Bangkok--29 Dec--PRpedia
New Six-part Series Follows the World’s Preeminent Mountain Climbers through Triumphs and Heartbreak as they Attempt the Impossible On Nat Geo Adventure — True Vision 41
“You throw yourself off a cliff and then it’s up to you whether you live or die, and you’re plummeting towards the ground…you always throw your pilot chute and save your life…” — mountain climber and BASE jumper Sean “Stanley” Leary.
BASE jumping, free soloing and mountain climbing in its many forms are not for the faint-hearted. In this tight-knit sporting community, experienced mountaineers demonstrate an intense passion for climbing — and for supporting each other’s endeavours — as they push themselves to their absolute limits. Nat Geo Adventure’s new series First Ascent, premiering on 14 January 2010 at 17:30 on Nat Geo Adventure — True Vision 41, journeys alongside the world’s best climbers as they attempt to conquer the most forbidding peaks. With cameramen following every step of the way, the series captures the unyielding determination, heart-stopping moments, emotional rollercoasters and spectacular visuals that can only be seen from hundreds of metres above a sheer cliff face. This series was recently awarded the Best Climbing Film and the Grand Prize at the Kendal Film Festival in the U.K., which is the biggest Adventure Film Festival in Europe.
First Ascent shares inspiring stories of climbers overcoming adversity to achieve their dreams of reaching the top. In Alone on the Wall, a young climber summits Yosemite’s iconic 600-metre Half Dome in khaki shorts, a plaid shirt — and no ropes. Brother’s Wild highlights a man determined to summit the towering mountains of Alaska’s Denali National Park despite being paralyzed from the waist down. Patagonia Promise is an emotional expedition for a climber returning to South America to honour his girlfriend and fellow climber while conquering the Patagonia peaks she loved while Impossible Climb follows the world’s best rock climber as he takes on his biggest challenge yet.
Episodes include:
Impossible Climb
Chris Sharma, hailed as the world’s best rock climber, takes on his biggest challenge yet — the unclimbed 90-metre limestone cave atop Clark Mountain in the western U.S. To reach the top, Chris dangles from one finger, jumps between miniscule holds and suffers 30-metre freefalls onto his rope in his attempt to piece the climb together. He spends days just trying to get down two moves, using almost maniacal devotion to master complicated manoeuvres required for the climb. After months of effort, Sharma is still unable to complete the climb without falling. The oppressive summer heat moves in and he must retreat to Spain to continue training. Returning to Clark Mountain, Chris continues working towards a goal that seems a little beyond his limit. Finally, after months of effort, Chris manages a no-falls ascent of the entire 76-metre cave, achieving the first ascent of Clark Mountain in arguably the most difficult rock climb ever ascended.
Patagonia Promise
At the far end of the Earth, rugged peaks in Patagonia have drawn three friends to attempt an epic First Ascent, and fulfil a promise to a fallen fellow climber. In this poignant journey, Sean “Stanley” Leary sets off to Rio de Janeiro and Argentina to honour his girlfriend and fellow climber Roberta Nunes, whose life was tragically cut short in a car accident. In Brazil, Leary and his travel companions — Cedar Wright and Renan Ozturk —literally take a walk in the clouds, highlining along a thin rope connected between two peaks. Travelling to Argentina, Leary, Wright and Ozturk prepare for their First Ascent; however, the men arrive in El Chalten just in time for the worst weather, with intense wind and rain. With only one week left of their trip, the trio are ready to give it a shot. As darkness falls, the men are still not at the top, and Renan takes a 5-metre drop, mangling his fingers in the process. But the complete the climb; and Leary sets off on his own for one final mission. At the top, he BASE jumps off the cliff, scattering Roberta’s ashes amongst the Patagonia peaks that she loved.
Alone on the Wall
In the realm of free solo climbing — climbing peaks without ropes — Alex Honnold is the best in the world. Honnold, a bumbling and slightly geeky kid becomes a poised, graceful and calculated climber able to complete the hardest free solos. With his sights set on Yosemite’s iconic 600-metre Half Dome wall, Alex first travels to Utah to conquer the 370-metre Moonlight Buttress. It takes all of his mental efforts to focus on the climb, with 300-metres of air — and no rope — beneath him. Honnold has developed his own mental armour to protect him from thinking too much while climbing, but when he’s standing on a sliver of a ledge 550 metres above Yosemite’s Half Dome wall, his armour runs thin. To Honnold, doubt is the biggest danger and he experiences a feeling of dread like never before. Pulling himself together, Alex completes the 600-metre climb — something that can take other climbers days to complete — in under 3 hours cementing his place in free soloing history.
Brother’s Wild
Alaska’s Denali National Park features daunting peaks with extreme conditions and vertical exposures that would challenge even the most highly skilled and intrepid alpinists. But for someone paralysed from the waist down, conquering these peaks seems like an impossible goal. Brothers Timmy and Sean O’Neill are pushing the boundaries of para-athletic climbing further than ever before. To start, Timmy fulfils a long ago made promise to Sean —paralysed after a bridge jump — to climb Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan. El Capitan will take days to climb, and the boys must make uniquely adapt their climbing techniques, dangling 900 metres above the valley before reaching the top. Next stop, the boys head to Denali where they will be left alone on glaciers for several weeks. They prepare their gear and Sean’s adaptive equipment before setting off across glaciers with dangerous, deep crevasses. They make it to the top successfully, but are hit by a serious Alaskan storm as they try to descend before finally arriving back at base camp.
First Ascent is produced for National Geographic Channels International by Sender Films. Peter Mortimer and Nicholas Rosen are executive producers for Sender Films. For NGCI, Executive Vice President of Content is Sydney Suissa.
For further information (media only), please contact:
National Geographic Channel Asia
Fina Wong (Regional)
Tel: +852 2621 8875
Email:
[email protected]
National Geographic Channel Asia
Carol Ho (Regional)
Tel: +852 2621 8785
Email:
[email protected]
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