can map out large
distances because you could see
335
00:25:07,214 --> 00:25:08,424
hundreds of miles.
336
00:25:09,925 --> 00:25:14,346
Brad was always looking at
aviation technology and how he
337
00:25:14,346 --> 00:25:19,351
could leverage that to get a
better view of the mountains
338
00:25:19,643 --> 00:25:22,896
and whether it was for route
finding or whether it was for
339
00:25:22,896 --> 00:25:25,482
beauty or whether it was for cartography.
340
00:25:25,482 --> 00:25:28,819
And he took advantage of the
next aircraft, the next camera.
341
00:25:33,657 --> 00:25:36,452
- [Interviewer] When was
the first time you felt like
342
00:25:36,452 --> 00:25:39,455
a real connection with the
device known as a camera?
343
00:25:43,292 --> 00:25:48,297
- It was actually probably
pretty late in my life that |
344
00:25:48,589 --> 00:25:52,509
first felt a connection to a camera.
345
00:25:52,509 --> 00:25:53,343
(laughing)
346
00:25:53,343 --> 00:25:55,345
- [Interviewer] You
can't say it like that.
347
00:25:55,345 --> 00:25:58,640
That sounds like you have a-. (laughing)
348
00:25:58,640 --> 00:25:59,475
- Okay.
349
00:25:59,475 --> 00:26:01,727
- [Interviewer] Sexual
relationship with the camera.
350
00:26:01,727 --> 00:26:04,396
(both laughing)
351
00:26:05,272 --> 00:26:06,315
- I had the first-.
352
00:26:06,315 --> 00:26:07,357
- [Interviewer] Did you see that?
353
00:26:07,357 --> 00:26:12,362
- The first time I fondled a
camera was probably in 2005.
354
00:26:12,696 --> 00:26:15,449
(acoustic music)
355
00:26:26,627 --> 00:26:28,629
I was doing a lot of artwork.
356
00:26:31,215 --> 00:26:34,968
And then there came this point
where I realized you could
357
00:26:35,010 --> 00:26:37,429
reach a lot more people
shooting with cameras.
358
00:26:40,432 --> 00:26:43,769
Brad's photography taught me
that you could use these tiny
359
00:26:43,769 --> 00:26:46,188
human elements to convey the scale
360
00:26:46,188 --> 00:26:48,482
of these massive landscapes.
361
00:26:51,568 --> 00:26:54,738
(yelling in distance)
362
00:26:56,907 --> 00:26:59,034
On the first trip with Zack,
363
00:26:59,034 --> 00:27:02,538
we had cameras, but
they were pretty basic.
364
00:27:02,538 --> 00:27:05,040
- Just another day off at the tent.
365
00:27:07,584 --> 00:27:08,460
Mmm.
366
00:27:10,754 --> 00:27:12,840
(grunts)
367
00:27:13,674 --> 00:27:15,259
(acoustic music continues)
368
00:27:15,259 --> 00:27:17,845
- [Renan] I think I shot 87% of the thing
369
00:27:17,845 --> 00:27:19,596
on fish eye adapt or.
370
00:27:22,057 --> 00:27:25,227
I've since learned that it's
not the most professional way
371
00:27:25,227 --> 00:27:29,189
to shoot, but at the time
it looked pretty cool to me,
372
00:27:29,189 --> 00:27:31,441
kind of like old school skate videos.
373
00:27:47,374 --> 00:27:50,544
By the time of the second
attempt of the Tooth Traverse,
374
00:27:52,379 --> 00:27:54,882
all of our lives had evolved.
375
00:27:54,882 --> 00:27:57,759
Both Freddie and myself
had gained sponsors
376
00:27:59,136 --> 00:28:01,263
and we became professional climbers.
377
00:28:03,432 --> 00:28:06,685
Freddie was a budding writer
who had just finished his first
378
00:28:06,685 --> 00:28:10,564
book and his work were starting
to get picked up by bigger
379
00:28:10,564 --> 00:28:12,107
and bigger publications.
380
00:28:13,066 --> 00:28:16,570
You want to grab the pot off
the stove for one sec, Zack?
381
00:28:16,570 --> 00:28:18,739
(indistinct)
382
00:28:18,739 --> 00:28:22,826
Zack in my mind, he was a
much more talented climber
383
00:28:22,826 --> 00:28:23,660
than we were,
384
00:28:24,828 --> 00:28:28,957
but he just didn't have
that gene of self promotion.
385
00:28:28,957 --> 00:28:32,628
And part of being a professional
climber in this day and age
386
00:28:32,628 --> 00:28:34,046
is how you tell stories.
387
00:28:36,298 --> 00:28:38,133
- [Zack] It seemed like overnight,
388
00:28:38,133 --> 00:28:42,804
everybody I knew became
a professional climber.
389
00:28:42,804 --> 00:28:46,183
It became harder for me to
find partners, ironically.
390
00:28:46,183 --> 00:28:48,060
There was always like, you
know, there had to be a
391
00:28:48,060 --> 00:28:50,938
photographer, there had to be, you know,
392
00:28:50,938 --> 00:28:53,774
some kind of spin to going out climbing.
393
00:28:53,774 --> 00:28:55,817
And I just wanted to keep going climbing.
394
00:28:58,320 --> 00:28:59,863
- [Renan] What are you thinking, Zack?
395
00:29:01,490 --> 00:29:04,660
- Why we've come here for
the second year in a row
396
00:29:04,660 --> 00:29:07,037
to try this silly thing.
397
00:29:07,037 --> 00:29:08,330
It's been cute about it.
398
00:29:08,330 --> 00:29:13,335
Most days can get a little
obsessive like that,
399
00:29:13,418 --> 00:29:16,588
looking at pictures way too long.
400
00:29:16,588 --> 00:29:19,007
Maybe, maybe we'll get lucky.
401
00:29:23,512 --> 00:29:27,015
(gentle orchestral music)
402
00:29:29,393 --> 00:29:31,728
- [Freddie] The crux of the
traverse would be the South face
403
00:29:31,728 --> 00:29:32,980
of the Moose's tooth.
404
00:29:33,855 --> 00:29:35,899
It's right in the middle of the traverse.
405
00:29:35,899 --> 00:29:38,193
And it's about a 2000 foot big wall.
406
00:29:38,193 --> 00:29:40,529
And it had never been climbed before.
407
00:29:43,407 --> 00:29:46,410
We decided to go and do a recon and try
408
00:29:46,410 --> 00:29:48,495
that section as it's
own first ascent to see
409
00:29:48,495 --> 00:29:50,747
if the full traverse was even possible.
410
00:29:54,209 --> 00:29:56,211
- [Renan] People in town had said, oh,
411
00:29:56,211 --> 00:29:58,880
that's a lost cause, it's been tried,
412
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,134
the rock just goes to shit
and it's hard to climb.
413
00:30:03,176 --> 00:30:06,138
- [Zack] So is the anchor a sign that
414
00:30:08,015 --> 00:30:11,768
someone's already tried this
way and failed? (laughs)
415
00:30:11,768 --> 00:30:14,771
But whoever they were,
they weren't Zach Smith.
416
00:30:14,771 --> 00:30:17,107
- [Renan] We saw some fixed gear where
417
00:30:17,107 --> 00:30:18,734
people had bailed off of.
418
00:30:19,609 --> 00:30:23,071
People had decided it
wasn't worth the risk.
419
00:30:23,071 --> 00:30:27,034
Beautiful day in the gorge.
420
00:30:27,034 --> 00:30:29,536
The rock is so bad.
421
00:30:29,536 --> 00:30:31,538
You can just go like this with your hand
422
00:30:31,580 --> 00:30:34,624
and a whole sheet will fall off.
423
00:30:35,625 --> 00:30:39,463
(hammer banging against rock)
424
00:30:41,048 --> 00:30:46,011
- [Freddie] There's
Zack and there's Renan.
425
00:30:46,345 --> 00:30:48,972
This lead will probably
take a couple hours,
426
00:30:48,972 --> 00:30:50,891
see how Renan does with it.
427
00:30:53,977 --> 00:30:55,228
Rock fall, woohoo!
428
00:31:06,114 --> 00:31:06,948
Gnarly.
429
00:31:08,492 --> 00:31:11,495
(gentle music continues)
430
00:31:11,495 --> 00:31:12,412
They're okay.
431
00:31:13,580 --> 00:31:16,166
I'm just going to chill
here and hope for the best.
432
00:31:18,126 --> 00:31:20,420
Looking a little ugly,
turn that thing around.
433
00:31:22,339 --> 00:31:24,049
- [Renan] Tried to hold this pin,
434
00:31:24,049 --> 00:31:26,843
and I took a chunk out of my finger.
435
00:31:28,345 --> 00:31:29,304
- [Freddie] How bad is it?
436
00:31:29,304 --> 00:31:31,473
- It's not bad, it's just
like that whole right side.
437
00:31:31,473 --> 00:31:32,307
You see?
438
00:31:34,059 --> 00:31:36,978
(orchestral music)
439
00:31:38,563 --> 00:31:41,566
- [Renan] Take it to the top, Freddie.
440
00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:42,567
- Gonna try.
441
00:31:45,445 --> 00:31:46,279
Close.
442
00:31:47,364 --> 00:31:51,034
(dramatic orchestral music)
443
00:31:58,208 --> 00:31:59,042
- Is this it?
444
00:31:59,042 --> 00:31:59,876
- This is it.
445
00:31:59,876 --> 00:32:00,710
- We did it?
446
00:32:00,710 --> 00:32:01,878
- We did it!
447
00:32:01,878 --> 00:32:04,297
Good day, got a summit.
448
00:32:04,297 --> 00:32:07,259
It's always a good day
when you get to the top.
449
00:32:07,259 --> 00:32:09,386
- Not a bad first rope up.
450
00:32:09,386 --> 00:32:10,762
(all laughing)
451
00:32:10,762 --> 00:32:11,763
Sick!
452
00:32:11,763 --> 00:32:14,224
(laughing continues)
453
00:32:14,224 --> 00:32:16,476
She goes, she goes!
454
00:32:16,476 --> 00:32:17,727
(laughing)
455
00:32:17,727 --> 00:32:19,646
- [Renan] The big mystery is solved.
456
00:32:19,646 --> 00:32:22,232
- [Zack] The mystery is solved!
457
00:32:23,358 --> 00:32:25,819
- [Renan] When we get to
the top of the Moose's Tooth
458
00:32:25,819 --> 00:32:27,362
and figured out that section,
459
00:32:27,362 --> 00:32:31,324
we had the confidence that the
entire traverse was possible.
460
00:32:33,493 --> 00:32:35,328
- Get the boys.
461
00:32:35,328 --> 00:32:36,163
- Yeah!
462
00:32:38,290 --> 00:32:41,042
- Climbed the South face
of the Moose's Tooth
463
00:32:41,042 --> 00:32:42,627
a couple days ago.
464
00:32:42,627 --> 00:32:45,255
And we're gonna go go try
the traverse tomorrow.
465
00:32:46,298 --> 00:32:49,259
Weather's just been splitter,
so we're pretty psyched.
466
00:32:50,719 --> 00:32:53,638
(orchestral music)
467
00:32:55,557 --> 00:32:56,892
- [Renan] Getting the conditions right on
468
00:32:56,892 --> 00:32:59,144
the Tooth Traverse is really, really hard.
469
00:33:00,103 --> 00:33:02,856
If it's warm, like you
want for rock climbing,
470
00:33:02,856 --> 00:33:05,275
the snow conditions could be out of whack
471
00:33:05,275 --> 00:33:06,693
and totally shut you down.
472
00:33:07,652 --> 00:33:10,030
But then if the snow conditions are right,
473
00:33:10,030 --> 00:33:12,824
it's probably too cold for
the technical route climbing,
474
00:33:14,034 --> 00:33:16,244
and any single storm
could wipe out the route
475
00:33:16,244 --> 00:33:17,579
for the entire season.
476
00:33:20,207 --> 00:33:22,209
Something's always going to be bad.
477
00:33:22,209 --> 00:33:24,961
(dramatic music)
478
00:33:29,674 --> 00:33:32,219
- [Freddie] Funky weather.
479
00:33:32,219 --> 00:33:33,553
- [Renan] Lingering slowly.
480
00:33:35,514 --> 00:33:37,307
- [Freddie] It is just fucking warm.
481
00:33:38,558 --> 00:33:39,559
- [Zack] Warm temps.
482
00:33:40,393 --> 00:33:43,647
It was splitter two hours ago.
483
00:33:47,192 --> 00:33:49,069
- [Renan] Pressure's dropped as well.
484
00:33:50,654 --> 00:33:53,532
We'll probably have a
restless night of sleep
485
00:33:54,533 --> 00:33:58,537
and wake up at two and see
what the conditions are
486
00:33:58,537 --> 00:33:59,996
and make a good decision.
487
00:34:00,872 --> 00:34:03,625
(dramatic music)
488
00:34:05,919 --> 00:34:09,297
- [David] The worst part of
any climb is the anticipation.
489
00:34:09,297 --> 00:34:11,967
Every time you go up, you
know that you're committing to
490
00:34:11,967 --> 00:34:13,552
a life or death situation.
491
00:34:13,552 --> 00:34:16,096
So there's no way of avoiding that kind of
492
00:34:16,096 --> 00:34:17,430
psychological stress.
493
00:34:20,559 --> 00:34:23,812
We've all had close calls,
we've all lost friends.
494
00:34:24,813 --> 00:34:29,109
So any climb is jinxed by
self-doubt and self-criticism.
495
00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:32,904
Am I too soft, or is
the mountain too hard?
496
00:34:34,155 --> 00:34:36,366
- [Jack] Often conditions aren't right.
497
00:34:37,534 --> 00:34:38,952
Partner problems, or, you know,
498
00:34:38,952 --> 00:34:41,037
the weather's bad or whatever.
499
00:34:44,583 --> 00:34:48,211
You gotta live today to climb tomorrow.
500
00:34:49,963 --> 00:34:51,506
- [Mike] Brad pushed, he took risks,
501
00:34:51,506 --> 00:34:54,134
but these were always calculated risks.
502
00:34:54,134 --> 00:34:55,635
When someone else said,
that's really stupid,
503
00:34:55,635 --> 00:34:57,053
you shouldn't do that.
504
00:34:57,053 --> 00:34:58,638
Brad would figure out a way to do it,
505
00:34:58,638 --> 00:35:00,015
but it would be calculated.
506
00:35:04,561 --> 00:35:08,398
- [David] In 1937, just
months before Amelia Earhart
507
00:35:08,398 --> 00:35:11,151
tried to execute her
around the world flight,
508
00:35:12,861 --> 00:35:15,614
Earhart and her husband, George Put man,
509
00:35:15,614 --> 00:35:18,241
invited Brad down to
White Plains and asked
510
00:35:18,241 --> 00:35:20,410
Brad's opinion about the logistics of it.
511
00:35:22,787 --> 00:35:24,205
She needed a navigator.
512
00:35:25,290 --> 00:35:27,626
- [Mike] Going to a place
unknown and doing something
513
00:35:27,626 --> 00:35:29,794
that no one else had done before.
514
00:35:29,794 --> 00:35:31,588
He very much wanted to do this.
515
00:35:33,423 --> 00:35:35,175
- [Bradford] We chatted for a weekend.
516
00:35:35,175 --> 00:35:37,802
I remember, and we were going map over map
517
00:35:37,802 --> 00:35:39,220
and we got to How land Isle.
518
00:35:40,305 --> 00:35:42,349
It's all by itself.
519
00:35:42,390 --> 00:35:45,685
A mile and a quarter long
and a quarter of a mile wide,
520
00:35:45,685 --> 00:35:48,563
just a sliver out in
the middle of nothing.
521
00:35:48,563 --> 00:35:51,358
I said, Amelia, you've
absolutely got to have a noise
522
00:35:51,358 --> 00:35:55,195
on a specific frequency
emanating from that island.
523
00:35:55,195 --> 00:35:57,238
Could be duh, duh, duh,
dah, duh, duh, duh, dah,
524
00:35:57,238 --> 00:35:58,073
duh, dit, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dit.
525
00:35:59,157 --> 00:36:01,993
And you hone on that as
you're getting close to it.
526
00:36:03,787 --> 00:36:06,331
- Putnam and Earhart looked
at each other in dismay and
527
00:36:06,331 --> 00:36:07,916
Putnam, according to Brad said,
528
00:36:07,916 --> 00:36:09,626
then the book won't come out in time
529
00:36:09,626 --> 00:36:10,960
for the Christmas sales.
530
00:36:14,631 --> 00:36:16,007
- [Bradford] And I said, I'm sorry,
531
00:36:16,007 --> 00:36:17,217
I don't want any part of that.
532
00:36:17,217 --> 00:36:18,927
I just don't think it makes sense.
533
00:36:20,553 --> 00:36:23,973
(upbeat classical music)
534
00:36:24,933 --> 00:36:27,477
- Amelia Earhart and her
navigator, Fred No on an,
535
00:36:27,477 --> 00:36:29,729
have come to grief in their perilous
536
00:36:29,729 --> 00:36:31,773
round the world flight.
537
00:36:31,773 --> 00:36:34,651
The two intrepid fliers
missed the tiny dot that is
538
00:36:34,651 --> 00:36:37,529
How land island in their 25
mile hop from New Guinea
539
00:36:37,529 --> 00:36:39,698
and were forced down by lack of fuel.
540
00:36:41,116 --> 00:36:44,369
(dramatic orchestral music)
541
00:36:44,369 --> 00:36:47,747
- [David] The perfectionism
was a virtue and a fault.
542
00:36:47,747 --> 00:36:51,126
Every story he ever told he was
in the right and the others,
543
00:36:51,126 --> 00:36:52,669
the doubters were in the wrong.
544
00:36:55,004 --> 00:36:57,048
It's another Brad I told you so story.
545
00:36:58,633 --> 00:37:00,260
- [Interviewer] Kind of
the mother of all that.
546
00:37:00,260 --> 00:37:03,138
(both laughing)
547
00:37:03,138 --> 00:37:06,474
(gentle acoustic music)
548
00:37:10,895 --> 00:37:15,525
- [David] In 1937, Brad
wanted to fly into the
549
00:37:15,525 --> 00:37:17,944
Walsh Glacier to climb
Mount Lucania, the highest
550
00:37:17,944 --> 00:37:19,696
unclimbed peak in North America.
551
00:37:21,614 --> 00:37:24,409
- [Bradford] Lucania was a
very tempting morsel to take.
552
00:37:25,285 --> 00:37:27,954
Walter Wood had made a
serious attempt on it
553
00:37:27,954 --> 00:37:29,914
the preceding year,
554
00:37:29,914 --> 00:37:33,293
he got to the top of
16,000 foot Mount Steel
555
00:37:33,293 --> 00:37:36,296
and made the first ascent
of that and to his horror,
556
00:37:36,296 --> 00:37:39,424
found that Lucania lay
10 miles away from that
557
00:37:39,424 --> 00:37:41,217
in the direction of Mount Logan.
558
00:37:41,217 --> 00:37:44,596
And he just said, I honestly
don't think that anybody's
559
00:37:44,596 --> 00:37:46,222
ever gonna get to the top of that Mount.
560
00:37:46,222 --> 00:37:47,724
Well, nobody should ever say that.
561
00:37:47,724 --> 00:37:51,519
Particularly in Life magazine. (laughing)
562
00:37:51,811 --> 00:37:53,271
(pleasant music)
563
00:37:53,271 --> 00:37:56,399
I've been listening to tales
about a guy called Bob Bree.
564
00:37:56,399 --> 00:38:00,028
And the way he was taking supplies up to
565
00:38:00,028 --> 00:38:01,529
high altitude mines.
566
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:06,785
Taking off from the Valdez mudflats
567
00:38:06,785 --> 00:38:10,455
in a ski equipped airplane
with skis that he'd
568
00:38:10,455 --> 00:38:13,166
put underneath it, that
he'd got stainless steel
569
00:38:13,166 --> 00:38:15,919
from an old abandoned cocktail bar.
570
00:38:18,171 --> 00:38:20,715
So I wrote him a letter and
told him what we wanted to do,
571
00:38:20,715 --> 00:38:24,969
to fly 250 miles in with no
place to land all the way,
572
00:38:24,969 --> 00:38:27,347
and land on Walsh Glacier.
573
00:38:27,347 --> 00:38:29,224
And we hoped to climb Lucania
574
00:38:29,224 --> 00:38:30,683
and have him fly us back out.
575
00:38:30,683 --> 00:38:31,976
(film projector ticking)
576
00:38:31,976 --> 00:38:33,353
I got the telegram.
577
00:38:33,353 --> 00:38:37,148
Anywhere you'll ride, I'll fly, Bob Bree.
578
00:38:38,650 --> 00:38:42,195
(airplane propellers spin)
579
00:38:43,279 --> 00:38:46,199
(orchestral music)
580
00:38:56,459 --> 00:38:57,585
- [Paul] The flying back then, I mean,
581
00:38:57,585 --> 00:38:59,712
every time you went out, you
didn't know whether you were
582
00:38:59,712 --> 00:39:01,256
even going to make it back.
583
00:39:01,256 --> 00:39:03,842
I mean, you might have to walk, you know,
584
00:39:03,842 --> 00:39:05,802
two or three weeks to make
it back, 'cause planes,
585
00:39:05,802 --> 00:39:09,013
I mean, they just weren't
as reliable back then.
586
00:39:09,013 --> 00:39:10,431
It was a serious endeavor.
587
00:39:14,269 --> 00:39:16,187
- [Bradford] If we cracked up there,
588
00:39:16,187 --> 00:39:17,939
the chances are 50/50 that they'd
589
00:39:17,939 --> 00:39:19,691
never even have found the airplane.
590
00:39:24,362 --> 00:39:29,367
We landed at 8,500 feet in the
spot and exactly as planned,
591
00:39:29,576 --> 00:39:34,163
but it decelerated very, very fast.
592
00:39:39,043 --> 00:39:41,796
I jumped out the door when it stopped
593
00:39:41,796 --> 00:39:44,257
and went to my waist in slush.
594
00:39:45,508 --> 00:39:49,512
None of us expected that
at that altitude in Alaska,
595
00:39:50,388 --> 00:39:53,224
even in mid June, it would be slush.
596
00:39:56,561 --> 00:39:59,772
There was no way he'd be able
to take that airplane home.
597
00:40:02,317 --> 00:40:04,152
We couldn't even taxi it up to camp,
598
00:40:04,152 --> 00:40:06,362
and left it sitting
like that for the night.
599
00:40:07,739 --> 00:40:10,033
We wondered would we
ever get it out of there.
600
00:40:14,871 --> 00:40:18,875
- [David] It took five days
and stomping out of runways
601
00:40:18,875 --> 00:40:21,127
and throwing everything out of the plane.
602
00:40:21,127 --> 00:40:25,965
We've even took a ball-peen
hammer and changed the pitch of
603
00:40:25,965 --> 00:40:29,135
the propeller with it so they
could get a sharper bite.
604
00:40:30,219 --> 00:40:31,971
(airplane propeller spins)
605
00:40:31,971 --> 00:40:33,973
- [Bradford] Bob said, the
only thing I'm telling you guys
606
00:40:33,973 --> 00:40:36,976
now is, I wouldn't come
back to this God damn
607
00:40:36,976 --> 00:40:38,394
place for a million bucks.
608
00:40:42,273 --> 00:40:46,277
So he gave his airplane the
gun, headed down the glacier
609
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:51,115
and there was a little bulge
there and he completely
610
00:40:51,115 --> 00:40:52,825
disappeared from sight.
611
00:40:52,825 --> 00:40:55,036
But we could hear this
roar in the distance.
612
00:40:59,707 --> 00:41:03,127
Finally, this little
mosquito appeared in the air
613
00:41:03,169 --> 00:41:06,130
heading back to the
Valdez, 250 miles away.
614
00:41:06,130 --> 00:41:09,592
And we felt like a long way off ourselves.
615
00:41:10,927 --> 00:41:13,680
- [David] And he barely
wobbled into the air as he
616
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:17,809
took off, leaving Brad and Bob
Bates to their own devices.
617
00:41:17,809 --> 00:41:19,686
No hope of picking them up later.
618
00:41:23,439 --> 00:41:26,609
We've never even flew
back to check on the guys.
619
00:41:30,363 --> 00:41:33,324
(stove top hissing)
620
00:41:38,788 --> 00:41:40,581
- [Freddie] Okay, eggs.
621
00:41:41,499 --> 00:41:44,460
Actually there's bacon,
right under the eggs.
622
00:41:44,460 --> 00:41:46,754
- [Zack] It's getting pretty cold, huh?
623
00:41:46,754 --> 00:41:47,588
- [Renan] Yeah.
624
00:41:50,675 --> 00:41:52,093
- [Freddie] And it seems like
625
00:41:54,220 --> 00:41:55,847
I would probably have
at least a thousand feet
626
00:41:55,847 --> 00:41:59,851
of chains to Espresso Gap.
627
00:41:59,851 --> 00:42:01,019
So, hopefully,
628
00:42:03,771 --> 00:42:07,025
1500 feet above us, it would
be a good, hard cruise.
629
00:42:07,025 --> 00:42:12,030
- [Renan] Oh yeah, this is
as good as it's gonna get.
630
00:42:13,322 --> 00:42:17,493
- [Narrator] The first peak
step one is the Sugar Tooth.
631
00:42:17,493 --> 00:42:19,787
It's a long convoluted rock climb
632
00:42:19,787 --> 00:42:22,582
with small snow sections in between.
633
00:42:26,294 --> 00:42:29,422
- Keep your helmets on and
your heads down on this.
634
00:42:29,422 --> 00:42:32,341
(orchestral music)
635
00:42:41,809 --> 00:42:43,352
- [Renan] Nice Zack, hauling.
636
00:42:47,982 --> 00:42:50,359
When you're climbing on the Sugar Tooth,
637
00:42:50,359 --> 00:42:53,488
you're constantly tip-toeing
across these knife blades of
638
00:42:53,488 --> 00:42:55,406
rock that can bite you at any moment.
639
00:43:10,129 --> 00:43:11,339
- [Freddie] As the day got warmer and
640
00:43:11,339 --> 00:43:13,966
the conditions steadily got worse,
641
00:43:13,966 --> 00:43:17,345
we were forced to choose between
slogging up deep wet snow
642
00:43:17,345 --> 00:43:20,848
slopes or engaging in this
really ticky-tacky rock climbing
643
00:43:20,848 --> 00:43:23,684
up and around steep
towers with sharp edges.
644
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:25,520
- [Renan] Sugar Tooth.
645
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:26,771
- Sugar Tooth!
646
00:43:26,771 --> 00:43:27,855
- [Renan] Good old Sugie.
647
00:43:27,855 --> 00:43:29,273
- Good old Sugie.
648
00:43:29,273 --> 00:43:32,568
Kind of, there packing
a little bit of a punch.
649
00:43:35,446 --> 00:43:36,572
How's it look?
650
00:43:42,328 --> 00:43:43,538
(dramatic music)
651
00:43:43,538 --> 00:43:44,372
Ow.
652
00:43:47,041 --> 00:43:48,167
Stupid idea.
653
00:43:51,295 --> 00:43:52,130
Fuck you.
654
00:43:54,549 --> 00:43:55,341
No slack.
655
00:43:56,926 --> 00:44:00,221
(chains clinking)
656
00:44:00,221 --> 00:44:04,600
- [Zack] Yeah just good
finger lock, a little higher.
657
00:44:17,947 --> 00:44:21,200
- [Renan] That's a funny way to charge.
658
00:44:22,618 --> 00:44:26,289
- Check fuckin' this donkey out.
659
00:44:28,916 --> 00:44:31,043
- [Renan] I slipped following
Zack and the rope came
660
00:44:31,043 --> 00:44:34,589
tight over a blade of rock
and nearly cut in half.
661
00:44:37,049 --> 00:44:39,218
And then shortly after that,
662
00:44:39,218 --> 00:44:41,554
I foolishly dropped my ice tool.
663
00:44:41,554 --> 00:44:44,640
And that meant I was never
going to be secure on any of the
664
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:46,767
snow climbing from that point on.
665
00:44:48,561 --> 00:44:51,314
(dramatic music)
666
00:44:53,733 --> 00:44:56,068
- [Freddie] It's like this
mountain is going to kill you
667
00:44:56,068 --> 00:44:58,571
because it's just going to
beat your equipment down
668
00:44:58,571 --> 00:45:00,072
to the point where it fails.
669
00:45:12,210 --> 00:45:13,669
- [Renan] Baking in the heat.
670
00:45:15,296 --> 00:45:19,175
Instead of easily scampering
across the top of the snow,
671
00:45:19,175 --> 00:45:21,844
we kept punching through to our waists,
672
00:45:21,844 --> 00:45:24,931
expending tons of energy
way too early in the climb.
673
00:45:30,144 --> 00:45:31,771
- [Zack] Sug' sunny!
674
00:45:33,689 --> 00:45:36,442
- [Freddie] We're at the
summit of the Sugar Tooth.
675
00:45:36,442 --> 00:45:37,568
Psyched about that,
676
00:45:37,568 --> 00:45:42,573
but definitely a humbling
day, first day on route.
677
00:45:42,657 --> 00:45:45,868
And we just slogged really hard, so.
678
00:45:45,868 --> 00:45:48,746
Gotta talk to Renan and Zach
and see what they want to do.
679
00:45:49,705 --> 00:45:53,960
(laughing) I think I kind of
want to like pitch the tent
680
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,921
and crawl in the man sack
and just try to reboot
681
00:45:56,921 --> 00:46:01,342
tomorrow morning,
(laughing) but we'll see.
682
00:46:03,469 --> 00:46:04,887
- [Renan] It's beautiful out.
683
00:46:09,058 --> 00:46:10,268
- [Zack] That was like the main pitch
684
00:46:10,268 --> 00:46:11,727
that I was worried about.
685
00:46:11,727 --> 00:46:12,979
- [Renan] Yeah.
686
00:46:12,979 --> 00:46:14,146
(rustling)
687
00:46:14,146 --> 00:46:18,234
- [Renan] Man won and
the configuration tucked.
688
00:46:20,111 --> 00:46:21,112
- [Freddie] My next.
689
00:46:24,657 --> 00:46:29,662
- [Renan] So today was a
speeder or a crashed out early,
690
00:46:30,663 --> 00:46:35,668
getting some good rest after
the 16 hour push from base camp
691
00:46:37,420 --> 00:46:42,383
through the horrendous snow
conditions and wet rock.
692
00:46:43,551 --> 00:46:47,888
So, we're gonna get up early and
693
00:46:50,141 --> 00:46:51,934
get the second tooth in the morning,
694
00:46:51,934 --> 00:46:55,730
hopefully continue on from there.
695
00:46:55,730 --> 00:46:58,566
(energetic music)
696
00:47:03,529 --> 00:47:04,780
- [Freddie] A little rock climb today
697
00:47:04,780 --> 00:47:06,782
for most of like the morning.
698
00:47:07,783 --> 00:47:10,369
We probably would want
to do like a siesta.
699
00:47:12,788 --> 00:47:15,750
Alright, you ready for this guy?
700
00:47:30,514 --> 00:47:33,100
Ah, it was so good for a while.
701
00:47:36,020 --> 00:47:38,397
- [Renan] When we woke
up on that second day,
702
00:47:38,439 --> 00:47:41,400
there was a lot of questions
that needed to be answered in
703
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:44,278
terms of if it was
going to be safe enough.
704
00:47:44,278 --> 00:47:47,490
And if it was a responsible
decision to move on.
705
00:47:49,241 --> 00:47:53,662
- [Freddie] It looks like about
20 meters of down climbing.
706
00:47:55,164 --> 00:47:56,624
Does that sound good?
707
00:47:56,624 --> 00:47:57,458
- [Renan] Yeah.
708
00:47:57,458 --> 00:47:58,292
- [Zack] Sure.
709
00:48:04,924 --> 00:48:05,841
- [Freddie] It's pretty funny.
710
00:48:05,841 --> 00:48:08,969
We're like 20 hours into this mission.
711
00:48:08,969 --> 00:48:09,804
- [Zack] Yeah.
712
00:48:09,804 --> 00:48:11,555
- [Freddie] Renan and
I made it here in like
713
00:48:12,723 --> 00:48:13,933
five or six hours.
714
00:48:13,933 --> 00:48:14,767
- [Zack] Yeah.
715
00:48:14,767 --> 00:48:15,684
- [Freddie] That's just the way, I mean,
716
00:48:15,684 --> 00:48:16,644
I knew that was gonna be case.
717
00:48:16,644 --> 00:48:17,436
- [Zack] Yeah.
718
00:48:17,478 --> 00:48:19,688
- [Freddie] Yeah, I think
we can still make it happen,
719
00:48:22,775 --> 00:48:23,901
but, you know.
720
00:48:24,902 --> 00:48:29,532
- [Renan] We didn't use our
full reserve or anything, It's-.
721
00:48:29,532 --> 00:48:30,491
- Yeah.
722
00:48:30,491 --> 00:48:31,659
- [Renan] Anyway, we do it it's
723
00:48:31,659 --> 00:48:34,703
definitely not going to be cas',
724
00:48:34,745 --> 00:48:37,331
but there's a few factors.
725
00:48:37,331 --> 00:48:38,791
- [Freddie] We can charge,
726
00:48:39,708 --> 00:48:44,672
chances of pulling the whole
thing off, pretty small.
727
00:48:44,839 --> 00:48:45,965
You know, that's just one more-.
728
00:48:45,965 --> 00:48:49,468
- [Zack] We're a day be- we're
kind of a day behind, too.
729
00:48:49,468 --> 00:48:51,137
- Almost, yeah.
730
00:48:51,137 --> 00:48:52,805
- [Zack] I mean, we went with
it, we rolled it, it's cool.
731
00:48:52,805 --> 00:48:54,473
- If the forecast was good.
732
00:48:55,933 --> 00:48:59,145
- [Zack] I just feel like
the writing's on the wall.
733
00:48:59,145 --> 00:48:59,979
- Yeah.
734
00:49:02,231 --> 00:49:06,902
- It's not cut and dry to
call it, like it usually is.
735
00:49:07,736 --> 00:49:10,030
- [Renan] That's the smart thing to do.
736
00:49:10,030 --> 00:49:10,865
- [Freddie] Yeah.
737
00:49:12,116 --> 00:49:13,325
- All right.
738
00:49:13,325 --> 00:49:16,203
- [Renan] Earlier on in our
careers, we might've gone
739
00:49:16,203 --> 00:49:20,958
kamikaze on it, but the more
you get out and you do these
740
00:49:20,958 --> 00:49:23,252
things or lose friends to the mountains,
741
00:49:23,252 --> 00:49:26,672
the more careful you are and
the better decisions you make.
742
00:49:26,672 --> 00:49:29,800
So this is the way to play it safe.
743
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:31,552
Possibly have another go at it.
744
00:49:33,262 --> 00:49:36,348
(somber piano music)
745
00:49:43,856 --> 00:49:46,901
(upbeat piano music)
746
00:49:55,075 --> 00:49:57,786
- [Freddie] The day after we
came down after that attempt,
747
00:49:57,786 --> 00:49:59,330
we figured we should switch out
748
00:49:59,330 --> 00:50:02,958
our equipment and try it again.
749
00:50:04,168 --> 00:50:05,961
But then when we were down at base camp,
750
00:50:05,961 --> 00:50:10,299
the temperatures remained
unseasonably warm.
751
00:50:12,801 --> 00:50:13,969
Here comes one.
752
00:50:13,969 --> 00:50:18,974
And it just was raining down
wet avalanches and rock fall
753
00:50:19,350 --> 00:50:21,769
all over the lower Gorge.
754
00:50:21,769 --> 00:50:24,230
Three, two, one.
755
00:50:29,193 --> 00:50:31,445
(laughing)
756
00:50:32,863 --> 00:50:35,533
(loud rumbling)
757
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:52,716
- [Renan] It's really unstable
right now, it's obvious.
758
00:50:52,716 --> 00:50:53,551
- [Freddie] Yeah.
759
00:50:58,180 --> 00:51:01,350
The party next to us when
to try a gullied climb.
760
00:51:01,350 --> 00:51:04,270
And I got a really bad feeling about it.
761
00:51:11,026 --> 00:51:14,572
By midday, they still hadn't come back.
762
00:51:14,572 --> 00:51:18,409
And I finally decided to ski
over there a little closer and
763
00:51:18,409 --> 00:51:20,703
have a look for them.
764
00:51:23,205 --> 00:51:26,375
(somber music)
765
00:51:26,375 --> 00:51:30,212
We found their bodies
buried in avalanche debris
766
00:51:30,212 --> 00:51:32,464
at the bottom of the gully.
767
00:51:32,464 --> 00:51:35,384
(helicopter whirs)
768
00:51:37,803 --> 00:51:41,181
- [Zack] Now the Rangers are
in, so this is the recovery.
769
00:52:05,873 --> 00:52:07,166
- [Bradford] I think it's
important to point out
770
00:52:07,166 --> 00:52:09,793
that there is something
that happens to both
771
00:52:09,793 --> 00:52:13,088
the brilliant climbers and the bum ones.
772
00:52:13,088 --> 00:52:14,757
And that's tough luck.
773
00:52:17,676 --> 00:52:18,677
I've never believed in
774
00:52:18,677 --> 00:52:21,513
what I call Russian roulette climbing,
775
00:52:21,513 --> 00:52:26,518
which is going into a place
where you have constant danger
776
00:52:26,560 --> 00:52:29,355
over which you have no control at all.
777
00:52:31,231 --> 00:52:32,733
I think one of the reasons that we're
778
00:52:32,733 --> 00:52:36,695
still here and chatting
with you today is the fact
779
00:52:36,695 --> 00:52:39,907
we refused to take that kind of challenge.
780
00:52:50,250 --> 00:52:52,252
- [David] Brad in his whole
life never went on an expedition
781
00:52:52,252 --> 00:52:54,588
led by anybody else.
782
00:52:54,588 --> 00:52:57,007
He was a good guy and
he would consult you,
783
00:52:57,007 --> 00:52:59,927
but he was the leader and
his decision finally stuck.
784
00:53:03,347 --> 00:53:06,558
- [Bradford] On all these
trips, the trip was my idea,
785
00:53:06,558 --> 00:53:09,603
and maybe I knew more about climbing.
786
00:53:09,603 --> 00:53:12,398
So I was sort of the logical leader,
787
00:53:13,273 --> 00:53:16,735
let's take Lucania where
Bob Bates and I were alone.
788
00:53:16,735 --> 00:53:19,697
And we got along very, very well.
789
00:53:20,531 --> 00:53:23,283
- [David] Brad and Bob Bates
were complete opposites.
790
00:53:23,283 --> 00:53:28,038
Brad, the headstrong leader,
had to do it his way.
791
00:53:28,038 --> 00:53:31,041
Bob was the nicest guy in
the world, the most generous.
792
00:53:31,041 --> 00:53:34,545
Yet he had an incredible
talent to be in a ticklish
793
00:53:34,545 --> 00:53:37,089
situation and to chill out and calm down.
794
00:53:45,264 --> 00:53:48,934
- [John] They had all the gear,
all the food and supplies,
795
00:53:48,934 --> 00:53:51,603
and they decided rather than
just hightailing it out,
796
00:53:52,855 --> 00:53:55,315
that they would go ahead
and climb Mount Lucania.
797
00:53:57,526 --> 00:53:59,778
- [Bradford] We could've
walked out two ways,
798
00:53:59,778 --> 00:54:02,614
200 miles back into Alaska.
799
00:54:02,614 --> 00:54:07,619
Or if we remembered that Walter
Wood who said Lucania was
800
00:54:08,036 --> 00:54:11,749
impossible to climb had said
so from the top of Mount
801
00:54:11,749 --> 00:54:14,626
Steel, and we figured
if we climbed Lucania,
802
00:54:14,626 --> 00:54:17,129
we could get over the top of Mount Steel.
803
00:54:17,337 --> 00:54:20,215
And we would be going back into Canada.
804
00:54:26,764 --> 00:54:28,182
- [John] They'd pioneer a new style,
805
00:54:28,182 --> 00:54:30,851
which I call fast and light.
806
00:54:30,851 --> 00:54:33,687
Once they committed to going
over Lucania and Steel,
807
00:54:33,687 --> 00:54:34,938
they stripped down radically,
808
00:54:34,938 --> 00:54:36,690
they cut the floor out of their tent.
809
00:54:36,690 --> 00:54:40,360
They threw away one sleeping
bag and slept head to toe.
810
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:43,155
The two of them in a single bag.
811
00:54:43,155 --> 00:54:44,782
And they threw out a lot of food.
812
00:54:58,879 --> 00:55:00,547
- [Bradford] We were out
for a hell of a long time.
813
00:55:00,547 --> 00:55:03,133
We started at eight in the morning, it was
814
00:55:03,133 --> 00:55:05,385
four in the afternoon
when we got to the top.
815
00:55:07,346 --> 00:55:10,265
(orchestral music)
816
00:55:15,521 --> 00:55:19,191
19,000 foot Mount Logan in one direction,
817
00:55:19,191 --> 00:55:21,735
all the way down the coast to St. Elias.
818
00:55:23,403 --> 00:55:25,656
The view was absolutely magnificent.
819
00:55:28,826 --> 00:55:30,994
That was the first
ascent of Mount Lucania.
820
00:55:33,997 --> 00:55:36,708
- [John] They were so sanguine
that Brad took what I argue
821
00:55:36,708 --> 00:55:40,796
is the finest summit photo
yet taken in the far North.
822
00:55:40,796 --> 00:55:43,173
It's just a stunning portrait of both
823
00:55:43,173 --> 00:55:44,883
exhaustion and jubilation.
824
00:55:48,220 --> 00:55:50,973
- [Bradford] But the biggest
problem we had on that trip was
825
00:55:50,973 --> 00:55:52,683
not climbing Mount Lucania.
826
00:55:55,394 --> 00:55:58,397
We figured that anything that
Walter Wood could get up,
827
00:55:58,397 --> 00:55:59,439
we could get down.
828
00:56:00,315 --> 00:56:02,776
And he told us exactly where we would find
829
00:56:02,776 --> 00:56:06,029
a huge cache of food on the other side.
830
00:56:07,739 --> 00:56:10,200
So we walked down for the longest set,
831
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:14,955
we were went from 14,000
feet to 16,000 feet
832
00:56:14,955 --> 00:56:16,874
to get to the top of Steel.
833
00:56:16,874 --> 00:56:19,167
And then from 16,000 feet,
834
00:56:19,167 --> 00:56:22,504
all the way down to the head
of the Wolf Creek glacier
835
00:56:22,504 --> 00:56:27,342
at 5,000 feet, all in one
day, it was an endless day.
836
00:56:27,342 --> 00:56:29,970
And the next day we walked all the way
837
00:56:29,970 --> 00:56:31,430
down to the cache of food.
838
00:56:34,933 --> 00:56:36,435
The bears had been in the cache
839
00:56:36,435 --> 00:56:40,188
and there was not one single thing left.
840
00:56:40,188 --> 00:56:43,150
The bears had chewed every single can.
841
00:56:46,653 --> 00:56:50,908
It was 19 miles from that
cache to the Donjeck river.
842
00:56:57,748 --> 00:57:00,584
And we got to the Donjeck
river and it was in full flood.
843
00:57:03,378 --> 00:57:05,881
- [John] In desperation,
they took the camera and the
844
00:57:05,881 --> 00:57:08,258
notebooks and the film
and hung it on a bush
845
00:57:08,258 --> 00:57:10,218
with a note saying, you know,
846
00:57:10,218 --> 00:57:12,971
if you find these at least
you'll know what happened to us,
847
00:57:12,971 --> 00:57:16,266
basically sort of recognizing
that their chance of survival
848
00:57:16,266 --> 00:57:19,728
was getting pretty slim, perhaps none.
849
00:57:22,648 --> 00:57:25,651
- [Bradford] We had two duffel
bags with all our clothing
850
00:57:25,651 --> 00:57:29,404
and everything and we tied
them up real, really tight.
851
00:57:31,323 --> 00:57:32,908
And we jumped into the river and
852
00:57:32,908 --> 00:57:36,578
we went in as deep as we could on foot.
853
00:57:36,578 --> 00:57:37,412
When we lost our footing,
854
00:57:37,412 --> 00:57:39,706
we used them like life preservers.
855
00:57:39,706 --> 00:57:41,416
And we swum to the other shore.
856
00:57:49,841 --> 00:57:52,594
We were sitting down on a
bunch of tussocks and all of a
857
00:57:52,594 --> 00:57:54,554
sudden we heard a tinkling sound.
858
00:57:56,139 --> 00:57:57,766
I began to wonder if I was hearing
859
00:57:57,766 --> 00:57:59,434
the bells of heaven or something.
860
00:58:00,477 --> 00:58:04,064
And then all of a sudden,
a hundred yards away,
861
00:58:04,064 --> 00:58:09,069
we saw a man and then another
man, and these guys said,
862
00:58:09,444 --> 00:58:10,946
where in hell have you come from?
863
00:58:10,946 --> 00:58:13,657
We said, we've come from Valdez, Alaska.
864
00:58:13,657 --> 00:58:15,409
And they said, where were you going?
865
00:58:15,409 --> 00:58:17,744
We said, we're going
any place you're going.
866
00:58:21,248 --> 00:58:23,041
- [John] Fortunately,
they were able to go back
867
00:58:23,041 --> 00:58:24,167
and get that camera.
868
00:58:26,461 --> 00:58:28,630
But I think that Mount Lucania
expedition is one of the
869
00:58:28,630 --> 00:58:32,592
most incredible stories
of drive and survival.
870
00:58:39,016 --> 00:58:40,892
- [Mike] Brad and Bob Bates.
871
00:58:40,892 --> 00:58:42,853
Both of those men had shrugged it off as,
872
00:58:42,853 --> 00:58:45,313
well, you know, we just kinda walked out.
873
00:58:48,150 --> 00:58:51,778
- [Interviewer] Did anybody
end up injured on that trip?
874
00:58:51,778 --> 00:58:52,779
- [Bradford] Nobody.
875
00:58:55,115 --> 00:58:58,410
Nobody got a skinned ankle
on it, everything went fine.
876
00:59:00,078 --> 00:59:01,580
- [David] Brad was very proud of the fact
877
00:59:01,580 --> 00:59:05,083
that in all his 13, 15 expeditions,
878
00:59:05,083 --> 00:59:06,626
you know, they never lost a partner.
879
00:59:06,626 --> 00:59:09,212
He never had a partner
suffer a serious accident.
880
00:59:11,465 --> 00:59:15,177
But I discovered when I
wrote Brad's biography,
881
00:59:15,177 --> 00:59:18,764
Brad himself had become
a pilot in his twenties.
882
00:59:18,764 --> 00:59:22,142
And as far as I know, he
was a very good pilot.
883
00:59:24,603 --> 00:59:26,271
- [Interviewer] Flying wasn't exactly safe
884
00:59:26,271 --> 00:59:29,191
when you began flying, was it?
885
00:59:29,191 --> 00:59:31,276
Ever have any narrow escapes?
886
00:59:31,276 --> 00:59:33,278
- [Bradford] Well, I had one.
887
00:59:33,278 --> 00:59:36,073
Way back in 1938.
888
00:59:37,908 --> 00:59:41,787
- [David] 1938, he'd been
in Seattle on Lake Union.
889
00:59:44,206 --> 00:59:46,249
And had taken out a float plane,
890
00:59:46,249 --> 00:59:49,878
the wife of a climbing buddy
of his and another woman just
891
00:59:51,671 --> 00:59:54,091
to do a routine sightseeing trip.
892
00:59:57,803 --> 00:59:58,970
Perfect day in Seattle.
893
01:00:04,726 --> 01:00:06,937
Brad came in, in the float plane
894
01:00:06,937 --> 01:00:11,817
he'd only flown once before
and screwed up the landing.
895
01:00:13,902 --> 01:00:15,070
The plane sank.
896
01:00:16,863 --> 01:00:18,281
Brad and the guy,
897
01:00:18,281 --> 01:00:20,492
punched out the windshield
and swam to safety.
898
01:00:20,492 --> 01:00:23,245
And then dived back in to
try to rescue the two women.
899
01:00:29,584 --> 01:00:31,169
They both drowned.
900
01:00:31,169 --> 01:00:34,673
(somber orchestral music)
901
01:00:40,303 --> 01:00:41,429
He never talked about this.
902
01:00:41,429 --> 01:00:43,348
I only learned about this from extensive
903
01:00:43,348 --> 01:00:45,934
research into newspaper clippings.
904
01:00:48,478 --> 01:00:50,897
This was a dark, dark thing for,
905
01:00:50,897 --> 01:00:53,608
especially for such a
perfectionist as Brad
906
01:00:53,608 --> 01:00:56,903
to have really fucked
up and killed two women
907
01:00:56,903 --> 01:00:58,155
who thought they were out on the
908
01:00:58,155 --> 01:01:00,657
30 minute sightseeing flight.
909
01:01:00,657 --> 01:01:03,326
He was terribly disturbed
by it the rest of his life.
910
01:01:04,870 --> 01:01:06,329
It's why he never flew again.
911
01:01:37,485 --> 01:01:39,988
- [Renan] Just two months
before we were supposed
912
01:01:39,988 --> 01:01:40,989
to head back to Alaska,
913
01:01:41,031 --> 01:01:43,200
Zack and I were in Colorado.
914
01:01:43,200 --> 01:01:47,078
Spending most of our time
climbing and training together.
915
01:01:47,078 --> 01:01:51,041
- [Zack] This climb means a lot to me.
916
01:01:51,041 --> 01:01:54,628
I really, really want it bad.
917
01:01:54,628 --> 01:01:59,591
I've never put this much time
and energy into one climb
918
01:01:59,883 --> 01:02:04,638
before I've never tried
to climb this complicated.
919
01:02:04,638 --> 01:02:10,227
And I made a lot of sacrifices
to try something like this.
920
01:02:17,359 --> 01:02:19,819
Right now, I'm living in a good friend's
921
01:02:19,819 --> 01:02:22,447
basement in Boulder, Colorado,
922
01:02:25,075 --> 01:02:29,579
and I'm recently single after
an eight year relationship.
923
01:02:35,126 --> 01:02:40,131
We had a really amazing
relationship for a long time.
924
01:02:40,423 --> 01:02:44,844
And the stress of me traveling
925
01:02:46,221 --> 01:02:50,225
and climbing became too
great on that relationship.
926
01:02:52,269 --> 01:02:56,356
And the reality of really
close friends of ours
927
01:02:57,607 --> 01:03:01,653
dying played a huge part of it I think,
928
01:03:01,653 --> 01:03:06,658
because it made her worst
nightmares a reality.
929
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:12,122
And so the idea of something
like that happening to me
930
01:03:12,122 --> 01:03:16,042
and you know, me putting
myself in those situations
931
01:03:16,042 --> 01:03:18,378
was too much for her.
932
01:03:18,378 --> 01:03:20,880
And I can't blame her for that.
933
01:03:24,175 --> 01:03:26,928
(dramatic music)
934
01:03:38,064 --> 01:03:40,608
- [Nurse] I want you to
squeeze my fingers, Okay?
935
01:03:40,608 --> 01:03:41,651
Good.
936
01:03:41,651 --> 01:03:45,488
- [Zack] Two months before we
were due to leave for Alaska,
937
01:03:45,488 --> 01:03:48,450
for another attempt on the Moose's Tooth,
938
01:03:49,409 --> 01:03:53,580
Renan was filming some
professional skiers in the Tetons.
939
01:03:53,580 --> 01:03:54,664
- [Nurse] Open your mouth for me,
940
01:03:54,664 --> 01:03:56,708
make sure you don't have
any broken teeth, good.
941
01:03:56,708 --> 01:04:00,170
- [Zack] Catches an edge,
tumbles down the mountain,
942
01:04:00,170 --> 01:04:03,048
over a cliff band and lands on his head.
943
01:04:06,718 --> 01:04:10,513
(radio plays indistinctly)
944
01:04:10,513 --> 01:04:12,807
We're lucky as partners
we're able to get them
945
01:04:12,807 --> 01:04:15,018
down to the base of the mountain and
946
01:04:15,018 --> 01:04:17,979
on a life flight to
advanced medical support.
947
01:04:20,398 --> 01:04:22,901
- [Paramedic] One, two, three.
948
01:04:24,027 --> 01:04:25,862
- [Zack] The way I
first heard about it was
949
01:04:25,862 --> 01:04:30,116
an hysterical phone call
from Renan's girlfriend.
950
01:04:30,116 --> 01:04:35,121
That was like basically
Renan's dead or is, you know,
951
01:04:35,413 --> 01:04:39,000
going to be quadriplegic
for the rest of his life.
952
01:04:40,835 --> 01:04:44,464
And I was at work and so
I just threw down whatever
953
01:04:44,464 --> 01:04:47,884
I was doing and drove
over to their house and
954
01:04:47,884 --> 01:04:49,886
tried to, you know, get the details.
955
01:04:54,891 --> 01:04:58,603
- [Freddie] He had a
depressed skull fracture,
956
01:04:58,603 --> 01:05:02,941
broken two vertebrae and
severed the one of the two
957
01:05:02,941 --> 01:05:07,445
vertebral arteries that supply
blood flow to the brain.
958
01:05:08,613 --> 01:05:11,950
(speaking indistinctly)
959
01:05:15,829 --> 01:05:18,206
- Headed to the neurosurgeon,
960
01:05:21,709 --> 01:05:22,544
realize that
961
01:05:26,506 --> 01:05:28,383
this'll probably work out, but
962
01:05:29,926 --> 01:05:33,972
it does hurt me pretty deeply
to not to be involved in
963
01:05:35,432 --> 01:05:37,725
all the projects that
are going on, especially
964
01:05:37,725 --> 01:05:42,313
the Tooth Traverse, because
965
01:05:43,481 --> 01:05:45,316
that's something that you put,
966
01:05:47,110 --> 01:05:49,863
it's something that we put
three years of time into.
967
01:05:49,863 --> 01:05:53,950
And after everyone said
it couldn't be done,
968
01:05:56,077 --> 01:05:59,247
(walkie talkie sounds intermediately)
969
01:05:59,247 --> 01:06:02,459
We solved a few of the major
problems and showed that it was
970
01:06:02,459 --> 01:06:07,464
possible last year and right now that's,
971
01:06:08,089 --> 01:06:09,340
that was the one thing.
972
01:06:11,092 --> 01:06:12,260
I really want it, so.
973
01:06:15,305 --> 01:06:16,890
It's tough.
974
01:06:16,890 --> 01:06:19,934
(somber piano music)
975
01:06:24,606 --> 01:06:27,734
- [Freddie] When it happened
I figured the climb was over,
976
01:06:27,734 --> 01:06:28,943
at least for that year.
977
01:06:29,861 --> 01:06:33,615
I mean, the question was
were we gonna go without him?
978
01:06:45,793 --> 01:06:48,713
- [Renan] We have loved ones back home
979
01:06:48,713 --> 01:06:51,424
that I'm sure would be destroyed
980
01:06:51,424 --> 01:06:53,510
if we lost our life in the mountains.
981
01:06:57,847 --> 01:07:01,267
I can only imagine what
my funeral would be like.
982
01:07:32,298 --> 01:07:34,050
It's about five months later,
983
01:07:35,510 --> 01:07:39,597
technically I'm still healing
a broken neck in two places,
984
01:07:39,597 --> 01:07:43,476
two vertebrae, like right
in my spinal column.
985
01:07:43,476 --> 01:07:48,314
And I can touch my head
and feel where the skull is
986
01:07:48,314 --> 01:07:52,026
still tender from having it
sliced open for brain surgery,
987
01:07:55,280 --> 01:07:58,324
Getting injured just before
we had to leave on the trip
988
01:07:58,324 --> 01:08:00,410
was really devastating.
989
01:08:00,410 --> 01:08:04,038
And I knew it was going to be
really hard for them to deal
990
01:08:04,038 --> 01:08:06,249
with the fact that I
was out of commission.
991
01:08:08,418 --> 01:08:11,337
- [Freddie] Renan's at home
with his neck immobilized
992
01:08:11,337 --> 01:08:16,301
in a brace and he's
Skyping with me every day,
993
01:08:16,676 --> 01:08:18,219
talking about, you know,
994
01:08:18,219 --> 01:08:20,972
we're going to go back to
the Tooth Traverse next year.
995
01:08:22,432 --> 01:08:24,767
So, so we waited.
996
01:08:25,768 --> 01:08:26,603
- [Chiropractor] And on
this side, you can see
997
01:08:26,603 --> 01:08:27,687
the needle swing.
998
01:08:32,400 --> 01:08:34,277
(grunts)
999
01:08:34,277 --> 01:08:36,279
I gotta get down lower.
1000
01:08:36,279 --> 01:08:38,364
- [Renan] I've worked
really hard to recover
1001
01:08:38,364 --> 01:08:39,782
as fast as I have.
1002
01:08:41,743 --> 01:08:43,953
I just been sitting for so long.
1003
01:08:43,953 --> 01:08:45,913
I need to go out and push myself and be
1004
01:08:45,913 --> 01:08:49,083
in the mountains and create.
1005
01:08:50,251 --> 01:08:52,837
(gentle music)
1006
01:08:59,385 --> 01:09:01,137
As a professional climber,
1007
01:09:01,137 --> 01:09:03,806
I have these competing priorities.
1008
01:09:03,806 --> 01:09:07,560
First I wanted to climb in the
Himalaya with my North Face
1009
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:11,939
team and then go back to the
Tooth Traverse in the spring.
1010
01:09:11,939 --> 01:09:14,734
When I thought the conditions
were gonna be pretty good.
1011
01:09:16,027 --> 01:09:18,696
This didn't sit well with Zack.
1012
01:09:18,696 --> 01:09:21,908
He wanted to get back to
Alaska as soon as possible.
1013
01:09:29,874 --> 01:09:34,045
- [Zack] Renan has made
an incredible recovery
1014
01:09:34,045 --> 01:09:37,507
and by some kind of miracle,
1015
01:09:37,507 --> 01:09:39,759
the guy was going to be able to climb.
1016
01:09:39,759 --> 01:09:42,679
You know, I said, let's
go try this thing again.
1017
01:09:42,679 --> 01:09:47,141
You know, like we've talked
about going in the fall before.
1018
01:09:47,141 --> 01:09:48,726
Let's, why not.
1019
01:09:48,726 --> 01:09:52,230
But he made another
choice, which is great.
1020
01:09:52,230 --> 01:09:54,732
You know, like his other
project is super rad
1021
01:09:54,732 --> 01:09:56,901
and I'm sure they'll succeed.
1022
01:10:04,701 --> 01:10:06,786
Those guys are professional climbers
1023
01:10:06,786 --> 01:10:08,788
who get to go on big trips.
1024
01:10:08,788 --> 01:10:10,164
So those guys have a different climbing
1025
01:10:10,164 --> 01:10:11,332
experience than I have.
1026
01:10:13,626 --> 01:10:18,631
My last Alpine climbing
trip was a two month trip.
1027
01:10:18,631 --> 01:10:21,592
It's the longest expedition
I've ever been on,
1028
01:10:21,592 --> 01:10:22,927
down in Argentina.
1029
01:10:23,886 --> 01:10:25,471
Two months,
1030
01:10:25,471 --> 01:10:28,141
pretty much spent all the money I had
1031
01:10:28,141 --> 01:10:32,145
and I climbed one day and with no summit.
1032
01:10:33,604 --> 01:10:36,399
So that was a bit hard, you know,
1033
01:10:36,441 --> 01:10:40,695
to sacrifice the time and
energy and money that I put
1034
01:10:40,695 --> 01:10:43,114
towards it, it is a big thing to me.
1035
01:10:52,081 --> 01:10:55,209
To me the filming has
just become a distraction
1036
01:10:56,711 --> 01:11:00,590
and taking away from the
actual experience of climbing.
1037
01:11:06,179 --> 01:11:08,181
I'm just at this tipping
point where the mountains are
1038
01:11:08,181 --> 01:11:09,807
taking more than they're giving.
1039
01:11:12,602 --> 01:11:16,230
Hanging Christmas lights,
painting out for a living.
1040
01:11:18,483 --> 01:11:22,111
Yeah. (laughs)
1041
01:11:22,111 --> 01:11:23,196
- [Camera Man] Pretty crazy.
1042
01:11:23,196 --> 01:11:27,700
- It's a weird way to make
a living, but it works.
1043
01:11:30,495 --> 01:11:33,247
So I made the decision
to bow out of the climb.
1044
01:11:35,416 --> 01:11:38,252
We created this monster (engine starts up)
1045
01:11:38,252 --> 01:11:40,254
And I just hope they
finish the fucking thing.
1046
01:11:40,254 --> 01:11:41,714
Even if I can't be there,
1047
01:11:43,466 --> 01:11:44,467
I just want it done.
1048
01:12:01,108 --> 01:12:03,611
- [Renan] I almost lost
everything in my accident.
1049
01:12:06,614 --> 01:12:09,283
People always ask me, why do you do it?
1050
01:12:13,871 --> 01:12:17,625
I just wanted to use the
chance that I was given
1051
01:12:18,751 --> 01:12:23,047
to show that there's this
joyous side of climbing.
1052
01:12:23,047 --> 01:12:26,133
(gentle piano music)
1053
01:12:29,720 --> 01:12:32,723
- [Bradford] We've added a
lot to opening people's eyes
1054
01:12:32,723 --> 01:12:35,393
towards the beauty of these places
1055
01:12:35,393 --> 01:12:38,563
and making it easier if you're
a climber to find new routes.
1056
01:12:39,730 --> 01:12:42,525
The things that you
remember about these trips
1057
01:12:42,525 --> 01:12:45,278
are people, not things.
1058
01:12:45,278 --> 01:12:47,572
Being with these wonderful people.
1059
01:12:47,572 --> 01:12:52,326
- Yeah, that was a sharp spin.
1060
01:12:52,326 --> 01:12:54,704
(screaming)
1061
01:12:56,080 --> 01:12:58,040
- [Freddie] When you're on an
expedition, most of the time,
1062
01:12:58,040 --> 01:13:01,085
it doesn't feel like
you're risking your life.
1063
01:13:01,085 --> 01:13:05,214
It feels like you're on
this incredible journey to
1064
01:13:05,214 --> 01:13:06,674
explore the landscape.
1065
01:13:06,674 --> 01:13:07,967
Hello, beautiful wife.
1066
01:13:09,510 --> 01:13:11,554
(dramatic orchestral music)
1067
01:13:11,554 --> 01:13:12,763
- [Janet] Yeah, you good?
1068
01:13:12,763 --> 01:13:14,849
- [Freddie] I'm actually good, what a day.
1069
01:13:16,517 --> 01:13:18,060
- I always say I don't care about summits,
1070
01:13:18,060 --> 01:13:20,021
but really does feel good.
1071
01:13:27,778 --> 01:13:30,323
- [Bradford] I'm going to tell
you the most important thing
1072
01:13:30,323 --> 01:13:32,992
in my whole life- Barbara.
1073
01:13:35,453 --> 01:13:38,998
That's the best step I ever
took from the day I was born
1074
01:13:38,998 --> 01:13:40,583
until this afternoon.
1075
01:13:45,004 --> 01:13:46,756
- [Barbara] Brad never talked
about mountain climbing
1076
01:13:46,756 --> 01:13:48,382
when we got engaged.
1077
01:13:48,382 --> 01:13:51,427
But when we were first married,
I found myself on my way to
1078
01:13:51,427 --> 01:13:53,763
Mount Birther in South Eastern Alaska.
1079
01:13:58,309 --> 01:13:59,393
- [Interviewer] Well,
why did you think Barbara
1080
01:13:59,393 --> 01:14:00,227
was up for this?
1081
01:14:00,227 --> 01:14:01,270
I mean most people would not-.
1082
01:14:01,270 --> 01:14:03,064
- Just because I think Barbara's terrific,
1083
01:14:03,064 --> 01:14:04,649
and she still is.
1084
01:14:04,649 --> 01:14:06,651
- [Barbara] I don't think he had any idea
1085
01:14:06,651 --> 01:14:09,946
whether I was up to it or
not, he just wanted me to go.
1086
01:14:11,697 --> 01:14:13,783
- [Bradford] That was the first
time Barbara had ever done
1087
01:14:13,783 --> 01:14:17,203
anything of this sort and she
rushed right up and did it
1088
01:14:17,203 --> 01:14:19,038
without the slightest difficult.
1089
01:14:24,418 --> 01:14:26,337
- [Interviewer] In '47,
you became the first woman
1090
01:14:26,337 --> 01:14:27,254
to climb McKinley.
1091
01:14:27,254 --> 01:14:28,089
- Yes.
1092
01:14:28,089 --> 01:14:29,966
- [Interviewer] And that
was a long, long expedition.
1093
01:14:29,966 --> 01:14:30,925
- Yes, three months.
1094
01:14:30,925 --> 01:14:31,759
- [Interviewer] Three months?
1095
01:14:31,759 --> 01:14:32,927
- [Barbara] Three months, because we were
1096
01:14:32,927 --> 01:14:34,345
making a map, making a movie.
1097
01:14:35,846 --> 01:14:39,016
(twangy guitar music)
1098
01:14:41,018 --> 01:14:43,437
When we got near the
top, I was in the middle,
1099
01:14:43,437 --> 01:14:46,357
Shorty Lang said, okay,
Barbara, now you go first.
1100
01:14:47,650 --> 01:14:49,026
And I said, oh no, no, no.
1101
01:14:49,026 --> 01:14:51,070
We just go in the order
we're in, of course.
1102
01:14:51,070 --> 01:14:52,905
And he said, don't you realize you're the
1103
01:14:52,905 --> 01:14:55,408
first woman to get to
the top of this place?
1104
01:14:55,408 --> 01:14:57,785
And I said, oh, heck,
who cares about that?
1105
01:15:00,663 --> 01:15:02,331
I didn't think the world cared about
1106
01:15:02,331 --> 01:15:03,749
a woman getting to the top.
1107
01:15:04,792 --> 01:15:07,628
Never done it if I knew it
was gonna be such a fuss.
1108
01:15:07,628 --> 01:15:09,588
Anyway, so I got to the top.
1109
01:15:09,588 --> 01:15:11,382
And then Brad came up and joined us.
1110
01:15:11,382 --> 01:15:14,301
(orchestral music)
1111
01:15:19,306 --> 01:15:21,600
- [Bradford] It's been wonderful for me
1112
01:15:21,600 --> 01:15:25,479
over the years to have a
wonderful partner like Barbara,
1113
01:15:25,479 --> 01:15:27,064
all the way through this stuff.
1114
01:15:37,116 --> 01:15:40,619
- [Mike] To sort of sum
Brad up is really hard.
1115
01:15:40,619 --> 01:15:44,498
He was an educator, a scientist, explorer.
1116
01:15:44,540 --> 01:15:46,917
But he would always land on the education
1117
01:15:46,917 --> 01:15:49,253
because no matter what
he did, he educated.
1118
01:15:51,505 --> 01:15:54,258
- [Bradford] The thing
that made the climb fun
1119
01:15:54,258 --> 01:15:57,803
was the fact we were
trying to create something
1120
01:15:57,803 --> 01:16:00,306
that would share the thrill of discovery.
1121
01:16:03,893 --> 01:16:07,063
This sharing doesn't just apply to climbing.
1122
01:16:09,482 --> 01:16:12,860
It also applies to our Museum of Science.
1123
01:16:14,236 --> 01:16:15,404
- [John] The Museum of Science.
1124
01:16:15,404 --> 01:16:19,325
When he took it over, it
was this derelict old attic
1125
01:16:19,325 --> 01:16:22,828
of a junk heap in South Boston.
1126
01:16:22,828 --> 01:16:25,289
Brad absolutely transformed it into the,
1127
01:16:25,289 --> 01:16:27,666
one of the great teaching
museums in the world.
1128
01:16:30,336 --> 01:16:32,338
And he actually had said
often that was the thing
1129
01:16:32,379 --> 01:16:34,715
he wanted to be remembered for,
1130
01:16:34,715 --> 01:16:37,218
above and beyond the
climbing and the photography.
1131
01:16:38,219 --> 01:16:41,180
- [Kurt] Photography was
always, I think in second place
1132
01:16:41,180 --> 01:16:44,517
to his idea of scientific adventure.
1133
01:16:45,476 --> 01:16:49,563
Not just adventure, but
scientific adventure.
1134
01:16:54,610 --> 01:16:57,279
- [John] There are parallels
amongst scientific exploration
1135
01:16:57,279 --> 01:16:58,864
and human exploration.
1136
01:16:58,864 --> 01:17:01,408
All of it comes down to
our drive to want to know
1137
01:17:01,408 --> 01:17:03,035
or want to see new places.
1138
01:17:08,415 --> 01:17:09,708
Flying on the Space Shuttle is just
1139
01:17:09,708 --> 01:17:12,128
an amazing place to do photography.
1140
01:17:13,295 --> 01:17:16,048
From space, you can
see thousands of miles.
1141
01:17:20,761 --> 01:17:24,431
2009, you know, Brad had just
passed away two years earlier.
1142
01:17:26,934 --> 01:17:30,437
The American Alpine club
offered to let me take Brad's
1143
01:17:30,437 --> 01:17:35,442
camera, bringing Brad's legacy
to the next generation of
1144
01:17:35,442 --> 01:17:37,278
aerial photography to space.
1145
01:17:42,408 --> 01:17:44,994
Truly incredible because
1146
01:17:44,994 --> 01:17:46,954
that's the camera that he took
1147
01:17:46,954 --> 01:17:48,706
on his Mount Lucania expedition.
1148
01:17:50,916 --> 01:17:52,877
- [Bradford] I had quite
a number of climbs,
1149
01:17:52,877 --> 01:17:55,296
sort of in my hip pocket that I began
1150
01:17:55,296 --> 01:17:57,006
parceling out one by one.
1151
01:17:59,842 --> 01:18:02,595
I just sort of sit and wait
and see how they did it.
1152
01:18:02,595 --> 01:18:05,764
And I've had a lot of fun out of that,
1153
01:18:05,764 --> 01:18:08,809
particularly after I got old enough.
1154
01:18:08,809 --> 01:18:12,062
So I wasn't doing these
wonderful climbs myself.
1155
01:18:13,230 --> 01:18:16,358
- [David] When I was a
undergraduate at Harvard,
1156
01:18:16,358 --> 01:18:19,236
you freely gave of all your
1157
01:18:19,236 --> 01:18:21,071
advice about Alaska, you let us-.
1158
01:18:21,071 --> 01:18:21,906
- [Bradford] Yeah.
1159
01:18:21,906 --> 01:18:23,532
- [David] You've played this
role with an extraordinary
1160
01:18:23,532 --> 01:18:25,534
number of young climbers.
1161
01:18:25,534 --> 01:18:29,413
You can take Brad's pictures and seek out
1162
01:18:30,664 --> 01:18:32,416
your next great expedition on them.
1163
01:18:35,794 --> 01:18:38,672
- [Jack] A mentor is a hero of generosity.
1164
01:18:41,133 --> 01:18:42,426
You know, Brad was a lot of things,
1165
01:18:42,426 --> 01:18:44,637
but he was super generous.
1166
01:18:44,637 --> 01:18:46,722
And I think, you know, it
wasn't just my experience
1167
01:18:46,722 --> 01:18:50,017
that was, you know, hundreds
of people's experience.
1168
01:18:50,017 --> 01:18:53,437
He would send us photograph,
you know, unsolicited.
1169
01:18:53,437 --> 01:18:54,897
What do you think about this?
1170
01:19:03,781 --> 01:19:05,866
- [Mike] I think his
photography will last a
1171
01:19:05,866 --> 01:19:09,578
really long time, but to us climbers,
1172
01:19:09,578 --> 01:19:13,249
I think what matters is not
that he did the hardest climbs
1173
01:19:13,249 --> 01:19:18,254
ever it's that he climbed remote,
arduous, exhausting peaks.
1174
01:19:22,049 --> 01:19:24,385
And he encouraged many other generations,
1175
01:19:24,385 --> 01:19:27,137
including mine, to seek out
the challenges that were beyond
1176
01:19:27,137 --> 01:19:31,141
him and people like Freddie and Renan
1177
01:19:31,141 --> 01:19:33,602
are still pursuing the
Washburn challenges.
1178
01:19:42,987 --> 01:19:45,864
- [Freddie] How did you describe
the snow conditions, man?
1179
01:19:45,864 --> 01:19:48,492
- [Man In Blue Coat] The
gorge, we got probably a foot.
1180
01:19:48,492 --> 01:19:49,326
- [Freddie] Uh huh.
1181
01:19:49,326 --> 01:19:50,494
- And at the mountain it looked like
1182
01:19:50,494 --> 01:19:51,620
there was at least two and a half.
1183
01:19:51,620 --> 01:19:52,913
- [Freddie] Yeah, yeah.
1184
01:19:52,913 --> 01:19:54,999
- Yeah, a foot in the last couple days.
1185
01:19:54,999 --> 01:19:57,126
And then we had a storm before
that too, then had a couple.
1186
01:19:57,126 --> 01:20:00,963
It's the eye deep to nipple
deep snow wallowing, yep,
1187
01:20:00,963 --> 01:20:02,381
unconsolidated wallowing.
1188
01:20:03,340 --> 01:20:05,426
- [Man In Blue Coat] Yeah,
every single aspect I'd been on
1189
01:20:05,426 --> 01:20:08,304
has been pretty miserable snow conditions.
1190
01:20:09,346 --> 01:20:12,016
- Yeah, cool.
1191
01:20:12,016 --> 01:20:15,519
They had just had the biggest
snow storm of the year
1192
01:20:15,519 --> 01:20:17,730
the week before we arrived.
1193
01:20:17,730 --> 01:20:21,692
The mountains were covered
in six feet of new snow.
1194
01:20:21,692 --> 01:20:25,362
And everyone we met in Talkeetna
1195
01:20:25,362 --> 01:20:28,991
warned us that it was a really bad time.
1196
01:20:30,242 --> 01:20:32,995
- [Renan] We'd waited for two
years for another crack at
1197
01:20:32,995 --> 01:20:36,790
the Traverse, but it wasn't
even about the climb anymore.
1198
01:20:37,708 --> 01:20:41,587
We wanted to do something
in the true spirit of Brad
1199
01:20:41,587 --> 01:20:43,672
to come back with something to share.
1200
01:20:45,215 --> 01:20:47,426
It's the 14th, three o'clock
1201
01:20:48,427 --> 01:20:50,637
and we're launching.
1202
01:20:50,679 --> 01:20:51,472
- [Freddie] And we're launching.
1203
01:20:51,472 --> 01:20:53,682
We get to do it with only (indistinct).
1204
01:20:53,682 --> 01:20:55,976
- [Paul] It's good to be a
part of something that has a
1205
01:20:55,976 --> 01:20:58,687
lot of pieces that you
have to connect together.
1206
01:21:01,315 --> 01:21:04,610
There are certain climbers,
like they have a plutonium rod,
1207
01:21:04,610 --> 01:21:06,528
you know, just burning inside of them.
1208
01:21:09,448 --> 01:21:11,950
It's not just going up and
getting something done.
1209
01:21:12,993 --> 01:21:15,579
They're tying their whole
life into the whole climb.
1210
01:21:34,556 --> 01:21:37,226
(phone ringing)
1211
01:21:39,395 --> 01:21:41,397
(sighs)
1212
01:21:43,774 --> 01:21:48,195
- [Renan] Can you breath
out a big cold breath here?
1213
01:21:56,745 --> 01:21:58,914
The rumors were correct and the conditions
1214
01:21:58,914 --> 01:22:03,919
were very snowy and the going was slow.
1215
01:22:14,721 --> 01:22:16,765
- [Freddie] The thing was, might've taken
1216
01:22:18,058 --> 01:22:22,604
15 or 20 minutes longer
working twice as hard.
1217
01:22:23,939 --> 01:22:26,650
But I still got to the top of the pitch.
1218
01:22:27,860 --> 01:22:30,487
It set a little light
off in my head, and I,
1219
01:22:30,487 --> 01:22:33,699
I realized like, maybe
we can do this thing.
1220
01:22:40,289 --> 01:22:41,748
We took it one pitch at a time.
1221
01:22:41,748 --> 01:22:46,462
And we went back to our old bivy from 2010
1222
01:22:46,462 --> 01:22:48,422
at the top of the Sugar Tooth.
1223
01:22:50,090 --> 01:22:53,385
- [Renan] We're at our
bivy overlooking Denali
1224
01:22:54,595 --> 01:22:58,724
and climbed for about 12 hours today.
1225
01:22:58,724 --> 01:23:02,895
And even though it's
still blazing sun out,
1226
01:23:04,104 --> 01:23:06,565
I'm going to try to get some rest.
1227
01:23:06,565 --> 01:23:07,483
That's the update.
1228
01:23:09,943 --> 01:23:10,777
(thud)
1229
01:23:10,777 --> 01:23:12,196
- [Freddie] Ah!
1230
01:23:12,196 --> 01:23:14,198
- [Renan] What's going
on over there, Freddie?
1231
01:23:15,699 --> 01:23:17,326
- Digging for buried treasure.
1232
01:23:20,871 --> 01:23:24,249
We found a bag of snacks
left from the attempt
1233
01:23:24,249 --> 01:23:25,501
two years ago.
1234
01:23:27,336 --> 01:23:30,672
Not exactly a street legal maneuver, but
1235
01:23:30,672 --> 01:23:34,009
this buys us another two days of climbing,
1236
01:23:34,009 --> 01:23:35,219
which we may need.
1237
01:23:38,096 --> 01:23:41,308
Day two, we started up the
South Ridge of the eye tooth.
1238
01:23:42,559 --> 01:23:44,102
The climbing got a lot steeper
1239
01:23:46,188 --> 01:23:49,066
and the conditions are challenging enough.
1240
01:23:49,066 --> 01:23:51,985
We have to pitch it out and
stop and belay each other.
1241
01:23:58,742 --> 01:24:03,580
It takes us all day to get to
the summit of the eye tooth.
1242
01:24:05,040 --> 01:24:09,294
Day three, there was a
segment of unclimbed ridge
1243
01:24:09,294 --> 01:24:12,714
connecting the eye tooth
to the bear's tooth.
1244
01:24:14,091 --> 01:24:17,928
- [Renan] This is deep Alaskan
cornice ridge climbing,
1245
01:24:17,928 --> 01:24:21,431
huge waves that are 200 feet tall.
1246
01:24:21,431 --> 01:24:23,225
These waves of snow.
1247
01:24:24,184 --> 01:24:27,020
And you don't want to climb
on the top of the wave
1248
01:24:27,020 --> 01:24:29,523
because the wave could collapse.
1249
01:24:29,523 --> 01:24:31,358
And we've had friends die,
1250
01:24:31,358 --> 01:24:33,777
not knowing where the
point is on the wave,
1251
01:24:33,777 --> 01:24:35,320
where you can actually be.
1252
01:24:39,366 --> 01:24:42,369
You're tiptoeing on the
backside of the wave
1253
01:24:42,369 --> 01:24:44,204
for what seems like a mile.
1254
01:25:04,349 --> 01:25:07,352
That was pretty real.
1255
01:25:12,065 --> 01:25:13,692
We've been on the summit all day.
1256
01:25:16,570 --> 01:25:18,322
Now it's just a matter of weather,
1257
01:25:18,322 --> 01:25:21,033
but we're looking really good.
1258
01:25:25,454 --> 01:25:27,456
- [Freddie] We knew if we could
only make it to the summit
1259
01:25:27,456 --> 01:25:29,625
of the bear's tooth, we'd be halfway home.
1260
01:25:31,001 --> 01:25:33,920
(helicopter whirs)
1261
01:25:49,019 --> 01:25:53,440
(man indistinctly speaking on radio)
1262
01:25:57,027 --> 01:26:01,782
- [Renan] I think first you
see it from the ridge line.
1263
01:26:01,782 --> 01:26:03,992
And then you see Denali,
1264
01:26:03,992 --> 01:26:07,037
we can kind of just be
charging up the snow
1265
01:26:07,037 --> 01:26:07,954
towards the summit.
1266
01:26:09,498 --> 01:26:10,624
- [Paul] All right, we'll
see you in a little bit.
1267
01:26:10,624 --> 01:26:11,792
- [Renan] Okay, awesome.
1268
01:26:11,792 --> 01:26:12,626
Thanks Paul.
1269
01:26:13,710 --> 01:26:14,920
- [Paul] They're coming.
1270
01:26:16,463 --> 01:26:19,966
- There's a lot riding on the next hour.
1271
01:26:30,352 --> 01:26:31,395
(upbeat orchestral music)
1272
01:26:31,395 --> 01:26:33,980
(radio buzzes)
1273
01:26:37,150 --> 01:26:39,569
- [Bradford] Up the long
delirious burning blue,
1274
01:26:40,946 --> 01:26:43,865
I've topped the wind swept
heights with easy grace.
1275
01:26:45,325 --> 01:26:47,786
Where never Lark or even Eagle flew.
1276
01:26:49,788 --> 01:26:52,124
And while his silent lifting mind,
1277
01:26:54,042 --> 01:26:57,879
I've trod the high
under-trespassed sanctity of space.
1278
01:27:00,674 --> 01:27:05,220
Whip out my hand and
touch the face of God.
1279
01:27:06,263 --> 01:27:09,182
(orchestral music)
1280
01:27:20,402 --> 01:27:22,946
(radio buzzes)
1281
01:27:27,284 --> 01:27:29,786
- [Renan] Making it across
that final section of ridge
1282
01:27:29,786 --> 01:27:32,205
onto the summit of the
bear's tooth was like
1283
01:27:32,205 --> 01:27:34,458
unlocking the last piece of the puzzle.
1284
01:27:36,835 --> 01:27:38,962
We were on the center
of the Tooth Traverse
1285
01:27:39,880 --> 01:27:41,631
in the most beautiful part of it.
1286
01:27:42,716 --> 01:27:45,635
For us, it was just this fleeting moment
1287
01:27:45,635 --> 01:27:48,764
in our concept of how long we
were toiling on this climb.
1288
01:27:50,265 --> 01:27:54,102
(triumphant orchestral music)
1289
01:28:28,261 --> 01:28:29,679
- [Freddie] We figured when we reached the
1290
01:28:29,679 --> 01:28:32,432
South face of the Moose's
Tooth, we'd be on easy street
1291
01:28:35,018 --> 01:28:37,270
because we had already
climbed that section.
1292
01:28:38,980 --> 01:28:39,981
Nice, Renan!
1293
01:28:43,193 --> 01:28:45,946
Without Zack there, those pitches felt
1294
01:28:45,946 --> 01:28:47,614
way harder than we remembered.
1295
01:28:57,999 --> 01:29:01,586
There was a big snow field
that was dripping water
1296
01:29:01,586 --> 01:29:05,298
down on this five, 11 slab traverse.
1297
01:29:05,298 --> 01:29:10,262
And Renan had to tiptoe across
it doing really precise,
1298
01:29:10,262 --> 01:29:11,763
insecure climbing.
1299
01:29:13,265 --> 01:29:15,308
That was like the ultimate little.
1300
01:29:15,308 --> 01:29:18,854
- Yes, Zack, I almost died on the pitch
1301
01:29:18,854 --> 01:29:21,189
you pranced up in 20 minutes.
1302
01:29:21,189 --> 01:29:23,441
(laughing)
1303
01:29:24,317 --> 01:29:26,611
Once I got through the slab,
1304
01:29:26,611 --> 01:29:28,738
Freddie led us through the Bleeder pitch
1305
01:29:28,738 --> 01:29:30,323
towards the summit of the moose.
1306
01:29:40,250 --> 01:29:43,086
(heavy breathing)
1307
01:29:48,258 --> 01:29:49,551
- Denali looks cool.
1308
01:29:58,810 --> 01:30:01,187
Renan and I realized that, here we are,
1309
01:30:01,229 --> 01:30:03,857
and we're just about out of food and
1310
01:30:03,857 --> 01:30:06,943
we pretty much had no
choice, but to continue on.
1311
01:30:16,703 --> 01:30:19,039
It took us all night to get across the
1312
01:30:19,039 --> 01:30:21,875
summit ridge of the Moose's tooth.
1313
01:30:26,129 --> 01:30:28,840
- [Renan] Been going for almost 24 hours.
1314
01:30:28,840 --> 01:30:31,968
(yelling in distance)
1315
01:30:34,179 --> 01:30:37,599
We've done the entire Tooth Traverse.
1316
01:30:37,599 --> 01:30:39,851
Now we're just trying
to finish up the moose.
1317
01:30:40,727 --> 01:30:41,811
- [Freddie] Fuck yeah!
1318
01:30:44,397 --> 01:30:48,026
By 6:00 AM the next morning
we were stopping for another
1319
01:30:48,026 --> 01:30:51,404
quick rest on the West
summit of the Moose's tooth.
1320
01:30:51,404 --> 01:30:55,283
Before we began repelling
off the side of the mountain.
1321
01:30:56,451 --> 01:30:59,329
- [Renan] Hour 30 probably of the push.
1322
01:31:01,247 --> 01:31:03,500
It's kind of this unique feeling.
1323
01:31:04,626 --> 01:31:05,502
- [Freddie] Dreaming.
1324
01:31:05,502 --> 01:31:08,546
- Yeah, it's like a hallucination
1325
01:31:10,006 --> 01:31:12,300
without hallucinogens,
1326
01:31:13,885 --> 01:31:16,388
but you're doing things
where one wrong step,
1327
01:31:16,429 --> 01:31:17,222
you could die.
1328
01:31:18,098 --> 01:31:20,141
So it's even more trippy.
1329
01:31:24,771 --> 01:31:27,899
You just got to try to
keep yourself together.
1330
01:31:27,899 --> 01:31:29,109
Hour after hour.
1331
01:31:35,615 --> 01:31:38,410
And we probably have six hours to go.
1332
01:31:51,214 --> 01:31:54,342
- [Freddie] The last
challenge of the climb was
1333
01:31:54,342 --> 01:31:57,887
descending this gully down to the glacier
1334
01:31:57,887 --> 01:32:02,392
at the bottom of the gorge
and gully's are dangerous.
1335
01:32:02,392 --> 01:32:05,145
And we were going into this
one at the worst possible time.
1336
01:32:05,145 --> 01:32:08,648
It was 4:00 PM in the afternoon.
1337
01:32:08,648 --> 01:32:13,194
We had been on the go
for 30 some odd hours.
1338
01:32:16,489 --> 01:32:21,453
And all the circumstances were pointing to
1339
01:32:21,453 --> 01:32:24,539
this being a bad call,
but we had to get down.
1340
01:32:24,539 --> 01:32:26,458
We didn't think it'd take us too long.
1341
01:32:29,836 --> 01:32:34,799
And I realized how soft it was
at that hour of the day and
1342
01:32:35,842 --> 01:32:39,304
sat down and was seated past Renan
1343
01:32:39,304 --> 01:32:43,391
as he's really intensely
kicking steps down.
1344
01:32:45,060 --> 01:32:46,811
- [Renan] There could have
been this giant crevasse
1345
01:32:46,811 --> 01:32:48,772
down there to eat us both up.
1346
01:32:50,774 --> 01:32:53,651
But after he committed, of course,
1347
01:32:53,651 --> 01:32:55,070
I was going to do the same.
1348
01:33:00,366 --> 01:33:03,536
And we were just sliding like little kids.
1349
01:33:05,163 --> 01:33:08,083
(orchestral music)
1350
01:33:36,444 --> 01:33:39,280
(chains clinking)
1351
01:33:41,199 --> 01:33:42,242
- [Freddie] Nice job!
1352
01:33:44,160 --> 01:33:46,871
- [Renan] The first thing
we did was we called Zack.
1353
01:33:48,289 --> 01:33:50,083
He was excited for us.
1354
01:33:50,083 --> 01:33:51,709
- [Freddie] All right, man!
1355
01:33:51,709 --> 01:33:52,544
Hang loose.
1356
01:33:52,544 --> 01:33:55,338
- [Renan] And he knew that
he was this big driving force
1357
01:33:55,338 --> 01:33:57,048
for the Tooth Traverse overall.
1358
01:34:00,718 --> 01:34:03,346
- [Freddie] The thing I'll
remember more than any other
1359
01:34:03,346 --> 01:34:06,683
detail of the climb was how it felt
1360
01:34:06,683 --> 01:34:09,769
when we returned to base camp.
1361
01:34:11,271 --> 01:34:14,440
We just hung out in the
tent, listening to music,
1362
01:34:15,275 --> 01:34:16,818
the door wide open,
1363
01:34:16,818 --> 01:34:20,989
looking out on the skyline
we had just walked across.
1364
01:34:28,872 --> 01:34:31,207
By all rights, we should
have been exhausted
1365
01:34:31,207 --> 01:34:33,501
and should've fallen asleep immediately,
1366
01:34:36,171 --> 01:34:38,923
but we felt more energized than ever.
1367
01:34:42,385 --> 01:34:44,470
Those moments come so rarely.
1368
01:34:45,638 --> 01:34:46,890
We didn't want it to end.
1369
01:34:48,266 --> 01:34:51,186
(orchestral music)
1370
01:35:05,867 --> 01:35:09,037
(music ends suddenly)
1371
01:35:30,808 --> 01:35:32,769
- [David] Brad's favorite quotations,
1372
01:35:32,769 --> 01:35:35,939
which were touchstones for
him, one is from Aristotle-
1373
01:35:35,980 --> 01:35:38,233
quote, the search for truth-.
1374
01:35:38,233 --> 01:35:39,817
- [Brad And David Simultaneously]
Is in one way hard-.
1375
01:35:39,817 --> 01:35:41,486
- [Bradford] And in another easy,
1376
01:35:43,112 --> 01:35:45,907
for it is evident that
no one of us can ever-.
1377
01:35:45,907 --> 01:35:47,992
- [Renan] Master it fully.
1378
01:35:47,992 --> 01:35:49,285
- [Freddie] Or use it wholly.
1379
01:35:53,790 --> 01:35:54,749
Each one of us-.
1380
01:35:54,749 --> 01:35:56,751
- [Renan] Adds to our understanding-.
1381
01:35:56,751 --> 01:35:59,754
- [Bradford] Of the world around us.
1382
01:36:03,925 --> 01:36:06,844
- [All] And from all the facts assembled-.
1383
01:36:06,844 --> 01:36:09,389
- [Renan] Arises a certain grandeur.
1384
01:36:09,389 --> 01:36:11,474
- [Freddie] Arises a certain grandeur.
1385
01:36:12,392 --> 01:36:15,645
- [Bradford] Arises a certain grandeur.
1386
01:36:17,355 --> 01:36:20,275
(orchestral music)
1387
01:37:23,463 --> 01:37:26,382
(electronic music)
1388
01:37:58,790 --> 01:38:01,959
(twangy guitar music)
109191
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