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Most people have never heard of
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the Great Gorge in the Shadow of Denali,
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00:03:03,475 --> 00:03:06,061
but we keep coming back
here year after year.
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In the lower 48, everything's really busy,
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people moving around,
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running off to their
jobs or responsibilities.
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You're in a world that's white and black,
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sometimes golden rock.
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And that's about it.
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It's a pretty special place.
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You know, usually you go somewhere
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and there's one, two truly
inspiring world-class peaks.
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And this, this gorge is just full of them.
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It's always been
just kind of below the radar
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because the climbs are
all really challenging.
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It's not the place you come
to bag some easy ascents.
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It's more of a place, you know,
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for people who don't mind failing
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and kind of like to
like to flog themselves.
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Like the beat down.
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14 Hours in.
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And yeah, there's a lot of rock up there.
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For young climbers who are out there
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seeking adventures,
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and little swaths of mountain
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to explore where nobody's been,
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the big challenge is like finding
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any blank spots that are left.
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When you do discover a big climb,
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that's never been done,
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it kind of feels like falling in love.
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Who knows why some
ideas spark into obsessions,
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but this one took seven years,
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and it all started with a
black and white photograph.
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Anzel Adams wrote,
"you recognize the explorer
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in Bradford Washburn at first sight.
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There's something about the
eyes, the set of the chin,
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not fierce, just determined.
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He doesn't immediately remind
on of the vast bulk of Denali,
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but he has in fact conquered
this extraordinary mountain
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00:06:06,908 --> 00:06:08,692
three times.
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00:06:08,702 --> 00:06:11,788
Not only Denali has
commanded his eye and heart,
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00:06:11,830 --> 00:06:16,616
the Grand Canyon, the great
peaks of the Western Yukon
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and the Himalaya have all come under
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his acquiring attention
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and the well-directed eye of his camera."
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Brad didn't have many mentors himself.
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He was too much his own
man, too self-taught.
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00:06:35,979 --> 00:06:38,763
But, photographically,
the great influence on him
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was Vittorio Sella.
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00:06:41,902 --> 00:06:46,313
Sella's dictum was big
subjects need big photographs.
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Brad would quote this all the time.
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Use big negatives to take big subjects.
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There's nothing like Mount
McKinley or any one of the great
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peaks of Alaska when photographed
with a camera like this.
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00:07:00,378 --> 00:07:02,537
One of his favorite
cameras in the early days was a
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Fairchild camera.
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Something that was really
developed for flying over cities
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00:07:10,847 --> 00:07:13,840
and mapping them for wartime,
military reconnaissance.
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00:07:13,850 --> 00:07:16,092
And these large cameras were very heavy,
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very hard to use, all manual.
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The crank would advance the film
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and also set the shutter.
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They would put it in and it would go.
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00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:30,565
And I want to show you
the size of the spool of
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the film we've got in here.
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00:07:31,701 --> 00:07:35,779
Now this takes a 125 eight by ten
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00:07:35,789 --> 00:07:39,783
inch pictures in a single roll.
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00:07:39,793 --> 00:07:41,952
I will take this out and show you it
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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 --> 00:07:56,800
But what Brad realized that almost no one
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before had been able to figure
out how to solve was that
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00:08:00,897 --> 00:08:03,848
when you look at a big
mountain from the base, well,
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00:08:03,858 --> 00:08:05,850
it looks like four fifths of the way up is
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00:08:05,860 --> 00:08:07,195
actually only halfway up.
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00:08:08,405 --> 00:08:11,648
If you get up in an airplane
and see it from mid height,
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00:08:11,658 --> 00:08:14,526
you're getting a God's eye view of the peak
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00:08:14,536 --> 00:08:15,662
as it really looks.
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00:08:18,707 --> 00:08:21,992
We all know Ansel Adams'
famous picture of Denali from
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Wonder Lake,
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but in Brad's pictures, you
see that same face from midair.
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And it's so much more stunning.
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00:08:42,647 --> 00:08:47,267
One year I got a
book of Bradford Washburn's,
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and as I looked at it,
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I had that sense of beginning all over that
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I didn't really know anything.
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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.
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00:09:05,670 --> 00:09:09,591
Brad takes something
colossal and makes it human.
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00:09:14,888 --> 00:09:16,713
He's the greatest
aerial mountain photographer
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00:09:16,723 --> 00:09:18,683
of all time bar none.
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00:09:20,310 --> 00:09:22,552
I can talk to the pilot and say,
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00:09:22,562 --> 00:09:24,773
get that left wing a little higher.
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00:09:25,940 --> 00:09:27,724
Now, pull back your stick.
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00:09:27,734 --> 00:09:30,143
And in that way, the pilot is framing
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the picture of shoot me rather
than they trying to play
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around with it, with the camera.
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When I can I like to get a little figure in
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to give some idea of the
magnitude of the scene.
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00:09:52,467 --> 00:09:55,251
You look at this
colossal landscape and suddenly
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00:09:55,261 --> 00:09:56,669
you realize down in the corner,
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there are two tiny little figures.
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00:10:00,934 --> 00:10:03,384
He knew that you
couldn't really appreciate this,
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00:10:03,394 --> 00:10:08,139
large landscape until you
had scale or to sort of give
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00:10:08,149 --> 00:10:11,101
people that just visceral feeling
of being in the middle of
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this vast wilderness.
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00:10:35,677 --> 00:10:37,252
He knew the mountains
through a mountaineer's
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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 --> 00:10:48,179
But do you think he devoted himself to the
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printing, making beautiful prints?
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No, he was happy with an eight
by 10 contact and he could
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00:10:55,196 --> 00:10:59,274
draw on it so he could show
climbers, Hey, try this.
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This could be a first descent.
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00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,988
Before Brad got on
the scene in the early 1930s,
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the Alaska range had had a
handful of monumental ascents
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but all the other peaks were unclimbed.
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He was like, my God,
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00:11:15,758 --> 00:11:17,969
let's go get them before
somebody else does.
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00:11:20,263 --> 00:11:23,798
In a way, we were
lucky to be able to go into
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that wilderness and be the
first people to see it.
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Those were experiences that people
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are very rare to have nowadays.
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00:11:41,534 --> 00:11:44,110
I was going up to Alaska every spring,
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working as a guide on Denali.
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00:11:49,292 --> 00:11:51,868
And on days off in Talkeetna,
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00:11:51,878 --> 00:11:55,038
I'd go down to the ranger station
where they have this great
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resource of old Brad Washburn photos.
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Just looking for inspiration
for something new to climb.
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00:12:08,102 --> 00:12:09,053
And for some reason,
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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 --> 00:12:18,353
The Moose's Tooth is known
as this iconic complex peak
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that's the centerpiece of the Great Gorge.
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00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:25,568
It's less of a singular mountain
and more like a jawbone of
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many interconnected spiky teeth.
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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 --> 00:12:49,300
Spring of 2009,
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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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And one night after a few beers,
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I let my secret slip
about the Tooth Traverse.
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It was certainly one of
the most creative lines
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I'd ever seen.
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It's a type of climb where you're
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climbing on a skyline the entire time.
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It's like you're always on a summit.
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Later that spring,
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we all sort of went our separate ways.
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I went home to New Hampshire.
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Micah left on an expedition to China.
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Probably snowing at midnight or so.
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It's about five now,
just kind of hanging out
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in this pretty sick location.
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00:13:54,250 --> 00:13:58,536
And Renan and Zack were
about to leave for Alaska.
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When one day we got this phone call.
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The bodies of our friends in
China and just been found.
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My life is completely
driven by the mountains.
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And it's given me some
of the best experiences,
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but also the worst and probably the time
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00:14:25,615 --> 00:14:31,621
where it hit hardest on that
negative side was when we got
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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 --> 00:14:42,914
Micah held my hand and brought me
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into the climbing community.
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00:14:48,930 --> 00:14:50,922
And to lose someone that close to you
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is something that affects you deeply.
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But in the face of that,
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Zack and I still decided
to go to the Ruth Gorge.
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00:15:07,949 --> 00:15:12,954
We left just a few days after
the memorial ceremony and went
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00:15:13,037 --> 00:15:15,498
into the mountains, not
knowing what we would do.
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It's super counter intuitive
to have your best friends die
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and then head straight into
the mountains and do something
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equally as dangerous.
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But after a certain amount of time
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for us, it was just healthy to
go to a space that was quiet
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and beautiful, where we could
process our own thoughts.
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It took a few days,
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but eventually the mountains
pulled us in and we were there
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and we decided to go test ourselves.
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We look over at the Tooth Traverse,
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00:16:02,962 --> 00:16:05,590
which our friend Freddie had told us about.
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00:16:08,050 --> 00:16:11,804
And it became obvious that
that was the objective.
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There was no planning.
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00:16:17,393 --> 00:16:18,978
Our head space was fucked.
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00:16:20,188 --> 00:16:24,233
We pretty much just tried it on a whim.
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00:16:29,113 --> 00:16:33,910
So the climb begins to express a gap.
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Nice job, dude.
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Pretty sweet, woo!
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We were so unprepared
that we were extremely light
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00:16:52,595 --> 00:16:55,254
and the conditions were
really, really warm.
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And that allowed us to make
it really far, really fast.
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00:17:00,269 --> 00:17:01,269
Anyone.
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00:17:02,146 --> 00:17:04,805
You're able to make it past the big corner
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00:17:04,815 --> 00:17:07,235
sections of the eye tooth very quickly.
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00:17:08,194 --> 00:17:12,313
We made it all the way up
until that unknown unclimbed
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section between the missing
tooth and the bear's tooth.
202
00:17:21,499 --> 00:17:25,451
We hit that section after we
basically sat and shivered
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00:17:25,461 --> 00:17:27,630
the night on a small ledge.
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00:17:29,799 --> 00:17:33,000
It was a long night for a place
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00:17:33,010 --> 00:17:34,303
that doesn't get dark.
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00:17:38,432 --> 00:17:40,591
When we got up in the morning,
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00:17:40,601 --> 00:17:44,355
it was clear that neither one
of us was really feeling it.
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00:17:48,568 --> 00:17:50,361
What's the deal with that guy?
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00:17:51,404 --> 00:17:56,409
This guy right here
is off of Micah's chess set.
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00:17:56,951 --> 00:17:59,662
We spent a lot of time playing and
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00:18:01,956 --> 00:18:06,961
that chess set went to China and came back.
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00:18:09,755 --> 00:18:12,456
Came back to us.
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00:18:12,466 --> 00:18:15,386
If you look, it kinda looks like him.
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00:18:16,304 --> 00:18:19,181
The big nose, beady eyes full of attention.
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00:18:22,143 --> 00:18:25,771
So just a nice little piece to bring along.
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00:18:28,774 --> 00:18:32,320
Little piece of Micah right there
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00:18:33,613 --> 00:18:34,655
looking after us.
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00:18:39,452 --> 00:18:40,452
It's perfect, huh?
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00:18:42,079 --> 00:18:43,446
I'm really glad we have it.
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00:18:43,456 --> 00:18:44,456
Yeah!
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00:18:47,668 --> 00:18:50,244
We had just come from
the funeral with hundreds of
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00:18:50,254 --> 00:18:52,381
people in the community weeping,
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00:18:54,342 --> 00:18:56,834
and you have to push it
on some of those climbs.
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00:18:56,844 --> 00:18:58,554
It's just how it goes.
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00:19:00,014 --> 00:19:04,342
But for the sake of the
community and for the sake of our
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00:19:04,352 --> 00:19:06,010
friends and family,
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00:19:06,020 --> 00:19:09,857
it just wasn't the time to take
another one of those risks.
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00:19:14,820 --> 00:19:16,187
As soon as we got down,
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00:19:16,197 --> 00:19:18,032
we knew we had to contact Freddie
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00:19:19,116 --> 00:19:22,318
because he's the one who saw
the line on Washburn's photo
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00:19:22,328 --> 00:19:23,454
in the first place.
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00:19:51,357 --> 00:19:53,599
At the end of 2009,
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00:19:53,609 --> 00:19:56,529
I was trying to simultaneously
be a climbing guide,
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00:19:58,572 --> 00:20:02,952
a freelance writer and
good partner to Janet.
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00:20:09,458 --> 00:20:13,087
We were living in this small
12 by 12 cabin we built.
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00:20:14,171 --> 00:20:17,540
We chose to live that way
without a flushing toilet or a
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00:20:17,550 --> 00:20:19,593
shower or even a closet.
238
00:20:23,472 --> 00:20:26,882
But we did have this incredible
freedom to pack up and leave
239
00:20:26,892 --> 00:20:29,270
for a three month expedition if we wanted.
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00:20:36,569 --> 00:20:39,905
Then one day I got an
email from Renan and Zack
241
00:20:40,865 --> 00:20:43,524
and lo and behold, they had gone and tried
242
00:20:43,534 --> 00:20:44,869
the Tooth Traverse.
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00:20:49,206 --> 00:20:52,501
I wasn't upset or wronged.
244
00:20:54,211 --> 00:20:55,838
Nobody owns these mountains.
245
00:20:56,881 --> 00:20:59,665
But I would have been
disappointed if they had just
246
00:20:59,675 --> 00:21:01,677
walked up to the climb and done it.
247
00:21:03,304 --> 00:21:04,503
At the same time,
248
00:21:04,513 --> 00:21:07,016
it didn't surprise me at
all that they had failed.
249
00:21:11,103 --> 00:21:13,679
The Tooth Traverse is a big,
big route to piece together.
250
00:21:13,689 --> 00:21:18,694
And it has a lot of snow climbing
and steep ridge traverses.
251
00:21:22,114 --> 00:21:25,618
And that sort of climbing
suits my strengths.
252
00:21:28,871 --> 00:21:32,072
So the more we talked about
it, the more it was obvious,
253
00:21:32,082 --> 00:21:33,866
we should just go up
there the next spring and
254
00:21:33,876 --> 00:21:35,669
give it a try as a team of three.
255
00:21:40,424 --> 00:21:43,417
At the time, I didn't know
much about Brad Washburn
256
00:21:43,427 --> 00:21:44,804
beyond the photos,
257
00:21:46,096 --> 00:21:48,422
but the more I got psyched on the climb,
258
00:21:48,432 --> 00:21:51,217
the more I became fascinated by his story.
259
00:21:51,227 --> 00:21:54,146
And it began right here in the
mountains of New Hampshire.
260
00:21:55,064 --> 00:21:57,264
For the first 10 years of my life,
261
00:21:57,274 --> 00:21:59,985
I had perfectly terrible hay fever.
262
00:22:01,195 --> 00:22:04,230
And I've had a cousin who
took me up to the top of Mount
263
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:08,359
Washington, the summer of 1921,
264
00:22:08,369 --> 00:22:10,569
which got me immediately
interested in climbing.
265
00:22:10,579 --> 00:22:12,196
Because every time I went
on a trail up a mountain,
266
00:22:12,206 --> 00:22:13,791
there was no hay fever.
267
00:22:15,209 --> 00:22:18,285
He had a loving family
that encouraged exploration
268
00:22:18,295 --> 00:22:20,339
of the mind and the physical exploration.
269
00:22:21,507 --> 00:22:23,123
They came from some wealth.
270
00:22:23,133 --> 00:22:26,043
So they had a summer home
up in the white mountains.
271
00:22:26,053 --> 00:22:28,546
You had a mother who gave to her young son,
272
00:22:28,556 --> 00:22:31,308
a small little pocket
camera where he learned,
273
00:22:31,350 --> 00:22:33,185
self-learned had to take photographs.
274
00:22:34,645 --> 00:22:36,011
When he was in the white mountains,
275
00:22:36,021 --> 00:22:39,191
he was making hand drawn
maps of Squam Lake.
276
00:22:40,109 --> 00:22:42,361
So you have this affinity for cartography.
277
00:22:45,698 --> 00:22:49,316
Years later, Alaska
combined all of his talents
278
00:22:49,326 --> 00:22:50,327
with opportunities.
279
00:22:51,912 --> 00:22:55,739
My first trip to Alaska was 1930,
280
00:22:55,749 --> 00:22:58,492
we organized during my freshman year,
281
00:22:58,502 --> 00:23:00,337
we wanted to climb Mount Fair weather.
282
00:23:05,885 --> 00:23:08,304
He had the tremendous fear of failure.
283
00:23:09,555 --> 00:23:12,423
The only two failures among
his expeditions were his first
284
00:23:12,433 --> 00:23:14,518
three, the Fair weather and Crillon.
285
00:23:17,563 --> 00:23:20,472
Every time after that,
he got to the summit.
286
00:23:20,482 --> 00:23:23,392
And those early failures really fueled
287
00:23:23,402 --> 00:23:26,655
his perfectionism and his high achieving.
288
00:23:29,533 --> 00:23:31,984
The map that they had of the region
289
00:23:31,994 --> 00:23:34,904
was woefully under
representing the landscape.
290
00:23:34,914 --> 00:23:37,291
It almost told you nothing.
291
00:23:45,341 --> 00:23:48,834
When I read the early
accounts of exploration,
292
00:23:48,844 --> 00:23:52,139
all I can think about is a
circus act without a net.
293
00:23:53,807 --> 00:23:55,935
There was no one to come save them.
294
00:23:56,936 --> 00:23:59,929
Many of these early exhibitions used horses
295
00:23:59,939 --> 00:24:01,555
for packing your gear in.
296
00:24:01,565 --> 00:24:05,601
The bugs were just eating
the men and horses alive.
297
00:24:05,611 --> 00:24:09,615
The rivers were cold,
swift, full of glacier silt.
298
00:24:12,284 --> 00:24:13,859
From a geographic standpoint,
299
00:24:13,869 --> 00:24:16,789
Alaska was this unknown territory.
300
00:24:18,082 --> 00:24:20,824
But Brad's use of the airplane
transformed it because
301
00:24:20,834 --> 00:24:22,076
to be up in the air,
302
00:24:22,086 --> 00:24:24,036
it allowed him to take the photographs,
303
00:24:24,046 --> 00:24:26,382
but he'd also used those
photos to create maps.
304
00:24:31,387 --> 00:24:33,128
He was able to correlate with the
305
00:24:33,138 --> 00:24:36,966
aerial photography, very
accurately the position of
306
00:24:36,976 --> 00:24:40,521
everything in the range,
including the Ruth Gorge.
307
00:24:41,563 --> 00:24:44,608
And the range comes alive in his map.
308
00:24:50,364 --> 00:24:52,449
When you think about exploration,
309
00:24:53,409 --> 00:24:56,318
it all comes down to logistics.
310
00:24:56,328 --> 00:24:57,987
With the advent of the aircraft,
311
00:24:57,997 --> 00:25:01,073
suddenly you had a perspective
where you could see
312
00:25:01,083 --> 00:25:04,201
over that next hill, you could
see over that next range.
313
00:25:04,211 --> 00:25:07,204
You can map out large
distances because you could see
314
00:25:07,214 --> 00:25:08,424
hundreds of miles.
315
00:25:09,925 --> 00:25:14,336
Brad was always looking at
aviation technology and how he
316
00:25:14,346 --> 00:25:19,351
could leverage that to get a
better view of the mountains
317
00:25:19,643 --> 00:25:22,886
and whether it was for route
finding or whether it was for
318
00:25:22,896 --> 00:25:25,472
beauty or whether it was for cartography.
319
00:25:25,482 --> 00:25:28,819
And he took advantage of the
next aircraft, the next camera.
320
00:25:33,657 --> 00:25:36,442
When was the first time you felt like
321
00:25:36,452 --> 00:25:39,455
a real connection with the
device known as a camera?
322
00:25:43,292 --> 00:25:48,297
It was actually probably
pretty late in my life that I
323
00:25:48,589 --> 00:25:52,509
first felt a connection to a camera.
324
00:25:53,343 --> 00:25:55,335
You can't say it like that.
325
00:25:55,345 --> 00:25:58,630
That sounds like you have a-.
326
00:25:58,640 --> 00:25:59,466
Okay.
327
00:25:59,476 --> 00:26:01,727
Sexual relationship with the camera.
328
00:26:05,272 --> 00:26:06,305
I had the first-.
329
00:26:06,315 --> 00:26:07,347
Did you see that?
330
00:26:07,357 --> 00:26:12,362
The first time I fondled a
camera was probably in 2005.
331
00:26:26,627 --> 00:26:28,629
I was doing a lot of artwork.
332
00:26:31,215 --> 00:26:34,968
And then there came this point
where I realized you could
333
00:26:35,010 --> 00:26:37,429
reach a lot more people
shooting with cameras.
334
00:26:40,432 --> 00:26:43,759
Brad's photography taught me
that you could use these tiny
335
00:26:43,769 --> 00:26:46,178
human elements to convey the scale
336
00:26:46,188 --> 00:26:48,482
of these massive landscapes.
337
00:26:56,907 --> 00:26:59,024
On the first trip with Zack,
338
00:26:59,034 --> 00:27:02,528
we had cameras, but they were pretty basic.
339
00:27:02,538 --> 00:27:05,040
Just another day off at the tent.
340
00:27:07,584 --> 00:27:08,584
Mmm.
341
00:27:15,259 --> 00:27:17,835
I think I shot 87% of the thing
342
00:27:17,845 --> 00:27:19,596
on fish eye adapt or.
343
00:27:22,057 --> 00:27:25,217
I've since learned that it's
not the most professional way
344
00:27:25,227 --> 00:27:29,179
to shoot, but at the time
it looked pretty cool to me,
345
00:27:29,189 --> 00:27:31,441
kind of like old school skate videos.
346
00:27:47,374 --> 00:27:50,544
By the time of the second
attempt of the Tooth Traverse,
347
00:27:52,379 --> 00:27:54,872
all of our lives had evolved.
348
00:27:54,882 --> 00:27:57,759
Both Freddie and myself had gained sponsors
349
00:27:59,136 --> 00:28:01,263
and we became professional climbers.
350
00:28:03,432 --> 00:28:06,675
Freddie was a budding writer
who had just finished his first
351
00:28:06,685 --> 00:28:10,554
book and his work were starting
to get picked up by bigger
352
00:28:10,564 --> 00:28:12,107
and bigger publications.
353
00:28:13,066 --> 00:28:16,570
You want to grab the pot off
the stove for one sec, Zack?
354
00:28:18,739 --> 00:28:22,816
Zack in my mind, he was a
much more talented climber
355
00:28:22,826 --> 00:28:23,826
than we were,
356
00:28:24,828 --> 00:28:28,947
but he just didn't have
that gene of self promotion.
357
00:28:28,957 --> 00:28:32,618
And part of being a professional
climber in this day and age
358
00:28:32,628 --> 00:28:34,046
is how you tell stories.
359
00:28:36,298 --> 00:28:38,123
It seemed like overnight,
360
00:28:38,133 --> 00:28:42,794
everybody I knew became
a professional climber.
361
00:28:42,804 --> 00:28:46,173
It became harder for me to
find partners, ironically.
362
00:28:46,183 --> 00:28:48,050
There was always like, you
know, there had to be a
363
00:28:48,060 --> 00:28:50,928
photographer, there had to be, you know,
364
00:28:50,938 --> 00:28:53,764
some kind of spin to going out climbing.
365
00:28:53,774 --> 00:28:55,817
And I just wanted to keep going climbing.
366
00:28:58,320 --> 00:28:59,863
What are you thinking, Zack?
367
00:29:01,490 --> 00:29:04,650
Why we've come here for
the second year in a row
368
00:29:04,660 --> 00:29:07,027
to try this silly thing.
369
00:29:07,037 --> 00:29:08,320
It's been cute about it.
370
00:29:08,330 --> 00:29:13,335
Most days can get a little
obsessive like that,
371
00:29:13,418 --> 00:29:16,578
looking at pictures way too long.
372
00:29:16,588 --> 00:29:19,007
Maybe, maybe we'll get lucky.
373
00:29:29,393 --> 00:29:31,718
The crux of the
traverse would be the South face
374
00:29:31,728 --> 00:29:32,980
of the Moose's tooth.
375
00:29:33,855 --> 00:29:35,889
It's right in the middle of the traverse.
376
00:29:35,899 --> 00:29:38,183
And it's about a 2000 foot big wall.
377
00:29:38,193 --> 00:29:40,529
And it had never been climbed before.
378
00:29:43,407 --> 00:29:46,400
We decided to go and do a recon and try
379
00:29:46,410 --> 00:29:48,485
that section as it's
own first ascent to see
380
00:29:48,495 --> 00:29:50,747
if the full traverse was even possible.
381
00:29:54,209 --> 00:29:56,201
People in town had said, oh,
382
00:29:56,211 --> 00:29:58,870
that's a lost cause, it's been tried,
383
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,134
the rock just goes to shit
and it's hard to climb.
384
00:30:03,176 --> 00:30:06,138
So is the anchor a sign that
385
00:30:08,015 --> 00:30:11,758
someone's already tried this
way and failed?
386
00:30:11,768 --> 00:30:14,761
But whoever they were,
they weren't Zach Smith.
387
00:30:14,771 --> 00:30:17,097
We saw some fixed gear where
388
00:30:17,107 --> 00:30:18,734
people had bailed off of.
389
00:30:19,609 --> 00:30:23,061
People had decided it
wasn't worth the risk.
390
00:30:23,071 --> 00:30:27,024
Beautiful day in the gorge.
391
00:30:27,034 --> 00:30:29,526
The rock is so bad.
392
00:30:29,536 --> 00:30:31,538
You can just go like this with your hand
393
00:30:31,580 --> 00:30:34,624
and a whole sheet will fall off.
394
00:30:41,048 --> 00:30:46,011
There's Zack and there's Renan.
395
00:30:46,345 --> 00:30:48,962
This lead will probably
take a couple hours,
396
00:30:48,972 --> 00:30:50,891
see how Renan does with it.
397
00:30:53,977 --> 00:30:55,228
Rock fall, woohoo!
398
00:31:06,114 --> 00:31:07,114
Gnarly.
399
00:31:11,495 --> 00:31:12,495
They're okay.
400
00:31:13,580 --> 00:31:16,166
I'm just going to chill
here and hope for the best.
401
00:31:18,126 --> 00:31:20,420
Looking a little ugly,
turn that thing around.
402
00:31:22,339 --> 00:31:24,039
Tried to hold this pin,
403
00:31:24,049 --> 00:31:26,843
and I took a chunk out of my finger.
404
00:31:28,345 --> 00:31:29,295
How bad is it?
405
00:31:29,305 --> 00:31:31,463
It's not bad, it's just
like that whole right side.
406
00:31:31,473 --> 00:31:32,473
You see?
407
00:31:38,563 --> 00:31:41,556
Take it to the top, Freddie.
408
00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:42,567
Gonna try.
409
00:31:45,445 --> 00:31:46,445
Close.
410
00:31:58,208 --> 00:31:59,032
Is this it?
411
00:31:59,042 --> 00:31:59,866
This is it.
412
00:31:59,876 --> 00:32:00,701
We did it?
413
00:32:00,711 --> 00:32:01,868
We did it!
414
00:32:01,878 --> 00:32:04,287
Good day, got a summit.
415
00:32:04,297 --> 00:32:07,249
It's always a good day
when you get to the top.
416
00:32:07,259 --> 00:32:09,386
Not a bad first rope up.
417
00:32:10,762 --> 00:32:11,763
Sick!
418
00:32:14,224 --> 00:32:16,476
She goes, she goes!
419
00:32:17,727 --> 00:32:19,636
The big mystery is solved.
420
00:32:19,646 --> 00:32:22,232
The mystery is solved!
421
00:32:23,358 --> 00:32:25,809
When we get to the top of the Moose's Tooth
422
00:32:25,819 --> 00:32:27,352
and figured out that section,
423
00:32:27,362 --> 00:32:31,324
we had the confidence that the
entire traverse was possible.
424
00:32:33,493 --> 00:32:35,318
Get the boys.
425
00:32:35,328 --> 00:32:36,328
Yeah!
426
00:32:38,290 --> 00:32:41,032
Climbed the South face of the Moose's Tooth
427
00:32:41,042 --> 00:32:42,617
a couple days ago.
428
00:32:42,627 --> 00:32:45,255
And we're gonna go go try
the traverse tomorrow.
429
00:32:46,298 --> 00:32:49,259
Weather's just been splitter,
so we're pretty psyched.
430
00:32:55,557 --> 00:32:56,882
Getting the conditions right on
431
00:32:56,892 --> 00:32:59,144
the Tooth Traverse is really, really hard.
432
00:33:00,103 --> 00:33:02,846
If it's warm, like you
want for rock climbing,
433
00:33:02,856 --> 00:33:05,265
the snow conditions could be out of whack
434
00:33:05,275 --> 00:33:06,693
and totally shut you down.
435
00:33:07,652 --> 00:33:10,020
But then if the snow conditions are right,
436
00:33:10,030 --> 00:33:12,824
it's probably too cold for
the technical route climbing,
437
00:33:14,034 --> 00:33:16,234
and any single storm
could wipe out the route
438
00:33:16,244 --> 00:33:17,579
for the entire season.
439
00:33:20,207 --> 00:33:22,209
Something's always going to be bad.
440
00:33:29,674 --> 00:33:32,209
Funky weather.
441
00:33:32,219 --> 00:33:33,553
Lingering slowly.
442
00:33:35,514 --> 00:33:37,307
It is just fucking warm.
443
00:33:38,558 --> 00:33:39,559
Warm temps.
444
00:33:40,393 --> 00:33:43,647
It was splitter two hours ago.
445
00:33:47,192 --> 00:33:49,069
Pressure's dropped as well.
446
00:33:50,654 --> 00:33:53,532
We'll probably have a
restless night of sleep
447
00:33:54,533 --> 00:33:58,527
and wake up at two and see
what the conditions are
448
00:33:58,537 --> 00:33:59,996
and make a good decision.
449
00:34:05,919 --> 00:34:09,287
The worst part of
any climb is the anticipation.
450
00:34:09,297 --> 00:34:11,957
Every time you go up, you
know that you're committing to
451
00:34:11,967 --> 00:34:13,542
a life or death situation.
452
00:34:13,552 --> 00:34:16,086
So there's no way of avoiding that kind of
453
00:34:16,096 --> 00:34:17,430
psychological stress.
454
00:34:20,559 --> 00:34:23,812
We've all had close calls,
we've all lost friends.
455
00:34:24,813 --> 00:34:29,109
So any climb is jinxed by
self-doubt and self-criticism.
456
00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:32,904
Am I too soft, or is the mountain too hard?
457
00:34:34,155 --> 00:34:36,366
Often conditions aren't right.
458
00:34:37,534 --> 00:34:38,942
Partner problems, or, you know,
459
00:34:38,952 --> 00:34:41,037
the weather's bad or whatever.
460
00:34:44,583 --> 00:34:48,211
You gotta live today to climb tomorrow.
461
00:34:49,963 --> 00:34:51,496
Brad pushed, he took risks,
462
00:34:51,506 --> 00:34:54,124
but these were always calculated risks.
463
00:34:54,134 --> 00:34:55,625
When someone else said,
that's really stupid,
464
00:34:55,635 --> 00:34:57,043
you shouldn't do that.
465
00:34:57,053 --> 00:34:58,628
Brad would figure out a way to do it,
466
00:34:58,638 --> 00:35:00,015
but it would be calculated.
467
00:35:04,561 --> 00:35:08,388
In 1937, just months before Amelia Earhart
468
00:35:08,398 --> 00:35:11,151
tried to execute her
around the world flight,
469
00:35:12,861 --> 00:35:15,604
Earhart and her husband, George Put man,
470
00:35:15,614 --> 00:35:18,231
invited Brad down to White Plains and asked
471
00:35:18,241 --> 00:35:20,410
Brad's opinion about the logistics of it.
472
00:35:22,787 --> 00:35:24,205
She needed a navigator.
473
00:35:25,290 --> 00:35:27,616
Going to a place
unknown and doing something
474
00:35:27,626 --> 00:35:29,784
that no one else had done before.
475
00:35:29,794 --> 00:35:31,588
He very much wanted to do this.
476
00:35:33,423 --> 00:35:35,165
We chatted for a weekend.
477
00:35:35,175 --> 00:35:37,792
I remember, and we were going map over map
478
00:35:37,802 --> 00:35:39,220
and we got to How land Isle.
479
00:35:40,305 --> 00:35:42,349
It's all by itself.
480
00:35:42,390 --> 00:35:45,675
A mile and a quarter long
and a quarter of a mile wide,
481
00:35:45,685 --> 00:35:48,553
just a sliver out in the middle of nothing.
482
00:35:48,563 --> 00:35:51,348
I said, Amelia, you've
absolutely got to have a noise
483
00:35:51,358 --> 00:35:55,185
on a specific frequency
emanating from that island.
484
00:35:55,195 --> 00:35:57,228
Could be duh, duh, duh,
dah, duh, duh, duh, dah,
485
00:35:57,238 --> 00:35:58,798
duh, dit, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dit.
486
00:35:59,157 --> 00:36:01,993
And you hone on that as
you're getting close to it.
487
00:36:03,787 --> 00:36:06,321
Putnam and Earhart looked
at each other in dismay and
488
00:36:06,331 --> 00:36:07,906
Putnam, according to Brad said,
489
00:36:07,916 --> 00:36:09,616
then the book won't come out in time
490
00:36:09,626 --> 00:36:10,960
for the Christmas sales.
491
00:36:14,631 --> 00:36:15,997
And I said, I'm sorry,
492
00:36:16,007 --> 00:36:17,207
I don't want any part of that.
493
00:36:17,217 --> 00:36:18,927
I just don't think it makes sense.
494
00:36:24,933 --> 00:36:27,467
Amelia Earhart and her
navigator, Fred No on an,
495
00:36:27,477 --> 00:36:29,719
have come to grief in their perilous
496
00:36:29,729 --> 00:36:31,763
round the world flight.
497
00:36:31,773 --> 00:36:34,641
The two intrepid fliers
missed the tiny dot that is
498
00:36:34,651 --> 00:36:37,519
How land island in their 25
mile hop from New Guinea
499
00:36:37,529 --> 00:36:39,698
and were forced down by lack of fuel.
500
00:36:44,369 --> 00:36:47,737
The perfectionism was a virtue and a fault.
501
00:36:47,747 --> 00:36:51,116
Every story he ever told he was
in the right and the others,
502
00:36:51,126 --> 00:36:52,669
the doubters were in the wrong.
503
00:36:55,004 --> 00:36:57,048
It's another Brad I told you so story.
504
00:36:58,633 --> 00:37:00,260
Kind of the mother of all that.
505
00:37:10,895 --> 00:37:15,515
In 1937, Brad wanted to fly into the
506
00:37:15,525 --> 00:37:17,934
Walsh Glacier to climb
Mount Lucania, the highest
507
00:37:17,944 --> 00:37:19,696
unclimbed peak in North America.
508
00:37:21,614 --> 00:37:24,409
Lucania was a very tempting morsel to take.
509
00:37:25,285 --> 00:37:27,944
Walter Wood had made a
serious attempt on it
510
00:37:27,954 --> 00:37:29,904
the preceding year,
511
00:37:29,914 --> 00:37:33,283
he got to the top of
16,000 foot Mount Steel
512
00:37:33,293 --> 00:37:36,286
and made the first ascent
of that and to his horror,
513
00:37:36,296 --> 00:37:39,414
found that Lucania lay
10 miles away from that
514
00:37:39,424 --> 00:37:41,207
in the direction of Mount Logan.
515
00:37:41,217 --> 00:37:44,586
And he just said, I honestly
don't think that anybody's
516
00:37:44,596 --> 00:37:46,212
ever gonna get to the top of that Mount.
517
00:37:46,222 --> 00:37:47,714
Well, nobody should ever say that.
518
00:37:47,724 --> 00:37:51,519
Particularly in Life magazine.
519
00:37:53,271 --> 00:37:56,389
I've been listening to tales
about a guy called Bob Bree.
520
00:37:56,399 --> 00:38:00,018
And the way he was taking supplies up to
521
00:38:00,028 --> 00:38:01,529
high altitude mines.
522
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:06,775
Taking off from the Valdez mudflats
523
00:38:06,785 --> 00:38:10,445
in a ski equipped airplane
with skis that he'd
524
00:38:10,455 --> 00:38:13,156
put underneath it, that
he'd got stainless steel
525
00:38:13,166 --> 00:38:15,919
from an old abandoned cocktail bar.
526
00:38:18,171 --> 00:38:20,705
So I wrote him a letter and
told him what we wanted to do,
527
00:38:20,715 --> 00:38:24,959
to fly 250 miles in with no
place to land all the way,
528
00:38:24,969 --> 00:38:27,337
and land on Walsh Glacier.
529
00:38:27,347 --> 00:38:29,214
And we hoped to climb Lucania
530
00:38:29,224 --> 00:38:30,683
and have him fly us back out.
531
00:38:31,976 --> 00:38:33,343
I got the telegram.
532
00:38:33,353 --> 00:38:37,148
Anywhere you'll ride, I'll fly, Bob Bree.
533
00:38:56,459 --> 00:38:57,575
The flying back then, I mean,
534
00:38:57,585 --> 00:38:59,702
every time you went out, you
didn't know whether you were
535
00:38:59,712 --> 00:39:01,246
even going to make it back.
536
00:39:01,256 --> 00:39:03,832
I mean, you might have to walk, you know,
537
00:39:03,842 --> 00:39:05,792
two or three weeks to make
it back, 'cause planes,
538
00:39:05,802 --> 00:39:09,003
I mean, they just weren't
as reliable back then.
539
00:39:09,013 --> 00:39:10,431
It was a serious endeavor.
540
00:39:14,269 --> 00:39:16,177
If we cracked up there,
541
00:39:16,187 --> 00:39:17,929
the chances are 50/50 that they'd
542
00:39:17,939 --> 00:39:19,691
never even have found the airplane.
543
00:39:24,362 --> 00:39:29,367
We landed at 8,500 feet in the
spot and exactly as planned,
544
00:39:29,576 --> 00:39:34,163
but it decelerated very, very fast.
545
00:39:39,043 --> 00:39:41,786
I jumped out the door when it stopped
546
00:39:41,796 --> 00:39:44,257
and went to my waist in slush.
547
00:39:45,508 --> 00:39:49,512
None of us expected that
at that altitude in Alaska,
548
00:39:50,388 --> 00:39:53,224
even in mid June, it would be slush.
549
00:39:56,561 --> 00:39:59,772
There was no way he'd be able
to take that airplane home.
550
00:40:02,317 --> 00:40:04,142
We couldn't even taxi it up to camp,
551
00:40:04,152 --> 00:40:06,362
and left it sitting
like that for the night.
552
00:40:07,739 --> 00:40:10,033
We wondered would we
ever get it out of there.
553
00:40:14,871 --> 00:40:18,865
It took five days
and stomping out of runways
554
00:40:18,875 --> 00:40:21,117
and throwing everything out of the plane.
555
00:40:21,127 --> 00:40:25,955
We've even took a ball-peen
hammer and changed the pitch of
556
00:40:25,965 --> 00:40:29,135
the propeller with it so they
could get a sharper bite.
557
00:40:31,971 --> 00:40:33,963
Bob said, the
only thing I'm telling you guys
558
00:40:33,973 --> 00:40:36,966
now is, I wouldn't come
back to this God damn
559
00:40:36,976 --> 00:40:38,394
place for a million bucks.
560
00:40:42,273 --> 00:40:46,277
So he gave his airplane the
gun, headed down the glacier
561
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:51,105
and there was a little bulge
there and he completely
562
00:40:51,115 --> 00:40:52,815
disappeared from sight.
563
00:40:52,825 --> 00:40:55,036
But we could hear this
roar in the distance.
564
00:40:59,707 --> 00:41:03,127
Finally, this little
mosquito appeared in the air
565
00:41:03,169 --> 00:41:06,120
heading back to the Valdez, 250 miles away.
566
00:41:06,130 --> 00:41:09,592
And we felt like a long way off ourselves.
567
00:41:10,927 --> 00:41:13,670
And he barely wobbled into the air as he
568
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:17,799
took off, leaving Brad and Bob
Bates to their own devices.
569
00:41:17,809 --> 00:41:19,686
No hope of picking them up later.
570
00:41:23,439 --> 00:41:26,609
We've never even flew
back to check on the guys.
571
00:41:38,788 --> 00:41:40,581
Okay, eggs.
572
00:41:41,499 --> 00:41:44,450
Actually there's bacon,
right under the eggs.
573
00:41:44,460 --> 00:41:46,744
It's getting pretty cold, huh?
574
00:41:46,754 --> 00:41:47,754
Yeah.
575
00:41:50,675 --> 00:41:52,093
And it seems like
576
00:41:54,220 --> 00:41:55,837
I would probably have
at least a thousand feet
577
00:41:55,847 --> 00:41:59,841
of chains to Espresso Gap.
578
00:41:59,851 --> 00:42:01,019
So, hopefully,
579
00:42:03,771 --> 00:42:07,015
1500 feet above us, it would
be a good, hard cruise.
580
00:42:07,025 --> 00:42:12,030
Oh yeah, this is as good as it's gonna get.
581
00:42:13,322 --> 00:42:17,483
The first peak step one is the Sugar Tooth.
582
00:42:17,493 --> 00:42:19,777
It's a long convoluted rock climb
583
00:42:19,787 --> 00:42:22,582
with small snow sections in between.
584
00:42:26,294 --> 00:42:29,422
Keep your helmets on and
your heads down on this.
585
00:42:41,809 --> 00:42:43,352
Nice Zack, hauling.
586
00:42:47,982 --> 00:42:50,349
When you're climbing on the Sugar Tooth,
587
00:42:50,359 --> 00:42:53,478
you're constantly tip-toeing
across these knife blades of
588
00:42:53,488 --> 00:42:55,406
rock that can bite you at any moment.
589
00:43:10,129 --> 00:43:11,329
As the day got warmer and
590
00:43:11,339 --> 00:43:13,956
the conditions steadily got worse,
591
00:43:13,966 --> 00:43:17,335
we were forced to choose between
slogging up deep wet snow
592
00:43:17,345 --> 00:43:20,838
slopes or engaging in this
really ticky-tacky rock climbing
593
00:43:20,848 --> 00:43:23,684
up and around steep
towers with sharp edges.
594
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:25,511
Sugar Tooth.
595
00:43:25,521 --> 00:43:26,761
Sugar Tooth!
596
00:43:26,771 --> 00:43:27,845
Good old Sugie.
597
00:43:27,855 --> 00:43:29,263
Good old Sugie.
598
00:43:29,273 --> 00:43:32,568
Kind of, there packing
a little bit of a punch.
599
00:43:35,446 --> 00:43:36,572
How's it look?
600
00:43:43,538 --> 00:43:44,538
Ow.
601
00:43:47,041 --> 00:43:48,167
Stupid idea.
602
00:43:51,295 --> 00:43:52,295
Fuck you.
603
00:43:54,549 --> 00:43:55,549
No slack.
604
00:44:00,221 --> 00:44:04,600
Yeah just good
finger lock, a little higher.
605
00:44:17,947 --> 00:44:21,200
That's a funny way to charge.
606
00:44:22,618 --> 00:44:26,289
Check fuckin' this donkey out.
607
00:44:28,916 --> 00:44:31,033
I slipped following Zack and the rope came
608
00:44:31,043 --> 00:44:34,589
tight over a blade of rock
and nearly cut in half.
609
00:44:37,049 --> 00:44:39,208
And then shortly after that,
610
00:44:39,218 --> 00:44:41,544
I foolishly dropped my ice tool.
611
00:44:41,554 --> 00:44:44,630
And that meant I was never
going to be secure on any of the
612
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:46,767
snow climbing from that point on.
613
00:44:53,733 --> 00:44:56,058
It's like this
mountain is going to kill you
614
00:44:56,068 --> 00:44:58,561
because it's just going to
beat your equipment down
615
00:44:58,571 --> 00:45:00,072
to the point where it fails.
616
00:45:12,210 --> 00:45:13,669
Baking in the heat.
617
00:45:15,296 --> 00:45:19,165
Instead of easily scampering
across the top of the snow,
618
00:45:19,175 --> 00:45:21,834
we kept punching through to our waists,
619
00:45:21,844 --> 00:45:24,931
expending tons of energy
way too early in the climb.
620
00:45:30,144 --> 00:45:31,771
Sug' sunny!
621
00:45:33,689 --> 00:45:36,432
We're at the summit of the Sugar Tooth.
622
00:45:36,442 --> 00:45:37,558
Psyched about that,
623
00:45:37,568 --> 00:45:42,573
but definitely a humbling
day, first day on route.
624
00:45:42,657 --> 00:45:45,858
And we just slogged really hard, so.
625
00:45:45,868 --> 00:45:48,746
Gotta talk to Renan and Zach
and see what they want to do.
626
00:45:49,705 --> 00:45:53,950
I think I kind of
want to like pitch the tent
627
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,911
and crawl in the man sack
and just try to reboot
628
00:45:56,921 --> 00:46:01,342
tomorrow morning, but we'll see.
629
00:46:03,469 --> 00:46:04,887
It's beautiful out.
630
00:46:09,058 --> 00:46:10,258
That was like the main pitch
631
00:46:10,268 --> 00:46:11,717
that I was worried about.
632
00:46:11,727 --> 00:46:12,979
Yeah.
633
00:46:14,146 --> 00:46:18,234
Man won and the configuration tucked.
634
00:46:20,111 --> 00:46:21,112
My next.
635
00:46:24,657 --> 00:46:29,662
So today was a
speeder or a crashed out early,
636
00:46:30,663 --> 00:46:35,668
getting some good rest after
the 16 hour push from base camp
637
00:46:37,420 --> 00:46:42,383
through the horrendous snow
conditions and wet rock.
638
00:46:43,551 --> 00:46:47,888
So, we're gonna get up early and
639
00:46:50,141 --> 00:46:51,924
get the second tooth in the morning,
640
00:46:51,934 --> 00:46:55,730
hopefully continue on from there.
641
00:47:03,529 --> 00:47:04,770
A little rock climb today
642
00:47:04,780 --> 00:47:06,782
for most of like the morning.
643
00:47:07,783 --> 00:47:10,369
We probably would want to do like a siesta.
644
00:47:12,788 --> 00:47:15,750
Alright, you ready for this guy?
645
00:47:30,514 --> 00:47:33,100
Ah, it was so good for a while.
646
00:47:36,020 --> 00:47:38,397
When we woke up on that second day,
647
00:47:38,439 --> 00:47:41,390
there was a lot of questions
that needed to be answered in
648
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:44,268
terms of if it was going to be safe enough.
649
00:47:44,278 --> 00:47:47,490
And if it was a responsible
decision to move on.
650
00:47:49,241 --> 00:47:53,662
It looks like about
20 meters of down climbing.
651
00:47:55,164 --> 00:47:56,614
Does that sound good?
652
00:47:56,624 --> 00:47:57,448
Yeah.
653
00:47:57,458 --> 00:47:58,458
Sure.
654
00:48:04,924 --> 00:48:05,832
It's pretty funny.
655
00:48:05,842 --> 00:48:08,959
We're like 20 hours into this mission.
656
00:48:08,969 --> 00:48:09,795
Yeah.
657
00:48:09,805 --> 00:48:11,555
Renan and I made it here in like
658
00:48:12,723 --> 00:48:13,923
five or six hours.
659
00:48:13,933 --> 00:48:14,757
Yeah.
660
00:48:14,767 --> 00:48:15,674
That's just the way, I mean,
661
00:48:15,684 --> 00:48:16,634
I knew that was gonna be case.
662
00:48:16,644 --> 00:48:17,436
Yeah.
663
00:48:17,478 --> 00:48:19,688
Yeah, I think we can still make it happen,
664
00:48:22,775 --> 00:48:23,901
but, you know.
665
00:48:24,902 --> 00:48:29,522
We didn't use our
full reserve or anything, It's-.
666
00:48:29,532 --> 00:48:30,482
Yeah.
667
00:48:30,492 --> 00:48:31,649
Anyway, we do it it's
668
00:48:31,659 --> 00:48:34,703
definitely not going to be cas',
669
00:48:34,745 --> 00:48:37,321
but there's a few factors.
670
00:48:37,331 --> 00:48:38,791
We can charge,
671
00:48:39,708 --> 00:48:44,672
chances of pulling the whole
thing off, pretty small.
672
00:48:44,839 --> 00:48:45,955
You know, that's just one more-.
673
00:48:45,965 --> 00:48:49,458
We're a day be-we're
kind of a day behind, too.
674
00:48:49,468 --> 00:48:51,127
Almost, yeah.
675
00:48:51,137 --> 00:48:52,795
I mean, we went with
it, we rolled it, it's cool.
676
00:48:52,805 --> 00:48:54,473
If the forecast was good.
677
00:48:55,933 --> 00:48:59,135
I just feel like the writing's on the wall.
678
00:48:59,145 --> 00:49:00,145
Yeah.
679
00:49:02,231 --> 00:49:06,902
It's not cut and dry to
call it, like it usually is.
680
00:49:07,736 --> 00:49:10,020
That's the smart thing to do.
681
00:49:10,030 --> 00:49:11,030
Yeah.
682
00:49:12,116 --> 00:49:13,315
All right.
683
00:49:13,325 --> 00:49:16,193
Earlier on in our careers, we might've gone
684
00:49:16,203 --> 00:49:20,948
kamikaze on it, but the more
you get out and you do these
685
00:49:20,958 --> 00:49:23,242
things or lose friends to the mountains,
686
00:49:23,252 --> 00:49:26,662
the more careful you are and
the better decisions you make.
687
00:49:26,672 --> 00:49:29,790
So this is the way to play it safe.
688
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:31,552
Possibly have another go at it.
689
00:49:55,075 --> 00:49:57,776
The day after we
came down after that attempt,
690
00:49:57,786 --> 00:49:59,320
we figured we should switch out
691
00:49:59,330 --> 00:50:02,958
our equipment and try it again.
692
00:50:04,168 --> 00:50:05,951
But then when we were down at base camp,
693
00:50:05,961 --> 00:50:10,299
the temperatures remained
unseasonably warm.
694
00:50:12,801 --> 00:50:13,959
Here comes one.
695
00:50:13,969 --> 00:50:18,974
And it just was raining down
wet avalanches and rock fall
696
00:50:19,350 --> 00:50:21,759
all over the lower Gorge.
697
00:50:21,769 --> 00:50:24,230
Three, two, one.
698
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:52,706
It's really unstable
right now, it's obvious.
699
00:50:52,716 --> 00:50:53,716
Yeah.
700
00:50:58,180 --> 00:51:01,340
The party next to us when
to try a gullied climb.
701
00:51:01,350 --> 00:51:04,270
And I got a really bad feeling about it.
702
00:51:11,026 --> 00:51:14,562
By midday, they still hadn't come back.
703
00:51:14,572 --> 00:51:18,399
And I finally decided to ski
over there a little closer and
704
00:51:18,409 --> 00:51:20,703
have a look for them.
705
00:51:26,375 --> 00:51:30,202
We found their bodies
buried in avalanche debris
706
00:51:30,212 --> 00:51:32,464
at the bottom of the gully.
707
00:51:37,803 --> 00:51:41,181
Now the Rangers are
in, so this is the recovery.
708
00:52:05,873 --> 00:52:07,156
I think it's important to point out
709
00:52:07,166 --> 00:52:09,783
that there is something
that happens to both
710
00:52:09,793 --> 00:52:13,078
the brilliant climbers and the bum ones.
711
00:52:13,088 --> 00:52:14,757
And that's tough luck.
712
00:52:17,676 --> 00:52:18,667
I've never believed in
713
00:52:18,677 --> 00:52:21,503
what I call Russian roulette climbing,
714
00:52:21,513 --> 00:52:26,518
which is going into a place
where you have constant danger
715
00:52:26,560 --> 00:52:29,355
over which you have no control at all.
716
00:52:31,231 --> 00:52:32,723
I think one of the reasons that we're
717
00:52:32,733 --> 00:52:36,685
still here and chatting
with you today is the fact
718
00:52:36,695 --> 00:52:39,907
we refused to take that kind of challenge.
719
00:52:50,250 --> 00:52:52,242
Brad in his whole
life never went on an expedition
720
00:52:52,252 --> 00:52:54,578
led by anybody else.
721
00:52:54,588 --> 00:52:56,997
He was a good guy and he would consult you,
722
00:52:57,007 --> 00:52:59,927
but he was the leader and
his decision finally stuck.
723
00:53:03,347 --> 00:53:06,548
On all these trips, the trip was my idea,
724
00:53:06,558 --> 00:53:09,593
and maybe I knew more about climbing.
725
00:53:09,603 --> 00:53:12,398
So I was sort of the logical leader,
726
00:53:13,273 --> 00:53:16,725
let's take Lucania where
Bob Bates and I were alone.
727
00:53:16,735 --> 00:53:19,697
And we got along very, very well.
728
00:53:20,531 --> 00:53:23,273
Brad and Bob Bates were complete opposites.
729
00:53:23,283 --> 00:53:28,028
Brad, the headstrong leader,
had to do it his way.
730
00:53:28,038 --> 00:53:31,031
Bob was the nicest guy in
the world, the most generous.
731
00:53:31,041 --> 00:53:34,535
Yet he had an incredible
talent to be in a ticklish
732
00:53:34,545 --> 00:53:37,089
situation and to chill out and calm down.
733
00:53:45,264 --> 00:53:48,924
They had all the gear,
all the food and supplies,
734
00:53:48,934 --> 00:53:51,603
and they decided rather than
just hightailing it out,
735
00:53:52,855 --> 00:53:55,315
that they would go ahead
and climb Mount Lucania.
736
00:53:57,526 --> 00:53:59,768
We could've walked out two ways,
737
00:53:59,778 --> 00:54:02,604
200 miles back into Alaska.
738
00:54:02,614 --> 00:54:07,619
Or if we remembered that Walter
Wood who said Lucania was
739
00:54:08,036 --> 00:54:11,739
impossible to climb had said
so from the top of Mount
740
00:54:11,749 --> 00:54:14,616
Steel, and we figured
if we climbed Lucania,
741
00:54:14,626 --> 00:54:17,129
we could get over the top of Mount Steel.
742
00:54:17,337 --> 00:54:20,215
And we would be going back into Canada.
743
00:54:26,764 --> 00:54:28,172
They'd pioneer a new style,
744
00:54:28,182 --> 00:54:30,841
which I call fast and light.
745
00:54:30,851 --> 00:54:33,677
Once they committed to going
over Lucania and Steel,
746
00:54:33,687 --> 00:54:34,928
they stripped down radically,
747
00:54:34,938 --> 00:54:36,680
they cut the floor out of their tent.
748
00:54:36,690 --> 00:54:40,350
They threw away one sleeping
bag and slept head to toe.
749
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:43,145
The two of them in a single bag.
750
00:54:43,155 --> 00:54:44,782
And they threw out a lot of food.
751
00:54:58,879 --> 00:55:00,537
We were out for a hell of a long time.
752
00:55:00,547 --> 00:55:03,123
We started at eight in the morning, it was
753
00:55:03,133 --> 00:55:05,385
four in the afternoon
when we got to the top.
754
00:55:15,521 --> 00:55:19,181
19,000 foot Mount Logan in one direction,
755
00:55:19,191 --> 00:55:21,735
all the way down the coast to St. Elias.
756
00:55:23,403 --> 00:55:25,656
The view was absolutely magnificent.
757
00:55:28,826 --> 00:55:30,994
That was the first ascent of Mount Lucania.
758
00:55:33,997 --> 00:55:36,698
They were so sanguine
that Brad took what I argue
759
00:55:36,708 --> 00:55:40,786
is the finest summit photo
yet taken in the far North.
760
00:55:40,796 --> 00:55:43,163
It's just a stunning portrait of both
761
00:55:43,173 --> 00:55:44,883
exhaustion and jubilation.
762
00:55:48,220 --> 00:55:50,963
But the biggest
problem we had on that trip was
763
00:55:50,973 --> 00:55:52,683
not climbing Mount Lucania.
764
00:55:55,394 --> 00:55:58,387
We figured that anything that
Walter Wood could get up,
765
00:55:58,397 --> 00:55:59,439
we could get down.
766
00:56:00,315 --> 00:56:02,766
And he told us exactly where we would find
767
00:56:02,776 --> 00:56:06,029
a huge cache of food on the other side.
768
00:56:07,739 --> 00:56:10,190
So we walked down for the longest set,
769
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:14,945
we were went from 14,000
feet to 16,000 feet
770
00:56:14,955 --> 00:56:16,864
to get to the top of Steel.
771
00:56:16,874 --> 00:56:19,157
And then from 16,000 feet,
772
00:56:19,167 --> 00:56:22,494
all the way down to the head
of the Wolf Creek glacier
773
00:56:22,504 --> 00:56:27,332
at 5,000 feet, all in one
day, it was an endless day.
774
00:56:27,342 --> 00:56:29,960
And the next day we walked all the way
775
00:56:29,970 --> 00:56:31,430
down to the cache of food.
776
00:56:34,933 --> 00:56:36,425
The bears had been in the cache
777
00:56:36,435 --> 00:56:40,178
and there was not one single thing left.
778
00:56:40,188 --> 00:56:43,150
The bears had chewed every single can.
779
00:56:46,653 --> 00:56:50,908
It was 19 miles from that
cache to the Donjeck river.
780
00:56:57,748 --> 00:57:00,584
And we got to the Donjeck
river and it was in full flood.
781
00:57:03,378 --> 00:57:05,871
In desperation,
they took the camera and the
782
00:57:05,881 --> 00:57:08,248
notebooks and the film
and hung it on a bush
783
00:57:08,258 --> 00:57:10,208
with a note saying, you know,
784
00:57:10,218 --> 00:57:12,961
if you find these at least
you'll know what happened to us,
785
00:57:12,971 --> 00:57:16,256
basically sort of recognizing
that their chance of survival
786
00:57:16,266 --> 00:57:19,728
was getting pretty slim, perhaps none.
787
00:57:22,648 --> 00:57:25,641
We had two duffel
bags with all our clothing
788
00:57:25,651 --> 00:57:29,404
and everything and we tied
them up real, really tight.
789
00:57:31,323 --> 00:57:32,898
And we jumped into the river and
790
00:57:32,908 --> 00:57:36,568
we went in as deep as we could on foot.
791
00:57:36,578 --> 00:57:37,403
When we lost our footing,
792
00:57:37,413 --> 00:57:39,696
we used them like life preservers.
793
00:57:39,706 --> 00:57:41,416
And we swum to the other shore.
794
00:57:49,841 --> 00:57:52,584
We were sitting down on a
bunch of tussocks and all of a
795
00:57:52,594 --> 00:57:54,554
sudden we heard a tinkling sound.
796
00:57:56,139 --> 00:57:57,756
I began to wonder if I was hearing
797
00:57:57,766 --> 00:57:59,434
the bells of heaven or something.
798
00:58:00,477 --> 00:58:04,054
And then all of a sudden,
a hundred yards away,
799
00:58:04,064 --> 00:58:09,069
we saw a man and then another
man, and these guys said,
800
00:58:09,444 --> 00:58:10,936
where in hell have you come from?
801
00:58:10,946 --> 00:58:13,647
We said, we've come from Valdez, Alaska.
802
00:58:13,657 --> 00:58:15,399
And they said, where were you going?
803
00:58:15,409 --> 00:58:17,744
We said, we're going
any place you're going.
804
00:58:21,248 --> 00:58:23,031
Fortunately, they were able to go back
805
00:58:23,041 --> 00:58:24,167
and get that camera.
806
00:58:26,461 --> 00:58:28,620
But I think that Mount Lucania
expedition is one of the
807
00:58:28,630 --> 00:58:32,592
most incredible stories
of drive and survival.
808
00:58:39,016 --> 00:58:40,882
Brad and Bob Bates.
809
00:58:40,892 --> 00:58:42,843
Both of those men had shrugged it off as,
810
00:58:42,853 --> 00:58:45,313
well, you know, we just kinda walked out.
811
00:58:48,150 --> 00:58:51,768
Did anybody end up injured on that trip?
812
00:58:51,778 --> 00:58:52,779
Nobody.
813
00:58:55,115 --> 00:58:58,410
Nobody got a skinned ankle
on it, everything went fine.
814
00:59:00,078 --> 00:59:01,570
Brad was very proud of the fact
815
00:59:01,580 --> 00:59:05,073
that in all his 13, 15 expeditions,
816
00:59:05,083 --> 00:59:06,616
you know, they never lost a partner.
817
00:59:06,626 --> 00:59:09,212
He never had a partner
suffer a serious accident.
818
00:59:11,465 --> 00:59:15,167
But I discovered when I
wrote Brad's biography,
819
00:59:15,177 --> 00:59:18,754
Brad himself had become
a pilot in his twenties.
820
00:59:18,764 --> 00:59:22,142
And as far as I know, he
was a very good pilot.
821
00:59:24,603 --> 00:59:26,261
Flying wasn't exactly safe
822
00:59:26,271 --> 00:59:29,181
when you began flying, was it?
823
00:59:29,191 --> 00:59:31,266
Ever have any narrow escapes?
824
00:59:31,276 --> 00:59:33,268
Well, I had one.
825
00:59:33,278 --> 00:59:36,073
Way back in 1938.
826
00:59:37,908 --> 00:59:41,787
1938, he'd been in Seattle on Lake Union.
827
00:59:44,206 --> 00:59:46,239
And had taken out a float plane,
828
00:59:46,249 --> 00:59:49,878
the wife of a climbing buddy
of his and another woman just
829
00:59:51,671 --> 00:59:54,091
to do a routine sightseeing trip.
830
00:59:57,803 --> 00:59:58,970
Perfect day in Seattle.
831
01:00:04,726 --> 01:00:06,927
Brad came in, in the float plane
832
01:00:06,937 --> 01:00:11,817
he'd only flown once before
and screwed up the landing.
833
01:00:13,902 --> 01:00:15,070
The plane sank.
834
01:00:16,863 --> 01:00:18,271
Brad and the guy,
835
01:00:18,281 --> 01:00:20,482
punched out the windshield
and swam to safety.
836
01:00:20,492 --> 01:00:23,245
And then dived back in to
try to rescue the two women.
837
01:00:29,584 --> 01:00:31,169
They both drowned.
838
01:00:40,303 --> 01:00:41,419
He never talked about this.
839
01:00:41,429 --> 01:00:43,338
I only learned about this from extensive
840
01:00:43,348 --> 01:00:45,934
research into newspaper clippings.
841
01:00:48,478 --> 01:00:50,887
This was a dark, dark thing for,
842
01:00:50,897 --> 01:00:53,598
especially for such a perfectionist as Brad
843
01:00:53,608 --> 01:00:56,893
to have really fucked
up and killed two women
844
01:00:56,903 --> 01:00:58,145
who thought they were out on the
845
01:00:58,155 --> 01:01:00,647
30 minute sightseeing flight.
846
01:01:00,657 --> 01:01:03,326
He was terribly disturbed
by it the rest of his life.
847
01:01:04,870 --> 01:01:06,329
It's why he never flew again.
848
01:01:37,485 --> 01:01:39,978
Just two months before we were supposed
849
01:01:39,988 --> 01:01:40,989
to head back to Alaska,
850
01:01:41,031 --> 01:01:43,190
Zack and I were in Colorado.
851
01:01:43,200 --> 01:01:47,068
Spending most of our time
climbing and training together.
852
01:01:47,078 --> 01:01:51,031
This climb means a lot to me.
853
01:01:51,041 --> 01:01:54,618
I really, really want it bad.
854
01:01:54,628 --> 01:01:59,591
I've never put this much time
and energy into one climb
855
01:01:59,883 --> 01:02:04,628
before I've never tried
to climb this complicated.
856
01:02:04,638 --> 01:02:10,227
And I made a lot of sacrifices
to try something like this.
857
01:02:17,359 --> 01:02:19,809
Right now, I'm living in a good friend's
858
01:02:19,819 --> 01:02:22,447
basement in Boulder, Colorado,
859
01:02:25,075 --> 01:02:29,579
and I'm recently single after
an eight year relationship.
860
01:02:35,126 --> 01:02:40,131
We had a really amazing
relationship for a long time.
861
01:02:40,423 --> 01:02:44,844
And the stress of me traveling
862
01:02:46,221 --> 01:02:50,225
and climbing became too
great on that relationship.
863
01:02:52,269 --> 01:02:56,356
And the reality of really
close friends of ours
864
01:02:57,607 --> 01:03:01,643
dying played a huge part of it I think,
865
01:03:01,653 --> 01:03:06,658
because it made her worst
nightmares a reality.
866
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:12,112
And so the idea of something
like that happening to me
867
01:03:12,122 --> 01:03:16,032
and you know, me putting
myself in those situations
868
01:03:16,042 --> 01:03:18,368
was too much for her.
869
01:03:18,378 --> 01:03:20,880
And I can't blame her for that.
870
01:03:38,064 --> 01:03:40,598
I want you to squeeze my fingers, Okay?
871
01:03:40,608 --> 01:03:41,641
Good.
872
01:03:41,651 --> 01:03:45,478
Two months before we
were due to leave for Alaska,
873
01:03:45,488 --> 01:03:48,450
for another attempt on the Moose's Tooth,
874
01:03:49,409 --> 01:03:53,570
Renan was filming some
professional skiers in the Tetons.
875
01:03:53,580 --> 01:03:54,654
Open your mouth for me,
876
01:03:54,664 --> 01:03:56,698
make sure you don't have
any broken teeth, good.
877
01:03:56,708 --> 01:04:00,160
Catches an edge, tumbles down the mountain,
878
01:04:00,170 --> 01:04:03,048
over a cliff band and lands on his head.
879
01:04:10,513 --> 01:04:12,797
We're lucky as partners
we're able to get them
880
01:04:12,807 --> 01:04:15,008
down to the base of the mountain and
881
01:04:15,018 --> 01:04:17,979
on a life flight to
advanced medical support.
882
01:04:20,398 --> 01:04:22,901
One, two, three.
883
01:04:24,027 --> 01:04:25,852
The way I first heard about it was
884
01:04:25,862 --> 01:04:30,106
an hysterical phone call
from Renan's girlfriend.
885
01:04:30,116 --> 01:04:35,121
That was like basically
Renan's dead or is, you know,
886
01:04:35,413 --> 01:04:39,000
going to be quadriplegic
for the rest of his life.
887
01:04:40,835 --> 01:04:44,454
And I was at work and so
I just threw down whatever
888
01:04:44,464 --> 01:04:47,874
I was doing and drove
over to their house and
889
01:04:47,884 --> 01:04:49,886
tried to, you know, get the details.
890
01:04:54,891 --> 01:04:58,593
He had a depressed skull fracture,
891
01:04:58,603 --> 01:05:02,931
broken two vertebrae and
severed the one of the two
892
01:05:02,941 --> 01:05:07,445
vertebral arteries that supply
blood flow to the brain.
893
01:05:15,829 --> 01:05:18,206
Headed to the neurosurgeon,
894
01:05:21,709 --> 01:05:22,709
realize that
895
01:05:26,506 --> 01:05:28,383
this'll probably work out, but
896
01:05:29,926 --> 01:05:33,972
it does hurt me pretty deeply
to not to be involved in
897
01:05:35,432 --> 01:05:37,715
all the projects that
are going on, especially
898
01:05:37,725 --> 01:05:42,313
the Tooth Traverse, because
899
01:05:43,481 --> 01:05:45,316
that's something that you put,
900
01:05:47,110 --> 01:05:49,853
it's something that we put
three years of time into.
901
01:05:49,863 --> 01:05:53,950
And after everyone said
it couldn't be done,
902
01:05:59,247 --> 01:06:02,449
We solved a few of the major
problems and showed that it was
903
01:06:02,459 --> 01:06:07,464
possible last year and right now that's,
904
01:06:08,089 --> 01:06:09,340
that was the one thing.
905
01:06:11,092 --> 01:06:12,260
I really want it, so.
906
01:06:15,305 --> 01:06:16,890
It's tough.
907
01:06:24,606 --> 01:06:27,724
When it happened
I figured the climb was over,
908
01:06:27,734 --> 01:06:28,943
at least for that year.
909
01:06:29,861 --> 01:06:33,615
I mean, the question was
were we gonna go without him?
910
01:06:45,793 --> 01:06:48,703
We have loved ones back home
911
01:06:48,713 --> 01:06:51,414
that I'm sure would be destroyed
912
01:06:51,424 --> 01:06:53,510
if we lost our life in the mountains.
913
01:06:57,847 --> 01:07:01,267
I can only imagine what
my funeral would be like.
914
01:07:32,298 --> 01:07:34,050
It's about five months later,
915
01:07:35,510 --> 01:07:39,587
technically I'm still healing
a broken neck in two places,
916
01:07:39,597 --> 01:07:43,466
two vertebrae, like right
in my spinal column.
917
01:07:43,476 --> 01:07:48,304
And I can touch my head
and feel where the skull is
918
01:07:48,314 --> 01:07:52,026
still tender from having it
sliced open for brain surgery,
919
01:07:55,280 --> 01:07:58,314
Getting injured just before
we had to leave on the trip
920
01:07:58,324 --> 01:08:00,400
was really devastating.
921
01:08:00,410 --> 01:08:04,028
And I knew it was going to be
really hard for them to deal
922
01:08:04,038 --> 01:08:06,249
with the fact that I was out of commission.
923
01:08:08,418 --> 01:08:11,327
Renan's at home with his neck immobilized
924
01:08:11,337 --> 01:08:16,301
in a brace and he's
Skyping with me every day,
925
01:08:16,676 --> 01:08:18,209
talking about, you know,
926
01:08:18,219 --> 01:08:20,972
we're going to go back to
the Tooth Traverse next year.
927
01:08:22,432 --> 01:08:24,767
So, so we waited.
928
01:08:25,768 --> 01:08:26,594
And on this side, you can see
929
01:08:26,604 --> 01:08:27,687
the needle swing.
930
01:08:34,277 --> 01:08:36,269
I gotta get down lower.
931
01:08:36,279 --> 01:08:38,354
I've worked really hard to recover
932
01:08:38,364 --> 01:08:39,782
as fast as I have.
933
01:08:41,743 --> 01:08:43,943
I just been sitting for so long.
934
01:08:43,953 --> 01:08:45,903
I need to go out and push myself and be
935
01:08:45,913 --> 01:08:49,083
in the mountains and create.
936
01:08:59,385 --> 01:09:01,127
As a professional climber,
937
01:09:01,137 --> 01:09:03,796
I have these competing priorities.
938
01:09:03,806 --> 01:09:07,550
First I wanted to climb in the
Himalaya with my North Face
939
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:11,929
team and then go back to the
Tooth Traverse in the spring.
940
01:09:11,939 --> 01:09:14,734
When I thought the conditions
were gonna be pretty good.
941
01:09:16,027 --> 01:09:18,686
This didn't sit well with Zack.
942
01:09:18,696 --> 01:09:21,908
He wanted to get back to
Alaska as soon as possible.
943
01:09:29,874 --> 01:09:34,035
Renan has made an incredible recovery
944
01:09:34,045 --> 01:09:37,497
and by some kind of miracle,
945
01:09:37,507 --> 01:09:39,749
the guy was going to be able to climb.
946
01:09:39,759 --> 01:09:42,669
You know, I said, let's
go try this thing again.
947
01:09:42,679 --> 01:09:47,131
You know, like we've talked
about going in the fall before.
948
01:09:47,141 --> 01:09:48,716
Let's, why not.
949
01:09:48,726 --> 01:09:52,220
But he made another choice, which is great.
950
01:09:52,230 --> 01:09:54,722
You know, like his other
project is super rad
951
01:09:54,732 --> 01:09:56,901
and I'm sure they'll succeed.
952
01:10:04,701 --> 01:10:06,776
Those guys are professional climbers
953
01:10:06,786 --> 01:10:08,778
who get to go on big trips.
954
01:10:08,788 --> 01:10:10,154
So those guys have a different climbing
955
01:10:10,164 --> 01:10:11,332
experience than I have.
956
01:10:13,626 --> 01:10:18,621
My last Alpine climbing
trip was a two month trip.
957
01:10:18,631 --> 01:10:21,582
It's the longest expedition
I've ever been on,
958
01:10:21,592 --> 01:10:22,927
down in Argentina.
959
01:10:23,886 --> 01:10:25,461
Two months,
960
01:10:25,471 --> 01:10:28,131
pretty much spent all the money I had
961
01:10:28,141 --> 01:10:32,145
and I climbed one day and with no summit.
962
01:10:33,604 --> 01:10:36,399
So that was a bit hard, you know,
963
01:10:36,441 --> 01:10:40,685
to sacrifice the time and
energy and money that I put
964
01:10:40,695 --> 01:10:43,114
towards it, it is a big thing to me.
965
01:10:52,081 --> 01:10:55,209
To me the filming has
just become a distraction
966
01:10:56,711 --> 01:11:00,590
and taking away from the
actual experience of climbing.
967
01:11:06,179 --> 01:11:08,171
I'm just at this tipping
point where the mountains are
968
01:11:08,181 --> 01:11:09,807
taking more than they're giving.
969
01:11:12,602 --> 01:11:16,230
Hanging Christmas lights,
painting out for a living.
970
01:11:18,483 --> 01:11:22,101
Yeah.
971
01:11:22,111 --> 01:11:23,186
Pretty crazy.
972
01:11:23,196 --> 01:11:27,700
It's a weird way to make
a living, but it works.
973
01:11:30,495 --> 01:11:33,247
So I made the decision
to bow out of the climb.
974
01:11:35,416 --> 01:11:38,242
We created this monster
975
01:11:38,252 --> 01:11:40,244
And I just hope they
finish the fucking thing.
976
01:11:40,254 --> 01:11:41,714
Even if I can't be there,
977
01:11:43,466 --> 01:11:44,467
I just want it done.
978
01:12:01,108 --> 01:12:03,611
I almost lost everything in my accident.
979
01:12:06,614 --> 01:12:09,283
People always ask me, why do you do it?
980
01:12:13,871 --> 01:12:17,625
I just wanted to use the
chance that I was given
981
01:12:18,751 --> 01:12:23,047
to show that there's this
joyous side of climbing.
982
01:12:29,720 --> 01:12:32,713
We've added a lot to opening people's eyes
983
01:12:32,723 --> 01:12:35,383
towards the beauty of these places
984
01:12:35,393 --> 01:12:38,563
and making it easier if you're
a climber to find new routes.
985
01:12:39,730 --> 01:12:42,515
The things that you
remember about these trips
986
01:12:42,525 --> 01:12:45,268
are people, not things.
987
01:12:45,278 --> 01:12:47,562
Being with these wonderful people.
988
01:12:47,572 --> 01:12:52,326
Yeah, that was a sharp spin.
989
01:12:56,080 --> 01:12:58,030
When you're on an
expedition, most of the time,
990
01:12:58,040 --> 01:13:01,075
it doesn't feel like
you're risking your life.
991
01:13:01,085 --> 01:13:05,204
It feels like you're on
this incredible journey to
992
01:13:05,214 --> 01:13:06,664
explore the landscape.
993
01:13:06,674 --> 01:13:07,967
Hello, beautiful wife.
994
01:13:11,554 --> 01:13:12,753
Yeah, you good?
995
01:13:12,763 --> 01:13:14,849
I'm actually good, what a day.
996
01:13:16,517 --> 01:13:18,050
I always say I don't care about summits,
997
01:13:18,060 --> 01:13:20,021
but really does feel good.
998
01:13:27,778 --> 01:13:30,313
I'm going to tell
you the most important thing
999
01:13:30,323 --> 01:13:32,992
in my whole life-Barbara.
1000
01:13:35,453 --> 01:13:38,988
That's the best step I ever
took from the day I was born
1001
01:13:38,998 --> 01:13:40,583
until this afternoon.
1002
01:13:45,004 --> 01:13:46,746
Brad never talked about mountain climbing
1003
01:13:46,756 --> 01:13:48,372
when we got engaged.
1004
01:13:48,382 --> 01:13:51,417
But when we were first married,
I found myself on my way to
1005
01:13:51,427 --> 01:13:53,763
Mount Birther in South Eastern Alaska.
1006
01:13:58,309 --> 01:13:59,383
Well, why did you think Barbara
1007
01:13:59,393 --> 01:14:00,218
was up for this?
1008
01:14:00,228 --> 01:14:01,260
I mean most people would not-.
1009
01:14:01,270 --> 01:14:03,054
Just because I think Barbara's terrific,
1010
01:14:03,064 --> 01:14:04,639
and she still is.
1011
01:14:04,649 --> 01:14:06,641
I don't think he had any idea
1012
01:14:06,651 --> 01:14:09,946
whether I was up to it or
not, he just wanted me to go.
1013
01:14:11,697 --> 01:14:13,773
That was the first
time Barbara had ever done
1014
01:14:13,783 --> 01:14:17,193
anything of this sort and she
rushed right up and did it
1015
01:14:17,203 --> 01:14:19,038
without the slightest difficult.
1016
01:14:24,418 --> 01:14:26,327
In '47, you became the first woman
1017
01:14:26,337 --> 01:14:27,244
to climb McKinley.
1018
01:14:27,254 --> 01:14:28,080
Yes.
1019
01:14:28,090 --> 01:14:29,956
And that was a long, long expedition.
1020
01:14:29,966 --> 01:14:30,915
Yes, three months.
1021
01:14:30,925 --> 01:14:31,750
Three months?
1022
01:14:31,760 --> 01:14:32,917
Three months, because we were
1023
01:14:32,927 --> 01:14:34,345
making a map, making a movie.
1024
01:14:41,018 --> 01:14:43,427
When we got near the
top, I was in the middle,
1025
01:14:43,437 --> 01:14:46,357
Shorty Lang said, okay,
Barbara, now you go first.
1026
01:14:47,650 --> 01:14:49,016
And I said, oh no, no, no.
1027
01:14:49,026 --> 01:14:51,060
We just go in the order
we're in, of course.
1028
01:14:51,070 --> 01:14:52,895
And he said, don't you realize you're the
1029
01:14:52,905 --> 01:14:55,398
first woman to get to
the top of this place?
1030
01:14:55,408 --> 01:14:57,785
And I said, oh, heck, who cares about that?
1031
01:15:00,663 --> 01:15:02,321
I didn't think the world cared about
1032
01:15:02,331 --> 01:15:03,749
a woman getting to the top.
1033
01:15:04,792 --> 01:15:07,618
Never done it if I knew it
was gonna be such a fuss.
1034
01:15:07,628 --> 01:15:09,578
Anyway, so I got to the top.
1035
01:15:09,588 --> 01:15:11,382
And then Brad came up and joined us.
1036
01:15:19,306 --> 01:15:21,590
It's been wonderful for me
1037
01:15:21,600 --> 01:15:25,469
over the years to have a
wonderful partner like Barbara,
1038
01:15:25,479 --> 01:15:27,064
all the way through this stuff.
1039
01:15:37,116 --> 01:15:40,609
To sort of sum Brad up is really hard.
1040
01:15:40,619 --> 01:15:44,498
He was an educator, a scientist, explorer.
1041
01:15:44,540 --> 01:15:46,907
But he would always land on the education
1042
01:15:46,917 --> 01:15:49,253
because no matter what he did, he educated.
1043
01:15:51,505 --> 01:15:54,248
The thing that made the climb fun
1044
01:15:54,258 --> 01:15:57,793
was the fact we were
trying to create something
1045
01:15:57,803 --> 01:16:00,306
that would share the thrill of discovery.
1046
01:16:03,893 --> 01:16:07,063
This sharing doesn't just apply to climbing.
1047
01:16:09,482 --> 01:16:12,860
It also applies to our Museum of Science.
1048
01:16:14,236 --> 01:16:15,394
The Museum of Science.
1049
01:16:15,404 --> 01:16:19,315
When he took it over, it
was this derelict old attic
1050
01:16:19,325 --> 01:16:22,818
of a junk heap in South Boston.
1051
01:16:22,828 --> 01:16:25,279
Brad absolutely transformed it into the,
1052
01:16:25,289 --> 01:16:27,666
one of the great teaching
museums in the world.
1053
01:16:30,336 --> 01:16:32,338
And he actually had said
often that was the thing
1054
01:16:32,379 --> 01:16:34,705
he wanted to be remembered for,
1055
01:16:34,715 --> 01:16:37,218
above and beyond the
climbing and the photography.
1056
01:16:38,219 --> 01:16:41,170
Photography was
always, I think in second place
1057
01:16:41,180 --> 01:16:44,517
to his idea of scientific adventure.
1058
01:16:45,476 --> 01:16:49,563
Not just adventure, but
scientific adventure.
1059
01:16:54,610 --> 01:16:57,269
There are parallels
amongst scientific exploration
1060
01:16:57,279 --> 01:16:58,854
and human exploration.
1061
01:16:58,864 --> 01:17:01,398
All of it comes down to
our drive to want to know
1062
01:17:01,408 --> 01:17:03,035
or want to see new places.
1063
01:17:08,415 --> 01:17:09,698
Flying on the Space Shuttle is just
1064
01:17:09,708 --> 01:17:12,128
an amazing place to do photography.
1065
01:17:13,295 --> 01:17:16,048
From space, you can see thousands of miles.
1066
01:17:20,761 --> 01:17:24,431
2009, you know, Brad had just
passed away two years earlier.
1067
01:17:26,934 --> 01:17:30,427
The American Alpine club
offered to let me take Brad's
1068
01:17:30,437 --> 01:17:35,432
camera, bringing Brad's legacy
to the next generation of
1069
01:17:35,442 --> 01:17:37,278
aerial photography to space.
1070
01:17:42,408 --> 01:17:44,984
Truly incredible because
1071
01:17:44,994 --> 01:17:46,944
that's the camera that he took
1072
01:17:46,954 --> 01:17:48,706
on his Mount Lucania expedition.
1073
01:17:50,916 --> 01:17:52,867
I had quite a number of climbs,
1074
01:17:52,877 --> 01:17:55,286
sort of in my hip pocket that I began
1075
01:17:55,296 --> 01:17:57,006
parceling out one by one.
1076
01:17:59,842 --> 01:18:02,585
I just sort of sit and wait
and see how they did it.
1077
01:18:02,595 --> 01:18:05,754
And I've had a lot of fun out of that,
1078
01:18:05,764 --> 01:18:08,799
particularly after I got old enough.
1079
01:18:08,809 --> 01:18:12,062
So I wasn't doing these
wonderful climbs myself.
1080
01:18:13,230 --> 01:18:16,348
When I was a undergraduate at Harvard,
1081
01:18:16,358 --> 01:18:19,226
you freely gave of all your
1082
01:18:19,236 --> 01:18:21,061
advice about Alaska, you let us-.
1083
01:18:21,071 --> 01:18:21,897
Yeah.
1084
01:18:21,907 --> 01:18:23,522
You've played this
role with an extraordinary
1085
01:18:23,532 --> 01:18:25,524
number of young climbers.
1086
01:18:25,534 --> 01:18:29,413
You can take Brad's pictures and seek out
1087
01:18:30,664 --> 01:18:32,416
your next great expedition on them.
1088
01:18:35,794 --> 01:18:38,672
A mentor is a hero of generosity.
1089
01:18:41,133 --> 01:18:42,416
You know, Brad was a lot of things,
1090
01:18:42,426 --> 01:18:44,627
but he was super generous.
1091
01:18:44,637 --> 01:18:46,712
And I think, you know, it
wasn't just my experience
1092
01:18:46,722 --> 01:18:50,007
that was, you know, hundreds
of people's experience.
1093
01:18:50,017 --> 01:18:53,427
He would send us photograph,
you know, unsolicited.
1094
01:18:53,437 --> 01:18:54,897
What do you think about this?
1095
01:19:03,781 --> 01:19:05,856
I think his photography will last a
1096
01:19:05,866 --> 01:19:09,568
really long time, but to us climbers,
1097
01:19:09,578 --> 01:19:13,239
I think what matters is not
that he did the hardest climbs
1098
01:19:13,249 --> 01:19:18,254
ever it's that he climbed remote,
arduous, exhausting peaks.
1099
01:19:22,049 --> 01:19:24,375
And he encouraged many other generations,
1100
01:19:24,385 --> 01:19:27,127
including mine, to seek out
the challenges that were beyond
1101
01:19:27,137 --> 01:19:31,131
him and people like Freddie and Renan
1102
01:19:31,141 --> 01:19:33,602
are still pursuing the Washburn challenges.
1103
01:19:42,987 --> 01:19:45,854
How did you describe
the snow conditions, man?
1104
01:19:45,864 --> 01:19:48,482
The gorge, we got probably a foot.
1105
01:19:48,492 --> 01:19:49,317
Uh huh.
1106
01:19:49,327 --> 01:19:50,484
And at the mountain it looked like
1107
01:19:50,494 --> 01:19:51,610
there was at least two and a half.
1108
01:19:51,620 --> 01:19:52,903
Yeah, yeah.
1109
01:19:52,913 --> 01:19:54,989
Yeah, a foot in the last couple days.
1110
01:19:54,999 --> 01:19:57,116
And then we had a storm before
that too, then had a couple.
1111
01:19:57,126 --> 01:20:00,953
It's the eye deep to nipple
deep snow wallowing, yep,
1112
01:20:00,963 --> 01:20:02,381
unconsolidated wallowing.
1113
01:20:03,340 --> 01:20:05,416
Yeah, every single aspect I'd been on
1114
01:20:05,426 --> 01:20:08,304
has been pretty miserable snow conditions.
1115
01:20:09,346 --> 01:20:12,006
Yeah, cool.
1116
01:20:12,016 --> 01:20:15,509
They had just had the biggest
snow storm of the year
1117
01:20:15,519 --> 01:20:17,720
the week before we arrived.
1118
01:20:17,730 --> 01:20:21,682
The mountains were covered
in six feet of new snow.
1119
01:20:21,692 --> 01:20:25,352
And everyone we met in Talkeetna
1120
01:20:25,362 --> 01:20:28,991
warned us that it was a really bad time.
1121
01:20:30,242 --> 01:20:32,985
We'd waited for two
years for another crack at
1122
01:20:32,995 --> 01:20:36,790
the Traverse, but it wasn't
even about the climb anymore.
1123
01:20:37,708 --> 01:20:41,577
We wanted to do something
in the true spirit of Brad
1124
01:20:41,587 --> 01:20:43,672
to come back with something to share.
1125
01:20:45,215 --> 01:20:47,426
It's the 14th, three o'clock
1126
01:20:48,427 --> 01:20:50,637
and we're launching.
1127
01:20:50,679 --> 01:20:51,463
And we're launching.
1128
01:20:51,473 --> 01:20:53,672
We get to do it with only.
1129
01:20:53,682 --> 01:20:55,966
It's good to be a
part of something that has a
1130
01:20:55,976 --> 01:20:58,687
lot of pieces that you
have to connect together.
1131
01:21:01,315 --> 01:21:04,600
There are certain climbers,
like they have a plutonium rod,
1132
01:21:04,610 --> 01:21:06,528
you know, just burning inside of them.
1133
01:21:09,448 --> 01:21:11,950
It's not just going up and
getting something done.
1134
01:21:12,993 --> 01:21:15,579
They're tying their whole
life into the whole climb.
1135
01:21:43,774 --> 01:21:48,195
Can you breath out a big cold breath here?
1136
01:21:56,745 --> 01:21:58,904
The rumors were correct and the conditions
1137
01:21:58,914 --> 01:22:03,919
were very snowy and the going was slow.
1138
01:22:14,721 --> 01:22:16,765
The thing was, might've taken
1139
01:22:18,058 --> 01:22:22,604
15 or 20 minutes longer
working twice as hard.
1140
01:22:23,939 --> 01:22:26,650
But I still got to the top of the pitch.
1141
01:22:27,860 --> 01:22:30,477
It set a little light
off in my head, and I,
1142
01:22:30,487 --> 01:22:33,699
I realized like, maybe
we can do this thing.
1143
01:22:40,289 --> 01:22:41,738
We took it one pitch at a time.
1144
01:22:41,748 --> 01:22:46,452
And we went back to our old bivy from 2010
1145
01:22:46,462 --> 01:22:48,422
at the top of the Sugar Tooth.
1146
01:22:50,090 --> 01:22:53,385
We're at our bivy overlooking Denali
1147
01:22:54,595 --> 01:22:58,714
and climbed for about 12 hours today.
1148
01:22:58,724 --> 01:23:02,895
And even though it's still blazing sun out,
1149
01:23:04,104 --> 01:23:06,555
I'm going to try to get some rest.
1150
01:23:06,565 --> 01:23:07,565
That's the update.
1151
01:23:10,777 --> 01:23:12,186
Ah!
1152
01:23:12,196 --> 01:23:14,198
What's going on over there, Freddie?
1153
01:23:15,699 --> 01:23:17,326
Digging for buried treasure.
1154
01:23:20,871 --> 01:23:24,239
We found a bag of snacks
left from the attempt
1155
01:23:24,249 --> 01:23:25,501
two years ago.
1156
01:23:27,336 --> 01:23:30,662
Not exactly a street legal maneuver, but
1157
01:23:30,672 --> 01:23:33,999
this buys us another two days of climbing,
1158
01:23:34,009 --> 01:23:35,219
which we may need.
1159
01:23:38,096 --> 01:23:41,308
Day two, we started up the
South Ridge of the eye tooth.
1160
01:23:42,559 --> 01:23:44,102
The climbing got a lot steeper
1161
01:23:46,188 --> 01:23:49,056
and the conditions are challenging enough.
1162
01:23:49,066 --> 01:23:51,985
We have to pitch it out and
stop and belay each other.
1163
01:23:58,742 --> 01:24:03,580
It takes us all day to get to
the summit of the eye tooth.
1164
01:24:05,040 --> 01:24:09,284
Day three, there was a
segment of unclimbed ridge
1165
01:24:09,294 --> 01:24:12,714
connecting the eye tooth
to the bear's tooth.
1166
01:24:14,091 --> 01:24:17,918
This is deep Alaskan
cornice ridge climbing,
1167
01:24:17,928 --> 01:24:21,421
huge waves that are 200 feet tall.
1168
01:24:21,431 --> 01:24:23,225
These waves of snow.
1169
01:24:24,184 --> 01:24:27,010
And you don't want to climb
on the top of the wave
1170
01:24:27,020 --> 01:24:29,513
because the wave could collapse.
1171
01:24:29,523 --> 01:24:31,348
And we've had friends die,
1172
01:24:31,358 --> 01:24:33,767
not knowing where the point is on the wave,
1173
01:24:33,777 --> 01:24:35,320
where you can actually be.
1174
01:24:39,366 --> 01:24:42,359
You're tiptoeing on the
backside of the wave
1175
01:24:42,369 --> 01:24:44,204
for what seems like a mile.
1176
01:25:04,349 --> 01:25:07,352
That was pretty real.
1177
01:25:12,065 --> 01:25:13,692
We've been on the summit all day.
1178
01:25:16,570 --> 01:25:18,312
Now it's just a matter of weather,
1179
01:25:18,322 --> 01:25:21,033
but we're looking really good.
1180
01:25:25,454 --> 01:25:27,446
We knew if we could
only make it to the summit
1181
01:25:27,456 --> 01:25:29,625
of the bear's tooth, we'd be halfway home.
1182
01:25:57,027 --> 01:26:01,772
I think first you
see it from the ridge line.
1183
01:26:01,782 --> 01:26:03,982
And then you see Denali,
1184
01:26:03,992 --> 01:26:07,027
we can kind of just be charging up the snow
1185
01:26:07,037 --> 01:26:08,037
towards the summit.
1186
01:26:09,498 --> 01:26:10,614
All right, we'll see you in a little bit.
1187
01:26:10,624 --> 01:26:11,782
Okay, awesome.
1188
01:26:11,792 --> 01:26:12,792
Thanks Paul.
1189
01:26:13,710 --> 01:26:14,920
They're coming.
1190
01:26:16,463 --> 01:26:19,966
There's a lot riding on the next hour.
1191
01:26:37,150 --> 01:26:39,569
Up the long delirious burning blue,
1192
01:26:40,946 --> 01:26:43,865
I've topped the wind swept
heights with easy grace.
1193
01:26:45,325 --> 01:26:47,786
Where never Lark or even Eagle flew.
1194
01:26:49,788 --> 01:26:52,124
And while his silent lifting mind,
1195
01:26:54,042 --> 01:26:57,879
I've trod the high
under-trespassed sanctity of space.
1196
01:27:00,674 --> 01:27:05,220
Whip out my hand and touch the face of God.
1197
01:27:27,284 --> 01:27:29,776
Making it across
that final section of ridge
1198
01:27:29,786 --> 01:27:32,195
onto the summit of the
bear's tooth was like
1199
01:27:32,205 --> 01:27:34,458
unlocking the last piece of the puzzle.
1200
01:27:36,835 --> 01:27:38,962
We were on the center of the Tooth Traverse
1201
01:27:39,880 --> 01:27:41,631
in the most beautiful part of it.
1202
01:27:42,716 --> 01:27:45,625
For us, it was just this fleeting moment
1203
01:27:45,635 --> 01:27:48,764
in our concept of how long we
were toiling on this climb.
1204
01:28:28,261 --> 01:28:29,669
We figured when we reached the
1205
01:28:29,679 --> 01:28:32,432
South face of the Moose's
Tooth, we'd be on easy street
1206
01:28:35,018 --> 01:28:37,270
because we had already
climbed that section.
1207
01:28:38,980 --> 01:28:39,981
Nice, Renan!
1208
01:28:43,193 --> 01:28:45,936
Without Zack there, those pitches felt
1209
01:28:45,946 --> 01:28:47,614
way harder than we remembered.
1210
01:28:57,999 --> 01:29:01,576
There was a big snow field
that was dripping water
1211
01:29:01,586 --> 01:29:05,288
down on this five, 11 slab traverse.
1212
01:29:05,298 --> 01:29:10,252
And Renan had to tiptoe across
it doing really precise,
1213
01:29:10,262 --> 01:29:11,763
insecure climbing.
1214
01:29:13,265 --> 01:29:15,298
That was like the ultimate little.
1215
01:29:15,308 --> 01:29:18,844
Yes, Zack, I almost died on the pitch
1216
01:29:18,854 --> 01:29:21,189
you pranced up in 20 minutes.
1217
01:29:24,317 --> 01:29:26,601
Once I got through the slab,
1218
01:29:26,611 --> 01:29:28,728
Freddie led us through the Bleeder pitch
1219
01:29:28,738 --> 01:29:30,323
towards the summit of the moose.
1220
01:29:48,258 --> 01:29:49,551
Denali looks cool.
1221
01:29:58,810 --> 01:30:01,187
Renan and I realized that, here we are,
1222
01:30:01,229 --> 01:30:03,847
and we're just about out of food and
1223
01:30:03,857 --> 01:30:06,943
we pretty much had no
choice, but to continue on.
1224
01:30:16,703 --> 01:30:19,029
It took us all night to get across the
1225
01:30:19,039 --> 01:30:21,875
summit ridge of the Moose's tooth.
1226
01:30:26,129 --> 01:30:28,840
Been going for almost 24 hours.
1227
01:30:34,179 --> 01:30:37,589
We've done the entire Tooth Traverse.
1228
01:30:37,599 --> 01:30:39,851
Now we're just trying
to finish up the moose.
1229
01:30:40,727 --> 01:30:41,811
Fuck yeah!
1230
01:30:44,397 --> 01:30:48,016
By 6:00 AM the next morning
we were stopping for another
1231
01:30:48,026 --> 01:30:51,394
quick rest on the West
summit of the Moose's tooth.
1232
01:30:51,404 --> 01:30:55,283
Before we began repelling
off the side of the mountain.
1233
01:30:56,451 --> 01:30:59,329
Hour 30 probably of the push.
1234
01:31:01,247 --> 01:31:03,500
It's kind of this unique feeling.
1235
01:31:04,626 --> 01:31:05,493
Dreaming.
1236
01:31:05,503 --> 01:31:08,546
Yeah, it's like a hallucination
1237
01:31:10,006 --> 01:31:12,300
without hallucinogens,
1238
01:31:13,885 --> 01:31:16,388
but you're doing things
where one wrong step,
1239
01:31:16,429 --> 01:31:17,429
you could die.
1240
01:31:18,098 --> 01:31:20,141
So it's even more trippy.
1241
01:31:24,771 --> 01:31:27,889
You just got to try to
keep yourself together.
1242
01:31:27,899 --> 01:31:29,109
Hour after hour.
1243
01:31:35,615 --> 01:31:38,410
And we probably have six hours to go.
1244
01:31:51,214 --> 01:31:54,332
The last challenge of the climb was
1245
01:31:54,342 --> 01:31:57,877
descending this gully down to the glacier
1246
01:31:57,887 --> 01:32:02,382
at the bottom of the gorge
and gully's are dangerous.
1247
01:32:02,392 --> 01:32:05,135
And we were going into this
one at the worst possible time.
1248
01:32:05,145 --> 01:32:08,638
It was 4:00 PM in the afternoon.
1249
01:32:08,648 --> 01:32:13,194
We had been on the go
for 30 some odd hours.
1250
01:32:16,489 --> 01:32:21,443
And all the circumstances were pointing to
1251
01:32:21,453 --> 01:32:24,529
this being a bad call,
but we had to get down.
1252
01:32:24,539 --> 01:32:26,458
We didn't think it'd take us too long.
1253
01:32:29,836 --> 01:32:34,799
And I realized how soft it was
at that hour of the day and
1254
01:32:35,842 --> 01:32:39,294
sat down and was seated past Renan
1255
01:32:39,304 --> 01:32:43,391
as he's really intensely
kicking steps down.
1256
01:32:45,060 --> 01:32:46,801
There could have been this giant crevasse
1257
01:32:46,811 --> 01:32:48,772
down there to eat us both up.
1258
01:32:50,774 --> 01:32:53,641
But after he committed, of course,
1259
01:32:53,651 --> 01:32:55,070
I was going to do the same.
1260
01:33:00,366 --> 01:33:03,536
And we were just sliding like little kids.
1261
01:33:41,199 --> 01:33:42,242
Nice job!
1262
01:33:44,160 --> 01:33:46,871
The first thing we did was we called Zack.
1263
01:33:48,289 --> 01:33:50,073
He was excited for us.
1264
01:33:50,083 --> 01:33:51,699
All right, man!
1265
01:33:51,709 --> 01:33:52,535
Hang loose.
1266
01:33:52,545 --> 01:33:55,328
And he knew that
he was this big driving force
1267
01:33:55,338 --> 01:33:57,048
for the Tooth Traverse overall.
1268
01:34:00,718 --> 01:34:03,336
The thing I'll remember more than any other
1269
01:34:03,346 --> 01:34:06,673
detail of the climb was how it felt
1270
01:34:06,683 --> 01:34:09,769
when we returned to base camp.
1271
01:34:11,271 --> 01:34:14,440
We just hung out in the
tent, listening to music,
1272
01:34:15,275 --> 01:34:16,808
the door wide open,
1273
01:34:16,818 --> 01:34:20,989
looking out on the skyline
we had just walked across.
1274
01:34:28,872 --> 01:34:31,197
By all rights, we should
have been exhausted
1275
01:34:31,207 --> 01:34:33,501
and should've fallen asleep immediately,
1276
01:34:36,171 --> 01:34:38,923
but we felt more energized than ever.
1277
01:34:42,385 --> 01:34:44,470
Those moments come so rarely.
1278
01:34:45,638 --> 01:34:46,890
We didn't want it to end.
1279
01:35:30,808 --> 01:35:32,759
Brad's favorite quotations,
1280
01:35:32,769 --> 01:35:35,939
which were touchstones for
him, one is from Aristotle-
1281
01:35:35,980 --> 01:35:38,223
quote, the search for truth-.
1282
01:35:38,233 --> 01:35:39,807
Is in one way hard-.
1283
01:35:39,817 --> 01:35:41,486
And in another easy,
1284
01:35:43,112 --> 01:35:45,897
for it is evident that
no one of us can ever-.
1285
01:35:45,907 --> 01:35:47,982
Master it fully.
1286
01:35:47,992 --> 01:35:49,285
Or use it wholly.
1287
01:35:53,790 --> 01:35:54,740
Each one of us-.
1288
01:35:54,750 --> 01:35:56,741
Adds to our understanding-.
1289
01:35:56,751 --> 01:35:59,754
Of the world around us.
1290
01:36:03,925 --> 01:36:06,834
And from all the facts assembled-.
1291
01:36:06,844 --> 01:36:09,379
Arises a certain grandeur.
1292
01:36:09,389 --> 01:36:11,474
Arises a certain grandeur.
1293
01:36:12,392 --> 01:36:15,645
Arises a certain grandeur.
100581
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