Original subtitles

[Music]

[Applause]

At the far end of the earth, the rugged

peaks of Patagonia have drawn three

friends to attempt an epic first

descent. A thousand ft. No one's ever

climbed its biggest face. But there's

more at stake than just another alpine

trophy. I wanted to leave some of her

ashes at the top of a peak. To fulfill a

promise to a fallen comrade, they face

the dangers on the mountain and the

struggles within. Stanley's been up and

down a lot. Felt like I was chasing her

ghost around. Mangled my fingers. Crazy

stuff. Crazy stuff.

[Music]

Woo! That first set.

[Laughter]

My name is Shawn Larry. Some folks call

me Stanley. Like being outside um doing

adventures and that sort of thing. All

right. Sha Stanley Liry is a worldclass

rock climber whose love for the

mountains was matched only by his love

for a woman, Brazilian climber Roberta

Nunes.

Roberta and Stanley fell really madly in

love. They were soulmates.

Roberta and Stanley are both worldass

climbers, some of the best in the

community.

Roberta was just one of the most soulful

climbers that I've ever met and one of

the most famous climbers, if not the

most famous climber in Brazil. She was a

huge part of our community. Was a really

big inspiration to pretty much anybody

that loved the mountains.

Roberto and I. Yeah, I guess you could

call this boyfriend and girlfriend, but

we're also very, very best friends.

They're having all these incredible

climbing adventures. They travel the

world climbing First Descents.

He just had found someone he could spend

the rest of his life

with it was taken away from him pretty

abruptly in the peak of it all. We were

driving out to Utah. Roberto had just

gotten her driver's

license and

um went off the road and

uh car rolled and she died in Stanley's

arms.

When she passed away, the whole bottom

came out of Stanley's life. I've never

seen someone just

so beat down by life, so devastated as

Stanley was. The world smacked him down

pretty hard.

In the months after Roberto died, I

needed something new that would take my

mind into a different

spot. So, I began uh base jumping. I was

pretty nervous about it. I was like,

man, someone who's like so close to not

really caring if he dies, you know, like

this is the last thing he needs to do.

It's a decision. You throw yourself off

of 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 shoot out

and save your life. It seems like

she said keep your eyes

[Music]

wide open.

I think just a couple days before she

died, they had this really strange

conversation about death. Roberta asked

me what I would do if she died because

it's a reality. They're both climbers

pushing their limits. and she said, "You

know, I would like to be cremated and I

would like some of my ashes to be left

in Patagonia in southern Argentina,

which is where her favorite mountains

are.

I said, "I promise you if that happens,

I'll do it." To a lot of us, climbing is

not just a sport, but a spiritual

practice. And having your ashes be

spread in that environment is a really

important thing.

For the last year, it's been just too

difficult for him to go back to these

places where he shared these special

times in his life with this person he

loved so much.

It's been 2 and 1/2 years since she

died. And I keep coming back to that

conversation. I feel like it's time to

take care of those promises. Now,

Stanley is headed for South America with

two of his closest friends. Yo yo yo, my

name is Cedar Wright. I'm just addicted

to adventure and world travel. I'm Renan

Osterk, climber and artist. Pack the big

art canvases. Pretty excited to be

heading down to South America with two

of my best friends in the world. The

team will attempt to pioneer a new

climbing route and grant Roberta's final

wish. This expedition is to fulfill a

promise to Roberta to climb the first

descent in her honor and scatter her

ashes in the mountains that she loved.

We're going to go to these two places

that were so special for them. We'll be

going to Brazil, visiting Robera's

family, and from there traveling down to

the southern tip of South America to

explore the amazing potential for First

Descent. We hope to scatter her ashes

among those craggy peaks. Leave a little

bit of Roberta there to fly away with

the wind.

[Music]

contain phen.

[Music]

[Music]

Yeah, we're in Rio. It's good to finally

be here. When you step off the plane in

Brazil, it's like you're transported

into another world.

I wanted to to reconnect with some of

Robera's family and friends.

When we got there, there was a huge

gathering of climbers.

So many women inspired by Roberta.

Roberto is a really inspiration for the

womans who climbed here cuz we we knew

her very well. Here we have many photos

of

Alberta. She's one person that really

lived all the moments. She's part of

this place and this these people.

For Stanley down here, it's about coming

to terms with what happened in that

accident and letting go and touching

base with all these, you know, people

that were a part of Robera's life and a

part of his life. It was great to be

able to spend time with Roberto's sister

whose name is Glacier.

[Music]

[Music]

It was good to see all the friends, but

I started to miss Roberta even

more. I cried a lot. I expected to see

her at any second. just like sort of

felt like I was chasing her ghost around

a little

bit. board.

[Music]

Been lucky enough to have some local

climbers show us around to some of these

amazing crags here in the in the jungle.

The climbing here is definitely world

class.

[Applause]

Yeah,

when you get up above the jungle a

little bit, you can have these sprawling

cityscapes. Before heading south to

Patagonia, the boys have one more

mission inspired by Roberta.

[Music]

Our friend Hugo is a local slackline

guru. It was actually Hobeta Nunes who

introduced me to slack line and she was

super in to teach everybody about slack

line, showing a new sport.

Slack lining is a sport climbers have

picked up as a way to pass time and work

on the balance. When the climbers they

started doing slack line, they realized

that it would be a lot of fun try to

slack line in a high

place. That's a high

[Music]

line. Of course, Roberto would have

definitely been there and really felt

her energy strongly out there.

The wind and the clouds at the highline

were moving extremely fast. You couldn't

really see what was coming at you.

On a basic cellular level, when you look

down at the gap below, you're saying

don't do it.

You got to force all these fears out of

your mind to be able to even make

yourself take a step on the line. The

wind was howling through the notch and

the line was vibrating.

It's an exercise in

balance and mental stability.

No. Really to walk a highline is about

shutting off all those instincts and

just going with the moment and

propelling yourself out onto the line.

Oh, it was like we were walking on the

clouds. Woo! Been awesome trip here to

Brazil, but it's time to move on. We

still have our mission to fulfill in the

mountains of Patagonia.

In in 2006, Roberto and I had a um very

cool adventure.

We began in Brazil in Kuricha near her

home and we drove all the way to El

Shelan and went climbing. This trip is

in the spirit of that. I think the

Brazil to Patagonia link

upon the Patagonia is incredibly special

for Roberto. It was her spiritual home.

And these peaks helped shape the person

that she

became. Obviously, Roberta is not with

us, but it's in her memory, and we're

carrying her ashes down here.

Driving through the Pompus, which is

this arid desert. This is definitely one

of the most beautiful places on Earth.

It's the edge of a continent where like

the oceans come

together. It seems like it could be the

end of this world and start of another.

Really excited to end our journey in

those craggy peaks.

Preparing for their first descent bid,

the climbers hunker down in the village

of

Elchalen, which is protected from the

mountain storms above. So down here in

Chaen, the weather's kind of okay, but

you look up in the mountains and you can

see it's a totally different story. The

clouds are just pummeling the peaks. Our

uh contact down here in South America is

being Bowers. He's just kind of a legend

down in these parts. So I've been in and

out of Patagonia for 16 years. The

weather here is a shutter downer. You

can come and never find a climbable day

in 3 to 5 weeks. As the storms rage in

the mountains, time has passed climbing

on boulders around town. Patagonia has

some of the best rock in the world. And

that that also includes the boulders

that are below the big giant

[Music]

spires. That's it. You did it.

[Music]

Stanley's been up and down a lot in his

emotions. Sometimes when we're all out

bouldering, he'll just be off on his

own. You can see that he's contemplating

all these things. For me, I find a bit

of sadness here. I miss Robera. I miss

her being a part of it.

[Music]

It makes me feel a bit

restless. But when the weather clears, I

think we'll all be pretty ready to just

charge up into the mountains and go

climbing.

Hell, man. I mean, it is the center of

hell. This is like the perfect storm.

Everything from the 40th parallel south

is compressed low pressure with huge

amounts of moisture.

Yikes. You guys are here for the storm

of the century. You arrived just in time

to witness the worst weather on Earth.

We basically have a week left and the

weather is just getting worse. There's a

chance we might not get to climb at all.

It's It's kind of grim at this point.

Now we're just down here at the end of

the earth at the end of our patience

hoping to get something in. The universe

is like forcing us to really confront

the grim side of things right now. First

this loss and then coming down here with

these really good intentions and maybe

not being able to fulfill them is that's

like really difficult

right now. I don't know really if

spirits are are super high. I've been

trying to paint a canvas and I can't

even keep it on the ground. The wind and

rain is so intense.

We've been checking the weather, cross

referencing all these websites. It's

still pretty unpredictable,

but we're ready to charge and give it a

shot no matter what the conditions at

this point.

This is our last chance to fulfill the

mission. Get up there and try to release

Roberta's ashes into the mountains.

It's pretty much go

[Music]

time. It's good that the weather windows

do happen because you need to get out of

town and get into the mountains and sort

of realize like what we're all about

here.

Have you seen one? The words cut open

your mailbox. Blood flies dip and dry

each time.

[Music]

There's something living in these.

Pretty much everything is pretty coated

in rhyme ice. All the cracks iced up.

Weather did open up and it looked like

we were only going to get a day. And so

we looked around at what was dry. A

mochito is about a thousand feet. As far

as we know, no one's ever climbed its

biggest face. Looking for a path, a

weakness up the rock. Something that's

going to allow you to, you know, get

your hands and feet in there and climb

it. Seated up for war. Lower. Slow.

Perfect for a hard first descent. Keep

lowering. Slow.

Nature of climbing in the mountains is

dealing with the unknown.

Nice lead, Renon. Sick.

Stanley's heading up this dihedral on an

arette.

It looks like it'll be a really cool

achievement if we can pull it off.

You know, climbing up here in Patagonia

is serious business. The rock is virgin.

It can be very loose at times. Sometimes

you're cleaning huge blocks off.

[Applause]

You never know what's going to be up

there. You're running it out, risking

these huge

falls. And on top of that, the weather

is totally volatile and it can come in

at any moment. So, you're always racing

against the clock.

[Music]

That's pretty much the ultimate game to

climb. First descents with close

friends.

[Music]

Climbing was uh was really challenging

in spots. If I blew it, I was going to

take potentially a leg breaking fall.

I really had to dig deep and give

her. often.

Yeah, it was a really cool experience to

be up there on this amazing first

descent in the mountains. That's what we

live for. Finally, at the end of the

day, here we are almost at the top, so

it's going to be epic. Kind of ash

beater probably. It's getting dark.

We're not at the top, but we're

climbing. Cedar and Renon did some

really proud leads well into the night.

We uh got benited and I just ripped off

a big chunk. took probably like a 15 20

foot

fall and just mangled my fingers. It's

still bleeding through the tape and my

hands are are shaking. Yeah, crazy

stuff. Crazy stuff.

Woo! We did persevere and we made it to

the top. We established a first

descent. It was really awesome. After

all that waiting,

the next morning we were super worked,

Ren and I especially, but uh Stanley had

uh one final mission that he wanted to

[Music]

complete. Stanley got up and felt like

he had some business to take care of and

started up the rock even higher than we

had climbed before.

[Music]

It's been 2 and 1/2 years since she

died, and I feel like it's time to take

care of those

promises, to release her ashes down

here, and for Roberta to fly with the

wind up there in the mountains.

I uh wanted to leave some of her ashes

at the top of a

peak. But then I had a better idea. I

could put the ashes inside my parachute.

[Music]

After Roberto died, I began bass jumping

because it felt like a release.

[Music]

feel like I've been holding these things

inside, holding her close, hoping she

comes back. But in a way, I think that

maybe releasing her is sort of the best

way for her to come back.

[Music]

It's just quiet and as white as a sheet.

I want to live in the

sea. Going out in the tides retreat.

When I opened my parachute, her ashes

flew into the sky and scattered to the

wind.

[Music]

I feel that's what she truly would have

wanted to be released to the sky to let

the wind carry her to the mountains that

she loves so much.

[Music]

you were flying with the contour gear.

It It's really amazing now looking at

how everything worked out cuz we were

all in such a shadow of gloom and doubt

and bad weather and then somehow in the

last days of our time here in Patagonia,

everything fell together and we got our

first descent and we got Stanley flying

in the mountains. It was just one of

those magical moments. I think Roberta

would have been really happy, you know.

I think she was smiling on

us. Sometimes life is

[Music]

kind. We called the first descent no bad

weather. No bad weather was definitely

Roberto's approach to life. There's no

bad weather. It's all your attitude.

We got back to town just in time to

catch Bean's wedding.

[Applause]

And despite all of the the heartbreak

and the tragedy, love goes on down here

in Patagonia.

I've gone from intense longing and an

intense missing of Roberta to gladness

and euphoria and like newfound

friendship. And it's been a very

beautiful experience, sort of a

confusing one. I think it's going to

take a while to sort out what really

went down here. It seems to me to be a

more profound release than I could have

even imagined.

Moving

on. What I give just to hold you

tight or for one more starry night, but

you are

gone. Moving on, moving on, moving

[Music]

on. And there's my moon is shining high

[Music]

above. Giving to the feeling within when

the push comes to show.