Original subtitles

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thank you

Mount Edgar at the edge of Tibet has

never been climbed by its dramatic

eastern wall the East face of Edgar is

very imposing it's scary looking for a

team of Alpine climbers it's the climb

of a lifetime it's not very many chances

you get to Pioneer a new route get an 8

000 foot face this is like the Lost

Temple of Doom but in this harsh

Vertical World

it's a Razor's Edge between Triumph and

tragedy there's nothing we can do

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Johnny Kopp and Micah Dash are one of

the top Alpine climbing teams in the

world

they specialize in establishing new

routes in the most extreme vertical

terrain they can find tackling a first

Ascent in the big mountains is the most

exciting type of climbing no man has set

foot here

it's just pure Adventure

the things that Johnny and I are trying

to climb these are remote unclimbed

Peaks

no barriers have really been broken and

you're there to break those barriers

once you're up high it's full commitment

climbing

ends up being pretty intense

cold night up here having climbed

mountains all over the world

Johnny and Micah are gearing up for

their biggest challenge yet

the unclimbed East face of Mount Edgar

near Tibet in western China

this particular Peak that we're going to

thinks about 6 800 meters the East face

of of Edgar is steep it's very imposing

we want to do something that's Cutting

Edge that challenges us to the core

doing a first Ascent on a face like this

would be one of the bigger

accomplishments I've done in in Alpine

climbing for sure

for a trip of this scale the process of

planning just doing the research on this

very remote area is a daunting task

and it starts a year in advance

how you doing Mike good Johnny yeah

we'll see you guys again we do just

extensive research on trying to find

these areas that are the most remote

this could be the Holy Grail of first

descent to be done in the next few

decades and I'm excited to be able to go

over there with Johnny and uh and and

check this region out

I basically have a photo on my desktop

of this peak that we're going to climb

and it's been there for a year and so

all of my training and all of my

climbing is driven towards this one

Focus you have to be at the peak of your

game to climb in this style on the

world's biggest objectives if you're not

fit you're going home we've been doing

this thing called Mountain athlete

pretty exhausting strong Johnny

come on get it honey or a drill sergeant

she's brutal on us come on

come on she's like the Mussolini of

training oh my God [ __ ] okay right into

the push press basically kicking our ass

into the ground making sure that we're

as hard to kill as we could possibly be

in the mountains yeah Micah I want to

know that when I'm up there the last

thing I'm thinking about is am I fit

enough good job fight for it

you have this this image in your head

it's kind of like this thing floating in

the clouds come on Johnny good job and

you're shooting for that and you're

working towards it so it really inspires

all the small parts of the process good

Micah

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oh my God

I want to feel strong

I want to feel powerful I want to be as

fit as I've ever been my entire life

and of course the training is is always

ongoing and that's you know climbing ice

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no matter how cold we are no matter how

tired we are Johnny is Rip rearing ready

to go yeah

his strength shine when it's the worst

it can possibly be out

foreign

and that's a great thing to have in a

partner

that's fun Micah just got done with a

really wet waterfall fish it looked

horrendous uh

cold now Mikey Dash is hilarious he can

be scared and cracking jokes at the same

time

that's what's really great about

climbing with him before nyama is bigger

than this baby spot

made it yeah we're so psyched

so we've been planning this trip to

Tibet with Johnny and Micah for a long

time and there was never any doubt that

we were going to send Wade Johnson as

the cameraman on this Expedition

he's really strong great cinematographer

he's shot with Johnny and Mike a lot in

the past

those guys really love each other

morning wood what is the kind of guy you

want to have out there in the mountains

what do you say wade

full body climbing

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Johnny Mica and Wade all of us hail from

this super tight community of climbers

in Boulder

we're like a family

we shared Expeditions together

we shared this vision of climbing

we party together

every year somebody out of the family

it's their turn to get to go on a big

trip and a big Expedition and everybody

else kind of gets lived vicariously

trip to Johnny Mike and wait are going

on is huge I mean it's it's a trip of a

lifetime the first time I saw a photo of

Johnny and Micah's objective I was like

whoa

this East face of Edgar has a lot of

snow and ice on it a high degree of

instability you're definitely putting

your neck out there and there's not a

whole lot of margin for error I don't

really know of anybody having been in

here this is a scary place where we're

going

a lot of folks have have been asking us

how you know are you scared or something

are you worried about it

no I mean every single time I throw

something else into that duffel I'm just

like super psyched

you know I've been through enough

situations in big mountains and walls

that I feel like I can get myself out of

anything that I get myself into

I know that's probably not the case but

that's how it feels leaving home is

always sad it's a it's emotional I'm

leaving you know my girlfriend these are

my gloves so I'm leaving my life in

Colorado to go do something that's

that's dangerous

it's always a bit of a strain

but it's part of the program

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saying goodbye to Johnny's emotional

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but it's more exciting I think than

anything else

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[Applause]

cool

we're way out here it's pretty exciting

but right on the border of China and

Tibet

you can tell that they don't see

westerners at all up here

we don't even know

how we're going to get to the base of

this climb

or anything else

we have to kind of figure out how to get

the porters together and get the

equipment together to get it up high

enough it's a really bad map

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thank you

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foreign

the peak is really really big

scary there's a lot of uh potential

objective hazards Xerox like hanging ice

walls that we don't want to be climbing

under because they can fall off I've

been on a lot of expeditions with Johnny

and I've never heard him refer to

something as being scared

even from a great distance is uh

frightening but also really exciting

but as the Team Heads Up The Gorge

drawing closer to their objective the

mountains dangers begin to reveal

themselves these Rock slides are fresh

you can see that one that just came down

probably

large Boulders embedded in a matrix of

wet sand are ever threatening to unleash

going up the gorge is like running gone

yeah let's get the hell out of here

water this is scary right here yeah I

just want to make sure we don't endanger

anyone's life

trying to get up there and scout out

base camp needs to be safe so we can't

be underneath loose Rock areas or

Avalanche Terrain

basically we found the only flat-ish

place in miles to establish our base

camp

over 10 000 feet from the summit of

Mount Edgar

it's a long ways to the top

with the porters gone

the team is alone on the mountain

waiting for the weather to clear what

are you doing Wade

he's trying to use the power of the sun

charger batteries on

there may not work right now

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it's not in my nature to be patient nor

still and everybody's just kind of

forced to sit at the same spot until we

get weather

gets a little aggravating for sure go

ahead all right I'm thinking about what

I want to say well he's [ __ ] rolling

well he's gonna have to wait

I don't think Mike and I will get along

the whole trip Micah can you look less

bored like you're you're listening to

Johnny he's being an [ __ ] we can't do

this interview now but what we do really

well is uh forgive each other

[Laughter]

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okay let's put it on autofocus for you

so

you don't have to think

all right wait tell us what do you think

so far

I think I wish we had better weather

right now but it's been it's been good

we're gonna

oh

first clouds away

so it is May 14th we've been in base

camp 14 days 5 39 A.M

after weeks of waiting the weather

finally allows the team to head upwards

they still have 5 000 feet before they

get to the base of the route where they

will Begin The Climb

now that we're above base camp and below

the main face that we want to climb we

really just need a hole in the clouds to

find our route

you can barely see Micah over there it's

kind of scary to walk that way with zero

visibility because I can't see the sorax

it's gonna be a lot of loose training in

there

I think the visibility is about 20 feet

you've got to find this Channel today

not sure where we are

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holy [ __ ] let's go it's clearing

holy smokes

yeah that's so sick dude this is a sick

place

wow look at the face

this is the first time anyone's ever

seen this

this was like the Lost Temple of Doom

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s

what we're trying to do now is picking a

route that actually allows us to get to

some good ice being a safe position and

also be able to get down

parts of the mountain are plastered in

snow which might be unconsolidated

trying to find a really the only safe

and possible line up this thing

the team hikes higher up the mountain

for a closer look at their potential

route

you're always hearing something falling

some ice falling off the sun its rocks

a boulder Crashing Down

yeah

it's a scary place to be for a long time

when the walls seem to be falling apart

is horrifying it's like a haunted house

up there as the heat of the day loosens

up the terrain above

they find themselves trapped beneath

major rockfall coming from up there

right here

holy [ __ ] [ __ ]

[ __ ] there's nothing we can do we gotta

stay here I see it coming

you see it yeah

holy [ __ ]

oh my God

[ __ ]

oh my God

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some of them came close yeah they did

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rattled by the unpredictable dangers

above

the team leaves their gear in a safe

accessible place

hoping that conditions improve enough

for them to return and climb

for now they descend to base camp to

reassess their options

this unstable deadly mount

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trying all day to find a freaking line

up that wall

we trained we plotted we flew here we

hiked in and now is this going to be a

total wash are we just going to spend 28

days not climbing anything

the hard part is knowing if it really is

a shutdown there can be doubt that just

filters into every freaking move

all right

Johnny and I both have been caught in

pretty bad situations

so we're cautious we know what can

happen and we don't want it to here

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I've been in two Avalanches personally

I don't want to get caught in another

Avalanche

we've had a couple times in this trip

where where we've just looked at each

other and thought I don't know I don't

know where we're going to go from here

we're pretty much sealed out from this

East face of Mount Edgar

you know we don't want a 50 50 chance of

dying that's definitely not a manageable

number

here in base camp these massive Boulders

came down compact car size Boulders

listening to all this massive Rock fall

come down

oh man we got [ __ ] fried I didn't

sleep good last night either

seems that the east facing Mount Edgar

didn't want us to climb it right now

very much at least not without more risk

then we're willing to put out with

conditions deteriorating

they make the painful decision to give

up on climbing Mount Edgar

abandoning their long-held dream

well I want to keep doing these things

and I want to keep pushing myself harder

and harder and harder

but just this knowing that you're not

Invincible that you're knowing that [ __ ]

can happen I'm really excited to get

after it and be here in the mountains

and climb something

um but we need to be safe

hopefully we can get our gear back

on the morning of May 20th

Johnny cop Micah Dash and cameraman Wade

Johnson hike up the gullies to retrieve

their gear and perhaps get a day of

climbing on a smaller objective

they leave in the cold early morning to

minimize the risk of rockfall and

avalanches any last minute supplies are

forgetting no let's go

three American climbers missing in China

three men were last heard from May 20th

at the base camp of Mount Edgar they had

hoped to reach the peak of nearly 25 000

feet above sea level

so it's been snowing every day

something's very wrong Dewey Wade should

have come down by now there's just no

reason he shouldn't have come down

unless something is very very wrong when

these guys were late reporting and from

China that's when the alarm Bells went

off because those guys came down we

quickly put together a search and rescue

effort

climbers from here in Boulder friends of

Johnny and Micah and Wade who were

volunteering to go over there to China

when we first heard that those guys were

missing we knew we were going to China

they're they're our family

we were going there to try to bring our

friends home but by the time the

rescuers were able to make it to China

terrible news had already arrived

for approximately an hour or so out of a

base camp and if you look here there's a

ski pool sticking out of the snow

looks like they were going up

got memory cards from this camera

in the early morning hours of May 20th

as the team hikes up to their Advanced

Camp to retrieve their gear and go home

massive Avalanche Cuts loose high above

them

devastating everything in its path

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Micah Johnny and Wade are killed

instantly

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we were able to recover Johnny and

Wade's body unfortunately Micah's body

was never found Micah you know he lived

his life for for that kind of mountain

he's there forever now

we had a farewell ceremony this Band of

Brothers that went over there to bring

their friends home

this one's just us and the boys we all

got some special special things

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symbol of the continuation of Life

Micah's name means strength and courage

Johnny I love you like a brother Wade

Johnson

just an amazing human being

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[Applause]

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so what we're going to do is we're going

to have a moment of exuberant screaming

frenzy screaming and clapping can you do

this for me people

[Applause]

oh man

but today I say goodbye

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tell me

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and to stay and then to go

tornadoes in the snow they blow you away

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I'm already

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