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1
00:02:50,630 --> 00:02:52,674
- Mmm.
- Thank you, dear.
2
00:02:52,757 --> 00:02:54,842
'Cause they're extra-special, filled with-
3
00:02:54,926 --> 00:02:55,926
Brussels sprouts.
4
00:02:55,968 --> 00:02:58,471
We get the surf and turf. You guys get-
5
00:02:58,554 --> 00:03:00,932
- We get the full-on Brussels sprout...
- Nice.
6
00:03:01,015 --> 00:03:02,600
Extravaganza.
7
00:03:03,643 --> 00:03:05,186
I can always...
8
00:03:05,269 --> 00:03:08,022
put it back out there
a little bit if it's not-
9
00:03:19,492 --> 00:03:23,037
When Conrad and I first got
married, he made all these promises.
10
00:03:23,121 --> 00:03:26,416
"Oh, I'm never gonna
go to the big mountains again."
11
00:03:27,625 --> 00:03:30,044
I knew he would never quit climbing...
12
00:03:30,128 --> 00:03:35,383
but it wasn't long before he was dreaming
of some other big expedition.
13
00:03:35,466 --> 00:03:38,594
And I was just rolling my eyes,
going, "Right, okay."
14
00:03:41,681 --> 00:03:44,308
High-altitude Himalayan
climbing is very risky.
15
00:03:44,392 --> 00:03:46,644
It is the most dangerous
professional sport.
16
00:03:46,728 --> 00:03:50,231
But I think with Meru,
that risk is worth it.
17
00:03:50,314 --> 00:03:53,609
As an Alpinist,
Meru is the culmination of all I've done...
18
00:03:53,693 --> 00:03:57,321
and all I've wanted to do
is this peak and this climb.
19
00:03:59,157 --> 00:04:02,034
I knew he was
gonna continue to climb forever...
20
00:04:02,118 --> 00:04:04,704
but, you know, in what aspect,
I wasn't sure.
21
00:04:05,997 --> 00:04:08,583
I know that stuff can happen.
22
00:04:08,666 --> 00:04:10,626
You know, and that's what I always say.
23
00:04:10,710 --> 00:04:12,712
"Yeah, yeah."
24
00:04:12,795 --> 00:04:14,422
But stuff can happen.
25
00:04:49,207 --> 00:04:52,960
I've been super carsick
for about an hour now.
26
00:04:53,044 --> 00:04:56,380
How you doin', Jimmy?
27
00:05:05,389 --> 00:05:09,727
We just airmailed a bunch of our stuff
off the top of our... truck...
28
00:05:09,811 --> 00:05:12,063
so we're pickin' up the pieces right now.
29
00:05:18,361 --> 00:05:21,823
Meru definitely had a reputation
as this impossible climb.
30
00:05:24,325 --> 00:05:28,246
And I also knew, just by the way
that Conrad brought the trip up...
31
00:05:28,329 --> 00:05:32,083
it was very nonchalant, so-
32
00:05:32,166 --> 00:05:35,086
I think the more nonchalant Conrad is...
33
00:05:35,169 --> 00:05:39,757
about suggesting a trip,
the more worried you oughta be.
34
00:05:56,816 --> 00:05:58,317
Oh, yeah.
35
00:06:15,209 --> 00:06:20,006
I was blown away when Jimmy
and Conrad approached me about Meru.
36
00:06:20,089 --> 00:06:22,174
They didn't build it up very much.
37
00:06:22,258 --> 00:06:27,221
They didn't say, "This is the mountain
that everyone's tried and failed on."
38
00:06:27,305 --> 00:06:31,392
In their minds, I was probably-
"Oh, here's some young, fresh blood."
39
00:06:31,475 --> 00:06:34,020
He's gonna be good at-
40
00:06:34,103 --> 00:06:37,148
to get the rope up on certain pitches.
41
00:07:12,934 --> 00:07:14,435
Namaste.
42
00:07:37,500 --> 00:07:40,544
Look at this reveal here. Yes! Om, om.
43
00:07:47,218 --> 00:07:49,387
The Shark's Fin on Meru central.
44
00:07:51,222 --> 00:07:55,393
This climb has seen more attempts and more
failures than any route in the Himalaya.
45
00:07:56,602 --> 00:07:58,938
Wow.
46
00:08:00,731 --> 00:08:02,608
It's the headwaters of the Ganges River...
47
00:08:02,692 --> 00:08:05,361
one of the most sacred rivers on Earth.
48
00:08:05,444 --> 00:08:08,572
The center of the universe.
It's this weird nexus...
49
00:08:08,656 --> 00:08:14,120
that sort of is the point where heaven and
Earth and hell all come together.
50
00:08:16,956 --> 00:08:20,292
The thing that gives it the name the
Shark's Fin is this 1,500-foot blade...
51
00:08:20,376 --> 00:08:22,878
of this beautiful, flawless granite...
52
00:08:22,962 --> 00:08:25,131
way up high, you know, 20,000 feet.
53
00:08:26,465 --> 00:08:30,553
This is the test of the master climber.
54
00:08:30,636 --> 00:08:34,849
You know, it's been tried by so many
great climbers- I don't know, 20 times.
55
00:08:34,932 --> 00:08:38,936
Some of the best climbers in the world
have tried and failed on this route.
56
00:08:41,647 --> 00:08:43,524
Meru is not just hard.
57
00:08:43,607 --> 00:08:46,694
It's hard in this really complicated way.
58
00:08:46,777 --> 00:08:48,362
You can't just be a good ice climber.
59
00:08:48,446 --> 00:08:51,991
You can't just be good at altitude. You
can't just be a good rock climber.
60
00:08:52,074 --> 00:08:54,660
You gotta be able to ice climb, mix climb.
61
00:08:54,744 --> 00:08:59,874
And you gotta be able to do
big-wall climbing at 20,000 feet.
62
00:08:59,957 --> 00:09:02,460
It's all that stuff
wrapped in one package...
63
00:09:02,543 --> 00:09:05,046
that's defeated so many good climbers...
64
00:09:05,129 --> 00:09:09,216
and will probably defeat you and maybe
will defeat everybody for all time.
65
00:09:09,300 --> 00:09:11,719
That, to a certain kind of mind-set...
66
00:09:11,802 --> 00:09:13,971
is an irresistible appeal.
67
00:09:30,905 --> 00:09:33,657
When we actually got there,
and I looked up at the mountain...
68
00:09:33,741 --> 00:09:36,994
I didn't know... what-
69
00:09:37,078 --> 00:09:40,956
what we were getting into, 'cause I'd
never seen something that complex before.
70
00:09:43,542 --> 00:09:47,505
Renan's inexperience
really didn't give me any reason to pause.
71
00:09:47,588 --> 00:09:50,132
I knew he was strong enough.
He knew the systems.
72
00:09:50,216 --> 00:09:54,428
And as a team, you're the sum total
of all your experience.
73
00:09:59,058 --> 00:10:02,144
I'd been on a number
of expeditions with Conrad.
74
00:10:02,228 --> 00:10:04,939
But I hadn't done any serious
climbs with him.
75
00:10:05,981 --> 00:10:08,442
And I had never done a climb with Jimmy.
76
00:10:12,947 --> 00:10:16,617
I'm so adamant about
only going on expeditions...
77
00:10:16,700 --> 00:10:19,620
with people that I know and that I trust.
78
00:10:19,703 --> 00:10:21,789
And there's one exception to that rule...
79
00:10:21,872 --> 00:10:27,169
and that's if somebody that I really,
really trust and know well, like Conrad...
80
00:10:27,253 --> 00:10:30,089
says, "This guy's worth bringing up."
81
00:10:33,342 --> 00:10:36,804
I had heard about Renan,
and I'd seen him in a climbing film...
82
00:10:36,887 --> 00:10:39,557
where he was, uh, free soloing
North Six Shooter.
83
00:10:40,933 --> 00:10:43,394
So I was like, "Okay. Gotta meet Renan."
84
00:10:45,896 --> 00:10:51,652
I saw this clip of Renan
free soloing Lighting Bolt Cracks.
85
00:10:51,735 --> 00:10:54,029
You see him do that stuff,
and it looks out there.
86
00:10:54,113 --> 00:10:58,492
He looks like something's
lit a fire under him.
87
00:10:58,576 --> 00:11:02,079
I heard about this kid
who's a super-talented climber.
88
00:11:02,163 --> 00:11:05,082
And he was living on the road...
89
00:11:05,166 --> 00:11:07,084
like most climbing bums...
90
00:11:07,168 --> 00:11:10,671
especially climbers
that are coming into the scene.
91
00:11:10,754 --> 00:11:12,715
Except for he didn't even have a car.
92
00:11:12,798 --> 00:11:16,427
He was literally just
dropped off in the desert.
93
00:11:26,770 --> 00:11:31,066
When I first met Renan,
he was mostly creating art in sketchbooks.
94
00:11:31,150 --> 00:11:33,194
Smaller-scale stuff.
95
00:11:33,277 --> 00:11:37,198
And then he started taking
big canvases out on expeditions.
96
00:11:37,281 --> 00:11:39,950
'Cause he was- At this point, he was
starting to go on more expeditions.
97
00:11:40,034 --> 00:11:45,789
Every opportunity was appreciated,
and he was basically going nonstop.
98
00:12:04,725 --> 00:12:08,437
5:30 in the evening.
Time to start the route.
99
00:12:10,481 --> 00:12:14,318
It's... crisp and cold.
100
00:12:14,401 --> 00:12:16,612
We're waiting for the sun to move away.
101
00:12:16,695 --> 00:12:18,656
So it'll set up and will freeze.
102
00:12:21,408 --> 00:12:23,369
Uh, this is the best moment-
103
00:12:23,452 --> 00:12:28,832
That... moment where everything
comes down, and you're really starting.
104
00:12:28,916 --> 00:12:32,503
Of course, I said that when we left
Gangotri and when we left Bozeman.
105
00:12:32,586 --> 00:12:37,007
But... now we're gonna camp
on the mountain tonight.
106
00:12:42,346 --> 00:12:45,099
Conrad first tried Meru in 2003...
107
00:12:45,182 --> 00:12:47,059
and got his ass kicked.
108
00:12:47,142 --> 00:12:50,396
It was super-technical climbing.
This isn't Everest.
109
00:12:50,479 --> 00:12:52,773
This is a whole different
kind of climbing.
110
00:12:52,856 --> 00:12:55,776
'Cause on Everest, you can hire Sherpas
to carry all your stuff...
111
00:12:55,859 --> 00:12:58,320
to fix the ropes for you,
to take most of the risks.
112
00:12:58,404 --> 00:13:00,948
Jimmy and Conrad have climbed
Everest four or five times.
113
00:13:01,031 --> 00:13:02,950
Jimmy's even skied off the top.
114
00:13:03,033 --> 00:13:05,119
But Meru is the anti-Everest.
115
00:13:05,202 --> 00:13:07,037
No one's gonna carry your stuff.
116
00:13:07,121 --> 00:13:09,707
If you need it, you need
to carry it on your back.
117
00:13:09,790 --> 00:13:12,418
And for Meru, you need
a lot of tools to do the job.
118
00:13:12,501 --> 00:13:15,212
Because the climbing covers
the whole spectrum.
119
00:13:16,380 --> 00:13:19,967
This upper 1,500 feet,
the Shark's Fin, is smooth.
120
00:13:20,050 --> 00:13:22,845
It's clean. It's nearly featureless.
121
00:13:22,928 --> 00:13:27,599
But below that is 4,000 feet of really
gnarly climbing- this fluted snow.
122
00:13:27,683 --> 00:13:29,184
Dangerous, exposed.
123
00:13:30,936 --> 00:13:35,065
So, time after time, guys would do that
first 4,000 feet, light and fast...
124
00:13:35,149 --> 00:13:36,859
thinkin' they're really studs.
125
00:13:36,942 --> 00:13:39,320
And then they get to the Fin,
and it's a big wall.
126
00:13:39,403 --> 00:13:42,197
And you gotta use big wall
techniques on the upper part of Meru.
127
00:13:42,281 --> 00:13:44,658
And you gotta go slow
for that kind of climbing.
128
00:13:44,742 --> 00:13:47,244
Maybe you'll only do 200 feet in a day.
129
00:13:47,328 --> 00:13:50,539
Maybe it's gonna take you six or seven
days to do that top 1,500 feet.
130
00:13:50,622 --> 00:13:53,862
And if it's gonna take you that long, if
you're going slow, you need a portaledge.
131
00:13:53,917 --> 00:13:56,378
You need food and water and fuel.
132
00:13:56,462 --> 00:13:59,006
Pretty soon, that's, like,
200 pounds of stuff.
133
00:13:59,089 --> 00:14:01,842
You need a big wall rack,
50 pounds of iron.
134
00:14:01,925 --> 00:14:06,347
So you gotta get that 200 pounds of crap
up the first 4,000 feet.
135
00:14:06,430 --> 00:14:08,140
And none of the previous climbers-
136
00:14:08,223 --> 00:14:10,642
and Conrad, his first time-
they couldn't believe that.
137
00:14:10,726 --> 00:14:13,645
They're not gonna climb that way.
138
00:14:13,729 --> 00:14:17,524
Humpin' loads. Feel the altitude a bit.
139
00:14:17,608 --> 00:14:20,027
But Conrad after that first
time said, "Huh."
140
00:14:20,110 --> 00:14:22,571
Here's the deal.
I see this, this epiphany.
141
00:14:22,654 --> 00:14:25,949
You gotta do this big wall style
and get your stuff up there.
142
00:14:43,509 --> 00:14:45,761
- Man, how's it going?
- It's goin'-
143
00:14:47,304 --> 00:14:51,767
Nighttime ops. Out climbing.
Luckily, the screws are solid.
144
00:14:54,436 --> 00:14:56,647
Now, why do we do this stuff?
145
00:14:57,981 --> 00:15:00,776
The view. The view.
146
00:15:08,117 --> 00:15:11,912
I think it's 2:00 in the morning.
We went for the ghetto bivy...
147
00:15:11,995 --> 00:15:14,206
on the shoulder instead
of setting up the ledge.
148
00:15:14,289 --> 00:15:18,085
It's a lot easier. We got some Korean-
149
00:15:18,168 --> 00:15:23,048
Tell us the reason why- the real
reason why we didn't set up anything.
150
00:15:23,132 --> 00:15:26,635
'Cause we're worked a little bit maybe.
151
00:15:28,178 --> 00:15:32,808
Could be worse. The sky could be, like,
unloading on us right now.
152
00:15:34,768 --> 00:15:37,187
Look what's happening over here.
153
00:15:38,522 --> 00:15:41,483
That's Conrad lying in the snow.
154
00:15:42,776 --> 00:15:45,821
And here's my really pathetic bivy.
155
00:15:45,904 --> 00:15:48,866
Oh, grim.
156
00:15:48,949 --> 00:15:52,744
You know it's grim when you're- Yeah.
157
00:15:52,828 --> 00:15:55,622
- When you bivy directly on the snow.
- Yeah.
158
00:15:55,706 --> 00:15:58,459
And it's snowing out a little bit too.
159
00:16:32,993 --> 00:16:35,996
Very first light.
160
00:16:37,331 --> 00:16:40,083
Goin' since... 2:00-ish.
161
00:16:46,924 --> 00:16:51,595
Pretty much made
a bunch of mistakes already today.
162
00:16:51,678 --> 00:16:53,180
Takin' me to school...
163
00:16:53,263 --> 00:16:55,015
Yet again.
164
00:16:55,098 --> 00:16:57,976
But, we're makin' good progress...
165
00:16:58,060 --> 00:17:01,188
haulin' 200-pound loads...
166
00:17:01,271 --> 00:17:04,066
up a 3,000-foot snow filter...
167
00:17:05,108 --> 00:17:06,944
at 16,000 feet.
168
00:17:16,328 --> 00:17:18,956
See that system comin' in here
pretty soon.
169
00:17:22,292 --> 00:17:25,087
Conrad and I have been through
some tough expeditions together...
170
00:17:25,170 --> 00:17:27,130
all around the world.
171
00:17:28,298 --> 00:17:31,176
We were on K7 in Pakistan.
172
00:17:31,260 --> 00:17:34,638
We skied Denali, and
we've been on Everest together.
173
00:17:35,806 --> 00:17:39,017
Conrad's reputation
among climbers is flawless.
174
00:17:41,270 --> 00:17:44,648
The irony is he became world famous
for finding Mallory's body...
175
00:17:44,731 --> 00:17:46,275
during an Everest climb...
176
00:17:46,358 --> 00:17:49,403
instead of for his difficult
first ascents around the world.
177
00:17:53,365 --> 00:17:57,160
Most of my generation of climbers grew up
following his expeditions.
178
00:17:59,329 --> 00:18:03,250
Back then I'd never imagined
I'd actually get to climb with him.
179
00:18:03,333 --> 00:18:07,337
So it's hard to believe this will be
almost seven years as climbing partners.
180
00:18:10,424 --> 00:18:14,177
It got a little snowy.
181
00:18:14,845 --> 00:18:16,346
Yup.
182
00:18:16,430 --> 00:18:19,975
- But we're committed to going up.
- Yeah.
183
00:18:20,058 --> 00:18:22,477
It's only gonna be snowy for a little bit.
Then it's gonna be nice.
184
00:18:22,561 --> 00:18:24,396
Right?
185
00:18:24,479 --> 00:18:27,190
Meanwhile we look out
into inside of a Ping-Pong ball.
186
00:18:36,908 --> 00:18:38,410
A storm came...
187
00:18:38,493 --> 00:18:41,288
and we fought to build
our hanging portaledge camp.
188
00:18:41,371 --> 00:18:42,623
Whoo! Nice work!
189
00:18:42,706 --> 00:18:46,793
Which is basically
a hanging cot with a tent over it.
190
00:18:53,967 --> 00:18:57,804
- Holy Jesus.
- Okay, good.
191
00:19:09,107 --> 00:19:12,361
Then we start hearing
the avalanches coming off on the side...
192
00:19:13,070 --> 00:19:15,072
ripping out next to you.
193
00:19:44,518 --> 00:19:47,312
Look, it's snowing outside.
194
00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:53,360
Living in a portaledge, and it's snowing.
195
00:19:53,443 --> 00:19:56,905
I kind of feel like Christmas somehow.
196
00:19:56,988 --> 00:19:59,950
This is what
we want for Christmas- a snowstorm and...
197
00:20:00,033 --> 00:20:03,161
- to sit here in the-
- On the Shark's Fin?
198
00:20:03,245 --> 00:20:08,208
- Yeah.
- All soaking wet. Awesome.
199
00:20:16,007 --> 00:20:19,720
And so, we're there for a day.
Then we're there for two days.
200
00:20:19,803 --> 00:20:21,555
Then we're there for three days.
201
00:20:21,638 --> 00:20:26,059
And basically, we're stuck on
the portaledge for four days.
202
00:20:27,644 --> 00:20:30,397
It was...
one of the biggest storms I'd ever seen.
203
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,066
It was four days in the storm...
204
00:20:33,150 --> 00:20:36,862
and we had only seven days of food total.
205
00:20:36,945 --> 00:20:42,117
So, we ended up, you know,
depleting a lot of our food supply.
206
00:20:43,660 --> 00:20:46,663
We had essentially lost half our food.
207
00:20:46,747 --> 00:20:50,083
And 90% of the mountain
was still above us.
208
00:20:56,131 --> 00:20:59,760
It's Samsara- the bivy of suffering.
209
00:21:01,928 --> 00:21:04,639
I thought, "Okay, it's over."
210
00:21:04,723 --> 00:21:08,101
"We've had a good run at it."
211
00:21:08,185 --> 00:21:11,897
Cold. Where's the sun we had
the last couple days?
212
00:21:11,980 --> 00:21:13,648
We're up here freezing.
213
00:21:14,858 --> 00:21:16,651
This is too much for me.
214
00:21:16,735 --> 00:21:20,781
I'm in over my head.
And I'm glad to have the experience...
215
00:21:20,864 --> 00:21:23,492
but I'm also glad that
we're going down tomorrow.
216
00:21:31,792 --> 00:21:33,668
The storm clears finally.
217
00:21:33,752 --> 00:21:37,964
And you know, in my head,
I'm like, "Okay, you know..."
218
00:21:38,048 --> 00:21:40,884
now it's time to move. Storm's over."
219
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:49,184
So when we started gearing up
that day and getting ready to climb...
220
00:21:49,267 --> 00:21:53,313
you know, there was some confusion,
I think, for Renan, that we were going-
221
00:21:53,396 --> 00:21:56,733
uh, you know,
that we were going up as opposed to down.
222
00:21:56,817 --> 00:21:59,736
Okay.
223
00:22:03,865 --> 00:22:07,118
They just started racking up
to continue up the mountain.
224
00:22:07,202 --> 00:22:11,206
I didn't know why or how-
what they were thinking.
225
00:22:11,289 --> 00:22:12,874
And especially Conrad.
226
00:22:12,958 --> 00:22:17,420
I'd never seen him so... motivated...
about a climb.
227
00:22:34,521 --> 00:22:36,731
Climbing's a really dangerous sport.
228
00:22:36,815 --> 00:22:41,361
And a good partner will
push you to the summit...
229
00:22:41,444 --> 00:22:46,283
but at the same time, keep you aware of
the risks that are involved with it.
230
00:22:55,166 --> 00:22:58,044
Belaying out of the portaledge...
231
00:22:59,796 --> 00:23:03,592
That 100% trust in your partner
is pretty special.
232
00:23:05,552 --> 00:23:07,053
I think Renan was shocked...
233
00:23:07,137 --> 00:23:09,723
because he hadn't ever really
had anything at that extent.
234
00:23:09,806 --> 00:23:12,809
And Jimmy and I, we'd been through that.
235
00:23:16,146 --> 00:23:21,234
We're pushing on through it, and it's that
understanding of "It's not that bad."
236
00:23:21,318 --> 00:23:22,986
And that's where a mentor comes in.
237
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:31,244
Climbing is this weird craft, you know,
passed down from generation to generation.
238
00:23:31,328 --> 00:23:33,580
The way you learn is you have a mentor.
239
00:23:34,623 --> 00:23:38,793
Conrad learned at the feet of Mugs Stump.
240
00:23:38,877 --> 00:23:42,839
Conrad was this young phenom, and Mugs was
one of the great climbers in the world.
241
00:23:42,923 --> 00:23:45,800
Mugs was great.
He took me under his wing.
242
00:23:45,884 --> 00:23:48,345
He was the sensei,
and I was the grasshopper.
243
00:23:48,428 --> 00:23:50,472
He pushed me.
244
00:23:50,555 --> 00:23:55,268
He had taken what was unshapen
and given shape to it.
245
00:23:55,352 --> 00:24:00,148
Still, to this day,
a very important part of my life.
246
00:24:01,733 --> 00:24:04,778
So Conrad,
he'd found the perfect mentor.
247
00:24:04,861 --> 00:24:08,073
And Mugs would take him into his van
and lift the prayer flag...
248
00:24:08,156 --> 00:24:11,451
and there's his special goal,
which is this peak called Meru.
249
00:24:11,534 --> 00:24:13,203
And Conrad was like, "Ooh."
250
00:24:14,496 --> 00:24:17,874
And Mugs tried it twice-
I think in '86 and '88.
251
00:24:17,958 --> 00:24:20,669
Failed both times,
for all kinds of reasons.
252
00:24:20,752 --> 00:24:25,131
But to Mugs, this didn't deter him.
This was- He is the cosmic climber...
253
00:24:25,215 --> 00:24:28,301
and this is all part of the cosmic plan,
and he was gonna go back.
254
00:24:28,385 --> 00:24:32,305
And I'm sure Conrad-
That made a huge impression on him.
255
00:24:32,389 --> 00:24:36,559
So then, 1992, two years
after I met Conrad...
256
00:24:36,643 --> 00:24:39,980
uh, Mugs died on Denali,
guiding a bootleg client.
257
00:24:42,857 --> 00:24:45,819
I was working in Salt Lake
and went climbing.
258
00:24:45,902 --> 00:24:47,612
And, uh, we were driving back.
259
00:24:47,696 --> 00:24:52,283
And my friend Doug said,
"Hey, we think Mugs has died."
260
00:24:53,868 --> 00:24:59,290
I remember exactly on the interstate where
Doug had that conversation.
261
00:24:59,374 --> 00:25:01,835
I was like, "Oh, fuck!"
262
00:25:01,918 --> 00:25:04,379
Because I always thought that
shit like that's gonna happen.
263
00:25:04,462 --> 00:25:07,590
But it's not gonna happen to Mugs.
He was the best.
264
00:25:27,610 --> 00:25:31,114
Climbing with your mentor
is a dangerous thing sometimes...
265
00:25:31,197 --> 00:25:33,742
because you give them all of your trust.
266
00:25:33,825 --> 00:25:37,704
I gave them everything, and...
267
00:25:37,787 --> 00:25:42,417
there was a constant battle
in my mind every day.
268
00:25:50,216 --> 00:25:53,887
I'd be freezing,
shivering uncontrollably...
269
00:25:55,221 --> 00:25:58,558
But I definitely didn't want
to be the guy that said...
270
00:25:58,641 --> 00:26:01,061
"Oh, I'm cold. I want to go down."
271
00:26:02,645 --> 00:26:04,647
Loose, eh?
272
00:26:04,731 --> 00:26:09,152
It must have been negative
20 when the sun went around the corner.
273
00:26:10,653 --> 00:26:14,574
It's debilitating trying to climb
in those kind of temperatures.
274
00:26:17,243 --> 00:26:19,954
It's all about climbing the cracks.
275
00:26:21,831 --> 00:26:24,584
I don't see any here.
276
00:26:26,252 --> 00:26:29,172
We'd hit these totally
blank sections of rock.
277
00:26:29,255 --> 00:26:32,383
And I was sure there wasn't
anywhere else to go.
278
00:26:35,512 --> 00:26:39,974
But then Jimmy or Conrad
would launch into the void.
279
00:26:48,358 --> 00:26:52,112
You know, this is steep,
modern A4 E-climbing.
280
00:26:52,195 --> 00:26:54,447
It's using tools. You're a craftsman...
281
00:26:54,531 --> 00:26:56,741
tapping and pounding and tweaking.
282
00:26:56,825 --> 00:26:58,868
And he's like this cabinetmaker...
283
00:26:58,952 --> 00:27:02,288
chiseling away at this cabinet
out of walnut or something.
284
00:27:02,372 --> 00:27:06,626
Except, you know, if you hit that chisel
one more time and you're a cabinetmaker...
285
00:27:06,709 --> 00:27:09,629
maybe you split it and
you ruin this cabinet- bummer.
286
00:27:09,712 --> 00:27:13,716
If on an A4 pitch, you,
like, split the cabinet, you die.
287
00:27:37,949 --> 00:27:40,076
Yeah, I'll tent right there.
288
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:42,078
Uh, you wanna be here? Where you wanna be?
289
00:27:42,162 --> 00:27:45,081
I don't care. I'm right on this edge.
I'll sit here for now.
290
00:27:45,165 --> 00:27:47,458
I got some hot bevies.
291
00:27:47,542 --> 00:27:51,796
It's hard to overstate
what kind of condition we were in.
292
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:54,674
Barely.
293
00:27:54,757 --> 00:28:00,013
We're literally down to eating a couple
spoonfuls of granola in the morning...
294
00:28:00,096 --> 00:28:03,349
and sharing a couple slices
of salami during the day...
295
00:28:03,433 --> 00:28:04,934
with couple pieces of cheese.
296
00:28:05,018 --> 00:28:09,063
I mean, we're definitely
on pretty limited rations at this point.
297
00:28:10,732 --> 00:28:12,650
Roasty.
298
00:28:13,985 --> 00:28:18,698
For climbers over a stove
on a half-empty jug of propane...
299
00:28:18,781 --> 00:28:20,825
there's nothing finer
than roasting the rind.
300
00:28:20,909 --> 00:28:23,494
It becomes quite tasty.
301
00:28:24,996 --> 00:28:28,958
'Cause basically eating
everything that you have left.
302
00:28:29,042 --> 00:28:31,211
Super efficient.
303
00:28:31,294 --> 00:28:35,965
Next week, we'll be eating our boots.
304
00:28:50,146 --> 00:28:55,401
You know, Conrad talks a lot
about how to keep the risk manageable.
305
00:28:55,485 --> 00:28:59,239
Talks about there's acceptable risk
and unacceptable risk.
306
00:28:59,322 --> 00:29:03,284
But he always keeps it on the acceptable
side by leaving this margin.
307
00:29:04,244 --> 00:29:05,745
Om, shanti.
308
00:29:05,828 --> 00:29:09,832
But... you know,
he had tried this climb before...
309
00:29:09,916 --> 00:29:13,503
failed, and even
if he didn't admit it to himself...
310
00:29:13,586 --> 00:29:18,341
to succeed, he was gonna have to throw
that conservative stuff out the window...
311
00:29:18,424 --> 00:29:20,760
and take mega-risk on this.
312
00:29:24,764 --> 00:29:27,267
But, you know,
if they want to stay alive...
313
00:29:27,350 --> 00:29:29,602
they cannot fuck up at all.
314
00:29:29,686 --> 00:29:33,856
And he talked about,
"If I die, I've really let down my family.
315
00:29:33,940 --> 00:29:36,192
I cannot make any mistakes."
316
00:29:36,276 --> 00:29:38,611
That's not good to be thinkin'
when you're that far out there.
317
00:29:38,695 --> 00:29:42,365
He is thinkin', "Man, I cannot die now..."
318
00:29:42,448 --> 00:29:44,701
because then I've blown it
for my wife and kids."
319
00:29:46,911 --> 00:29:48,830
Jenni has no idea.
320
00:29:48,913 --> 00:29:52,542
She has no fucking idea
what he is really doin' out there.
321
00:30:04,137 --> 00:30:06,014
Fuck.
322
00:30:06,097 --> 00:30:08,975
We're all just kind of frayed.
323
00:30:09,058 --> 00:30:13,730
Sixteen days up here,
just givin' it everything we have.
324
00:30:14,731 --> 00:30:16,691
It's been really slow.
325
00:30:17,775 --> 00:30:20,820
And, uh, we're running
out of fuel actually.
326
00:30:21,904 --> 00:30:24,782
Um, and food. And cigarettes and papers.
327
00:30:24,866 --> 00:30:28,661
But tomorrow is kind of the decider.
328
00:30:28,745 --> 00:30:31,581
If we, uh...
329
00:30:31,664 --> 00:30:34,751
don't get up and around
this big, steep headwall...
330
00:30:36,919 --> 00:30:39,213
we're gonna have to
pull the cord, but, uh...
331
00:30:39,297 --> 00:30:42,759
we got one last push tomorrow.
332
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:54,020
Jimmy's strength is that
he's very rational and accepting...
333
00:30:54,103 --> 00:30:56,272
and real in what we can do.
334
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,360
When we first met,
I realized right away...
335
00:31:00,443 --> 00:31:03,363
there was a mentorship
that was going to blossom.
336
00:31:03,446 --> 00:31:08,868
I also immediately sensed that
he was driven and determined.
337
00:31:08,951 --> 00:31:12,246
And I never really knew why.
338
00:31:14,540 --> 00:31:17,210
My parents called me Xiao-pang.
339
00:31:17,293 --> 00:31:19,253
It means "Little Chub."
340
00:31:19,337 --> 00:31:24,175
My parents had to escape
from China during the Communist Revolution.
341
00:31:24,258 --> 00:31:25,968
They both went through a lot.
342
00:31:27,428 --> 00:31:30,390
They came to the United States
to make a new life.
343
00:31:30,473 --> 00:31:34,060
And I think they had
really high expectations for me.
344
00:31:34,727 --> 00:31:37,939
My dad was a hard-ass.
345
00:31:38,022 --> 00:31:41,275
In the wintertime, we would get cords of
wood to heat the house.
346
00:31:41,359 --> 00:31:44,278
And he'd put it in the back
of this huge yard we had...
347
00:31:44,362 --> 00:31:48,116
and make me drag it back
on a sled in thigh-deep snow.
348
00:31:50,159 --> 00:31:52,286
He was really about being tough.
349
00:31:53,913 --> 00:31:56,666
Mountain climbing,
it wasn't a career to them.
350
00:31:56,749 --> 00:31:59,252
My mom used to call me all the time...
351
00:31:59,335 --> 00:32:03,047
and lament about the fact
her son was this homeless man...
352
00:32:03,131 --> 00:32:07,093
who wandered around
and camped and didn't have a home.
353
00:32:09,429 --> 00:32:12,140
But when I went through
a difficult divorce...
354
00:32:12,223 --> 00:32:15,726
and called Jimmy, crying, upset...
355
00:32:15,810 --> 00:32:19,772
his first words were, "Come stay with me."
356
00:32:19,856 --> 00:32:23,734
So, we just moved into his bachelor pad.
357
00:32:23,818 --> 00:32:26,737
Two kids, all their markers
and Legos.
358
00:32:26,821 --> 00:32:27,821
Yeah.
359
00:32:27,864 --> 00:32:29,532
And he just took us right in.
360
00:32:33,202 --> 00:32:36,956
You know, he's another one of
these extremely accomplished climbers.
361
00:32:37,039 --> 00:32:38,499
You don't appreciate
how good a climber he is...
362
00:32:38,583 --> 00:32:40,751
because
you get distracted by the art...
363
00:32:40,835 --> 00:32:43,463
which is probably the way he likes it.
364
00:32:43,546 --> 00:32:47,175
And taking pictures makes
the climbing Way harder.
365
00:32:47,258 --> 00:32:50,887
He was filming this Everest
expedition, and his morn got really sick.
366
00:32:50,970 --> 00:32:55,308
And he found out about it and had to leave
so he could see her before she died.
367
00:32:59,020 --> 00:33:03,065
My mom had made me promise
fairly early on, she was like...
368
00:33:03,149 --> 00:33:06,986
"If you're gonna make this your life,
you need to promise me one thing.
369
00:33:07,069 --> 00:33:11,240
You have to promise me that
you will not die before me."
370
00:33:11,324 --> 00:33:14,327
And when I was on climbs
and on expeditions...
371
00:33:14,410 --> 00:33:18,164
I would get to a certain point,
and I would say, "Okay."
372
00:33:18,247 --> 00:33:22,335
"How close am I willing to go to
potentially break that promise?"
373
00:33:22,418 --> 00:33:25,755
So, after my mom died...
374
00:33:25,838 --> 00:33:28,841
when the climbing
started to get into that place...
375
00:33:28,925 --> 00:33:34,180
I remember a moment being like,
"Well, I can go for it right now."
376
00:33:43,314 --> 00:33:46,234
Conrad's up there. Can't find good gear.
377
00:33:47,276 --> 00:33:51,364
Our hands and feet are all frost-numb.
378
00:33:51,447 --> 00:33:52,990
Nice, Rad.
379
00:33:53,658 --> 00:33:55,493
Good move.
380
00:33:56,953 --> 00:34:00,248
We're probably at about 20,500 feet.
381
00:34:00,331 --> 00:34:02,291
Just short of the ridge.
382
00:34:03,167 --> 00:34:05,294
It's fucking Arctic.
383
00:34:07,088 --> 00:34:09,257
Today's our summit bid.
384
00:34:17,557 --> 00:34:19,100
Bring it in.
385
00:34:20,434 --> 00:34:23,229
- Whoo!
- Yeah, Rad!
386
00:34:26,774 --> 00:34:28,568
Nice!
387
00:34:28,651 --> 00:34:31,862
The game in climbing is cut
that line as fine as you can.
388
00:34:31,946 --> 00:34:34,323
But you don't want to take stupid risk.
389
00:34:34,407 --> 00:34:37,618
If you die taking a stupid risk,
not only are you dead...
390
00:34:37,702 --> 00:34:40,413
but you've embarrassed yourself
and you've disgraced yourself.
391
00:34:40,496 --> 00:34:42,623
You're not supposed to take risk lightly.
392
00:34:42,707 --> 00:34:45,835
You're supposed to show
that you're so good and so controlled...
393
00:34:45,918 --> 00:34:48,504
you can take it right to that line
and go no further.
394
00:34:51,674 --> 00:34:55,261
It's been a super long morning.
Started at 2:00.
395
00:34:55,344 --> 00:34:58,014
Probably another 500 feet to the summit.
396
00:34:59,974 --> 00:35:02,268
We're gunning for the summit ridgeline...
397
00:35:02,351 --> 00:35:07,315
and Conrad's burrowing through
this overhanging cornice.
398
00:35:07,398 --> 00:35:10,776
Renan is in the line of fire.
399
00:35:10,860 --> 00:35:13,946
Snow and ice falling 150 feet...
400
00:35:14,030 --> 00:35:16,449
just slamming Renan.
401
00:35:16,532 --> 00:35:19,785
All the shrapnel and
the ice that he was kicking down...
402
00:35:19,869 --> 00:35:21,996
was going directly onto me-
403
00:35:22,079 --> 00:35:23,623
like, constant deluge.
404
00:35:23,706 --> 00:35:28,127
And I could really feel
that I was losing my fingers and toes.
405
00:35:28,210 --> 00:35:33,341
I started just screaming...
and yelling and crying.
406
00:35:33,424 --> 00:35:36,052
That was my absolute last breaking point.
407
00:35:36,135 --> 00:35:39,972
I even said something when I got up there,
like, "My feet aren't doing so well."
408
00:35:40,056 --> 00:35:43,184
They didn't even acknowledge what I said.
409
00:35:43,267 --> 00:35:47,229
They were talking about
spending the night there.
410
00:35:49,482 --> 00:35:51,602
Conrad and I are having
a conversation like...
411
00:35:51,651 --> 00:35:55,154
"Is there a spot to bivy? Is there a spot
for us to spend the night?"
412
00:35:55,237 --> 00:36:00,868
Trying to sleep perched
on this tiny little corner...
413
00:36:00,951 --> 00:36:03,788
at 20,000 feet without sleeping bags...
414
00:36:03,871 --> 00:36:07,083
and risk fingers and toes.
415
00:36:10,461 --> 00:36:12,922
What if we push on? Should we push on?
416
00:36:13,005 --> 00:36:16,008
If you go for it
and you spend the night out...
417
00:36:16,092 --> 00:36:20,179
there's a probability
that's higher than you want...
418
00:36:20,262 --> 00:36:23,015
that you... aren't gonna come back.
419
00:36:25,267 --> 00:36:28,979
Just shy of the summit.
420
00:36:29,063 --> 00:36:32,692
It's 4:00, and we're at 17 days.
421
00:36:32,775 --> 00:36:36,445
- We're fuckin' roasted.
- Started out this morning at midnight.
422
00:36:36,529 --> 00:36:40,491
If we go today and attempt to the summit,
that means we're gonna be out tonight...
423
00:36:40,574 --> 00:36:46,205
and an unplanned bivouac at 20,000 feet
in really cold climate...
424
00:36:46,288 --> 00:36:49,959
without proper protection
and without sufficient food...
425
00:36:50,042 --> 00:36:51,794
just doesn't make any sense.
426
00:37:09,311 --> 00:37:11,105
It's over.
427
00:37:11,188 --> 00:37:13,941
A hundred meters short of the summit.
428
00:37:14,024 --> 00:37:16,777
We just don't have
the safety margin to make it.
429
00:37:19,655 --> 00:37:23,617
It's not easy turning around. But-
430
00:37:23,701 --> 00:37:25,995
Fuck, this thing was an ass-kicker.
431
00:37:26,078 --> 00:37:28,497
Maybe it just wasn't meant to be climbed.
432
00:37:30,583 --> 00:37:33,544
But I'm not coming back.
433
00:37:35,004 --> 00:37:39,008
I mean, that's just so-
434
00:37:41,844 --> 00:37:45,848
- The center of the universe is-
- Unattainable.
435
00:37:57,276 --> 00:37:59,570
When we finally made
the decision to go down...
436
00:37:59,653 --> 00:38:01,280
it was a relief.
437
00:38:01,363 --> 00:38:04,450
Uh, it was also heartbreaking.
438
00:38:13,876 --> 00:38:18,214
Our feet are... hammered
and we're just emaciated.
439
00:38:18,297 --> 00:38:20,800
When we got down off the mountain...
440
00:38:20,883 --> 00:38:26,138
our condition was this combination
of frostbite and trench foot.
441
00:38:26,222 --> 00:38:27,807
Trench foot is what you get...
442
00:38:27,890 --> 00:38:32,061
when your feet and your hands are in
this wet, damp condition...
443
00:38:32,144 --> 00:38:34,480
for a long period of time,
and they start to rot.
444
00:38:34,563 --> 00:38:39,485
I came back in a wheelchair.
I couldn't really walk for a few weeks.
445
00:38:39,568 --> 00:38:43,989
All of us gave it our best.
We pushed our limits.
446
00:38:44,073 --> 00:38:46,283
Uh, there was something left undone.
447
00:38:48,244 --> 00:38:51,914
But... I was possessed.
448
00:38:51,997 --> 00:38:53,749
I wasn't even down, and I was like...
449
00:38:53,833 --> 00:38:57,169
"Okay, do I come back in
pre-monsoon, post-monsoon?
450
00:38:57,253 --> 00:39:00,756
When are we gonna do it,
and what do we gotta do better this time?"
451
00:39:11,976 --> 00:39:17,106
After 2008, Renan and I ended up
on a bunch of different shoots together.
452
00:39:17,189 --> 00:39:20,442
We went all over the world.
We were in Chad, Africa.
453
00:39:20,526 --> 00:39:22,653
We were in Borneo.
454
00:39:22,736 --> 00:39:25,614
We worked on a ton of jobs together.
455
00:39:38,085 --> 00:39:42,840
We knew that there were a number of teams
who attempted the Shark's Fin after us.
456
00:39:42,923 --> 00:39:47,636
And then this great Slovenian
climber named Silvo Karo...
457
00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:51,974
called Conrad to ask for beta-
ask for information on the route.
458
00:39:52,057 --> 00:39:56,145
And so we gave him our total support.
We weren't being possessive of the climb.
459
00:39:56,228 --> 00:39:59,565
We weren't- it wasn't-
We don't own that mountain.
460
00:39:59,648 --> 00:40:04,570
We were like,
"Here it is. Here's what we learned."
461
00:40:04,653 --> 00:40:08,616
And, "Finish the story
of the Shark's Fin."
462
00:40:08,699 --> 00:40:12,620
Because then we don't
have to go back. It's done.
463
00:40:12,703 --> 00:40:15,748
And we kind of assumed Silvo would get it.
464
00:40:15,831 --> 00:40:18,918
And then I got a call
from Conrad, you know.
465
00:40:19,001 --> 00:40:22,129
And all he said was, "He didn't get it."
466
00:40:22,212 --> 00:40:26,425
At that point we're like,
"Okay." Gears turning. "We're going back."
467
00:40:26,508 --> 00:40:30,679
They say the best Alpinists
are the ones with the worst memory.
468
00:40:38,562 --> 00:40:41,565
About six months before
we were supposed to head to Meru...
469
00:40:41,649 --> 00:40:42,775
on our second attempt...
470
00:40:42,858 --> 00:40:47,321
Renan and I were out shooting
a commercial project in Jackson Hole.
471
00:40:47,404 --> 00:40:50,699
It's not too steep up here.
The summit's probably right here.
472
00:40:50,783 --> 00:40:54,745
I had gotten a call from
Jeremy Jones and Xavier de Le Rue...
473
00:40:54,828 --> 00:40:57,665
two of the best big-mountain
snowboarders in the world.
474
00:40:57,748 --> 00:40:59,375
In here, is this the steepest part?
475
00:40:59,458 --> 00:41:02,211
It was a big job,
and I asked Renan to film on it...
476
00:41:02,294 --> 00:41:04,004
even though he wasn't a great skier.
477
00:41:04,088 --> 00:41:07,800
This line, below this
is, like, thousands of cliffs.
478
00:41:19,645 --> 00:41:23,399
I'm stoked. Those are the first turns
I've ever made with Jeremy and Xav.
479
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:26,735
Bodes well.
480
00:41:28,070 --> 00:41:29,738
That was awesome.
481
00:41:36,078 --> 00:41:39,790
We were headed down together
when I saw Renan catch an edge.
482
00:41:39,873 --> 00:41:43,377
And he spun out of control
and disappeared over a cliff.
483
00:41:45,212 --> 00:41:46,964
Oh. Oh!
484
00:41:52,469 --> 00:41:56,849
I got down to him,
and there was blood all around his head.
485
00:41:56,932 --> 00:41:59,852
I got it.
486
00:41:59,935 --> 00:42:04,189
He'd smashed his skull,
and you could see into his head.
487
00:42:04,273 --> 00:42:07,568
I thought he was gonna die... in my arms.
488
00:42:07,651 --> 00:42:10,696
I felt responsible.
489
00:42:10,779 --> 00:42:14,366
He has an open, depressed
skull fracture with pneumocephali...
490
00:42:14,450 --> 00:42:16,285
which is air inside the skull.
491
00:42:16,368 --> 00:42:21,457
And... he has a C2 teardrop fracture
and lateral mass fracture...
492
00:42:21,540 --> 00:42:25,044
as well as a C6 spinous process fracture.
493
00:42:36,388 --> 00:42:38,307
We came out, okay?
494
00:42:51,070 --> 00:42:53,989
He's gonna be immobilized for a long time.
They're gonna take him to surgery.
495
00:42:54,073 --> 00:42:56,408
Any sort of, like,
significant risks during the surgery?
496
00:42:56,492 --> 00:42:57,493
Absolutely.
497
00:43:00,412 --> 00:43:05,167
So they tell us we can see him
and they roll him out, and he just looked-
498
00:43:06,335 --> 00:43:08,670
I- I mean, I recognized him, but-
499
00:43:10,005 --> 00:43:12,966
I mean, he looked so beat down.
500
00:43:18,806 --> 00:43:24,269
So when I found you,
you were... face down... in a pile.
501
00:43:24,353 --> 00:43:28,190
You essentially had, like,
a triangle about that big-
502
00:43:29,900 --> 00:43:33,529
about that big where I could
see your skull.
503
00:43:35,948 --> 00:43:40,452
Renan had landed on
his head and severely fractured his skull.
504
00:43:40,536 --> 00:43:44,123
He broke two vertebrae in his neck.
505
00:43:44,206 --> 00:43:47,292
He severed one of his vertebral arteries.
506
00:43:47,376 --> 00:43:52,297
And basically cut off
half the blood flow to his brain.
507
00:43:52,381 --> 00:43:55,884
I asked, I said,
"Well, what are we talkin' about here?"
508
00:43:55,968 --> 00:44:01,890
They were like, "90% of people with any
one of these injuries will never walk again."
509
00:44:01,974 --> 00:44:04,768
His head injury-
They were saying, you know-
510
00:44:04,852 --> 00:44:09,398
it was within a millimeter
of him being a vegetable.
511
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,153
- Here we are-
- I got a call from Jimmy.
512
00:44:14,236 --> 00:44:16,738
He said, "There's been
a really severe accident."
513
00:44:16,822 --> 00:44:18,323
And I drove down right away.
514
00:44:18,407 --> 00:44:20,200
We had this moment where it was...
515
00:44:20,284 --> 00:44:22,077
"You're gonna be fine. Things are good."
516
00:44:22,161 --> 00:44:24,496
And we got up and we got the walker...
517
00:44:24,580 --> 00:44:28,333
and we walked from east to west
on the linoleum floor.
518
00:44:30,919 --> 00:44:33,547
- Recovery mode.
- Yeah.
519
00:44:36,049 --> 00:44:40,846
Let's go somewhere quick,
so we can get our job done.
520
00:44:40,929 --> 00:44:41,930
Yep.
521
00:44:42,014 --> 00:44:45,350
- September.
- Exactly.
522
00:44:45,434 --> 00:44:48,478
At the time,
he was like, "I want to go to Meru."
523
00:44:48,562 --> 00:44:53,025
But I didn't want to be like,
"Dude, you're hooped. I mean, come on."
524
00:44:53,108 --> 00:44:57,196
You don't have the heart to tell
someone something's impossible.
525
00:44:57,279 --> 00:45:00,032
You're not gonna stuff 'em
right at that moment and say...
526
00:45:00,115 --> 00:45:02,367
"Dude, what are you talkin' about?
You're never goin' back to Meru.
527
00:45:02,451 --> 00:45:05,370
You're never goin' climbing."
You just don't say those kind of things.
528
00:45:10,209 --> 00:45:14,421
We'll see how it-
see how it does at altitude at some point.
529
00:45:23,055 --> 00:45:25,224
Once I knew Renan was stable...
530
00:45:25,307 --> 00:45:28,727
I headed back to Jackson
to try and finish the job.
531
00:45:30,812 --> 00:45:32,981
As far as Jimmy coming back...
532
00:45:33,065 --> 00:45:37,069
"no one would have said anything
if Jimmy said, "I'm not going to do it."
533
00:45:37,152 --> 00:45:38,612
"Um, I'm done."
534
00:45:38,695 --> 00:45:42,157
Those are real personal decisions.
535
00:45:42,241 --> 00:45:46,745
It was kind of a, "All right, you have to
get back on the horse" mentality.
536
00:45:55,087 --> 00:45:58,924
Five, four, three, two, one.
537
00:45:59,007 --> 00:46:02,010
Xavier de Le Rue.
538
00:46:12,771 --> 00:46:14,273
Dropping!
539
00:46:18,235 --> 00:46:20,112
The general mood was pretty light.
540
00:46:20,195 --> 00:46:24,157
Our objective for the day
had been reached. Good vibes.
541
00:46:24,241 --> 00:46:26,952
Our conversation before dropping in was...
542
00:46:27,035 --> 00:46:29,788
go one at a time,
make sure everyone's in a safe spot.
543
00:46:29,871 --> 00:46:31,623
Dropping!
544
00:46:33,292 --> 00:46:36,503
So, Jeremy made a couple turns.
545
00:46:36,586 --> 00:46:40,465
Cut up on the side of this safe zone.
546
00:46:40,549 --> 00:46:44,219
Called me in,
and I make a turn right next to his turn.
547
00:46:44,303 --> 00:46:46,471
And then- And then I feel it-
548
00:46:46,555 --> 00:46:48,849
The whole slope shift.
549
00:46:52,019 --> 00:46:54,688
I yell, "Avalanche."
550
00:46:54,771 --> 00:46:59,151
Just screaming, "Get out,
get out, get out."
551
00:46:59,234 --> 00:47:01,528
For a moment, it looks like slow motion.
552
00:47:01,611 --> 00:47:04,573
And the next moment,
everything went to fast-forward.
553
00:47:04,656 --> 00:47:07,034
And it just- I got swept.
554
00:47:07,117 --> 00:47:09,286
I'm airborne.
555
00:47:10,412 --> 00:47:12,080
Totally weightless.
556
00:47:14,541 --> 00:47:17,502
And I lost sight of him.
That was the last I saw of Jimmy.
557
00:47:17,586 --> 00:47:22,549
And the slide just kept
going and going and going and going.
558
00:47:25,260 --> 00:47:29,890
I just got crushed under
an ocean of car-sized blocks.
559
00:47:29,973 --> 00:47:33,018
Probably going 70, 80 miles an hour...
560
00:47:33,101 --> 00:47:35,354
down 2,000 vertical feet.
561
00:47:36,772 --> 00:47:39,191
And in my mind, I heard this voice...
562
00:47:39,274 --> 00:47:41,026
having this conversation that was like...
563
00:47:41,109 --> 00:47:44,196
"Wow, I- I always wondered
how I was gonna die...
564
00:47:44,279 --> 00:47:45,781
and now- now I know."
565
00:47:52,204 --> 00:47:55,040
I was just expecting to get
torn to pieces.
566
00:47:55,123 --> 00:47:57,626
But after a while,
it started to slow down.
567
00:47:57,709 --> 00:48:02,923
And this weird undercurrent
started pushing me up through the snow.
568
00:48:03,006 --> 00:48:05,967
And at the last moment...
569
00:48:06,051 --> 00:48:08,637
I popped out of the toe of this thing...
570
00:48:09,888 --> 00:48:12,766
buried up to my chest.
571
00:48:12,849 --> 00:48:16,895
I was in that moment being like,
"Oh, my God. I'm in one piece."
572
00:48:16,978 --> 00:48:21,483
Like, I coughed up this huge chunk
of snow, and I took this huge breath...
573
00:48:21,566 --> 00:48:23,318
and I was like-
574
00:48:23,402 --> 00:48:26,154
And I looked at my arms,
and I was like, I mean...
575
00:48:26,238 --> 00:48:28,824
I couldn't even believe
they were still connected to my body.
576
00:48:28,907 --> 00:48:30,659
And then, um-
577
00:48:32,911 --> 00:48:34,413
Yeah, it was a lot.
578
00:48:36,331 --> 00:48:40,252
It was really difficult to
descend and felt like forever.
579
00:48:40,335 --> 00:48:42,087
But I come around the corner...
580
00:48:42,170 --> 00:48:44,631
and way out at the very bottom...
581
00:48:44,714 --> 00:48:48,176
of the biggest debris fields
I've ever seen...
582
00:48:48,260 --> 00:48:51,179
is Jimmy sitting upright.
583
00:48:52,848 --> 00:48:56,393
I haven't seen a fuckin' slide-
584
00:49:01,148 --> 00:49:05,777
This avalanche has
trumped all avalanches I've ever seen.
585
00:49:05,861 --> 00:49:09,197
I couldn't help but think, "Jimmy's dead."
586
00:49:10,365 --> 00:49:13,910
I just can't believe that he survived it.
587
00:49:13,994 --> 00:49:15,871
Oh, boy!
588
00:49:17,747 --> 00:49:19,499
We just saw a miracle.
589
00:49:19,583 --> 00:49:21,543
Yeah, they saw a miracle.
590
00:49:21,626 --> 00:49:24,754
Or I saw superhuman effort.
I saw somethin'. I don't know.
591
00:49:31,303 --> 00:49:35,015
Most people don't survive
those kinds of avalanches.
592
00:49:35,098 --> 00:49:37,642
People die in a lot lesser avalanches.
593
00:49:37,726 --> 00:49:39,895
So I got really lucky.
594
00:49:39,978 --> 00:49:42,481
Took off for a while.
I disappeared off the map...
595
00:49:42,564 --> 00:49:46,067
and I needed some time
to really contemplate.
596
00:49:48,445 --> 00:49:51,490
After Renan's near-death accident...
597
00:49:51,573 --> 00:49:53,575
Jimmy was extremely shaken.
598
00:49:53,658 --> 00:49:56,244
And then the avalanche four days later.
599
00:49:56,328 --> 00:49:59,915
It really contributed to him
reexamining his life.
600
00:49:59,998 --> 00:50:03,084
He'd been given a second chance, and so
what do you do with a second chance?
601
00:50:10,342 --> 00:50:13,803
So, Jimmy survived this thing
that people don't survive...
602
00:50:13,887 --> 00:50:17,224
and he was really messed up.
603
00:50:17,307 --> 00:50:19,267
He was in a bad way psychologically.
604
00:50:19,351 --> 00:50:23,396
And this makes you doubt
your judgment about everything.
605
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,482
He bailed from various commitments.
606
00:50:25,565 --> 00:50:28,360
He's not goin' anywhere.
He's certainly not goin' to Meru.
607
00:50:28,443 --> 00:50:32,072
Renan can't go to Meru.
He's crippled, maybe for life. Seriously.
608
00:50:32,155 --> 00:50:34,783
You know, no one knew
if Renan was gonna come out of this.
609
00:50:42,290 --> 00:50:45,210
Renan and I got together.
He had his neck brace on...
610
00:50:45,293 --> 00:50:47,712
and he was in his La-Z-Boy chair.
611
00:50:47,796 --> 00:50:49,548
And he was kind of like this.
612
00:50:56,972 --> 00:50:59,224
I'm offering encouragement.
I'm like, "Yes, we can do this."
613
00:50:59,307 --> 00:51:01,101
"This is- This is good."
614
00:51:01,184 --> 00:51:05,105
Yet, in the back of my mind,
I knew that I might have to be-
615
00:51:05,188 --> 00:51:09,985
it might be, "Renan, you're just physically
are not prepared to go back to Meru."
616
00:51:13,738 --> 00:51:18,660
I think Conrad was
the driving force for the entire trip.
617
00:51:18,743 --> 00:51:23,915
At first I didn't want him to go back,
but it was just that loyalty to Mugs...
618
00:51:23,999 --> 00:51:27,460
and wanting to fulfill that shared dream.
619
00:51:30,797 --> 00:51:36,136
Having climbed mountains myself,
I understood that.
620
00:51:36,219 --> 00:51:40,473
Especially if it's a first ascent.
No one's been there before you.
621
00:51:43,476 --> 00:51:48,773
After some time off and-
and some serious contemplation...
622
00:51:48,857 --> 00:51:54,446
the idea of not skiing and not climbing
and not being in the mountains...
623
00:51:54,529 --> 00:51:59,618
um, was- was too much to- to imagine.
624
00:52:01,453 --> 00:52:03,955
I just wasn't ready to give it all up.
625
00:52:08,710 --> 00:52:12,380
There was only five months
until we were supposed to leave for Meru.
626
00:52:12,464 --> 00:52:15,383
It was a pretty serious
point in time where...
627
00:52:15,467 --> 00:52:17,177
I didn't care that I was injured.
628
00:52:17,260 --> 00:52:20,805
I just cared that I wasn't going to be
able to join the team again.
629
00:52:20,889 --> 00:52:22,849
Can I have you bring your arms up like so?
630
00:52:22,932 --> 00:52:25,685
And I'm sure, to
my friends and family, that was really hard...
631
00:52:25,769 --> 00:52:28,563
because they just wanted to see me okay.
632
00:52:28,647 --> 00:52:31,858
I just feel bad to put them through that.
633
00:52:35,278 --> 00:52:37,518
One of the fractures
is this thing back here...
634
00:52:37,572 --> 00:52:41,534
which is so far displaced
that that's not gonna really heal.
635
00:52:41,618 --> 00:52:43,286
This is the second fracture.
636
00:52:43,370 --> 00:52:46,915
One of the biggest question
marks was the vertebral artery.
637
00:52:46,998 --> 00:52:49,584
I'd lost half the blood supply
to my brain...
638
00:52:49,668 --> 00:52:53,088
and climbing at altitude,
there's a high risk of...
639
00:52:53,171 --> 00:52:56,299
some sort of blood clot
getting through that artery...
640
00:52:56,383 --> 00:52:58,843
and giving me a stroke during the climb.
641
00:52:58,927 --> 00:53:01,763
But for me, it was worth the risk.
642
00:53:01,846 --> 00:53:03,848
It was something that I had to do.
643
00:53:03,932 --> 00:53:06,893
It was worth possibly dying for.
644
00:53:09,562 --> 00:53:11,773
I mean, in my mind, I thought it was-
645
00:53:11,856 --> 00:53:14,275
I thought it was crazy
that he wanted to go back.
646
00:53:14,359 --> 00:53:19,197
But I realize that Meru for him
was something to hold onto.
647
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:21,783
For him, it was like, "This is my dream."
648
00:53:21,866 --> 00:53:24,786
To come back and climb Meru...
649
00:53:24,869 --> 00:53:30,208
and prove to himself that he had
the capacity to make a comeback.
650
00:53:30,291 --> 00:53:32,377
And I- I understood it as well...
651
00:53:32,460 --> 00:53:37,966
because, in a way,
I needed the same thing, you know.
652
00:53:46,558 --> 00:53:49,894
The bike.
653
00:53:55,859 --> 00:53:59,904
Renan had put his heart
and mind into recovering.
654
00:53:59,988 --> 00:54:04,242
And the way that he had progressed was...
655
00:54:04,325 --> 00:54:07,454
almost inhuman.
656
00:54:14,502 --> 00:54:17,005
Conrad and I were gonna go back to Meru.
657
00:54:17,088 --> 00:54:20,175
But we still had to make
a decision about Renan.
658
00:54:20,258 --> 00:54:24,345
And Renan was...
pretty adamant about going.
659
00:54:25,597 --> 00:54:29,642
It was this moment when
the three of us got together...
660
00:54:29,726 --> 00:54:31,978
and Jimmy made the case
for Renan to come along.
661
00:54:33,229 --> 00:54:35,982
I was against Renan going on the climb.
662
00:54:36,065 --> 00:54:38,401
I just confronted Jimmy
and I said, "You know..."
663
00:54:38,485 --> 00:54:41,446
"I am not keen about this."
664
00:54:41,529 --> 00:54:43,865
"ou know, you can't take
Renan up there."
665
00:54:43,948 --> 00:54:46,451
"I mean, what if he dies?"
666
00:54:49,037 --> 00:54:54,209
But I couldn't talk Jimmy into
throwing Renan off the trip.
667
00:54:54,292 --> 00:54:57,879
It's like he was totally dug in.
668
00:54:57,962 --> 00:55:02,217
He just said, flat out, "If Renan feels
he's ready, I trust Renan."
669
00:55:04,135 --> 00:55:06,221
I was worried about Renan.
670
00:55:07,472 --> 00:55:10,475
But I was also worried
about the well-being of the entire team...
671
00:55:10,558 --> 00:55:15,897
because... just to go up onto a face
like that with a weak partner...
672
00:55:15,980 --> 00:55:19,150
where, what if they got
into another big, bad storm?
673
00:55:19,234 --> 00:55:21,554
Or what if one of 'em...
674
00:55:21,611 --> 00:55:23,696
got wacked in the head with a rock...
675
00:55:23,780 --> 00:55:25,824
and they had to get him
down off, and they-
676
00:55:25,907 --> 00:55:28,827
You need to have your partners
be sound and strong.
677
00:55:28,910 --> 00:55:32,997
You know, when our friends heard about it,
they were like-
678
00:55:33,081 --> 00:55:35,834
They thought we were
completely out of our minds.
679
00:55:35,917 --> 00:55:38,211
Whew. Dude, I don't know.
680
00:55:38,294 --> 00:55:41,381
No! No! You know, that's not right.
681
00:55:41,464 --> 00:55:43,341
This isn't like Conrad, or Jimmy.
682
00:55:43,424 --> 00:55:46,678
You know, these guys, they don't fuck
around, they don't do stupid stuff.
683
00:55:46,761 --> 00:55:48,888
If they did, they'd be dead by now.
684
00:55:55,270 --> 00:55:57,939
Two or three times,
I had these deep anxiety attacks.
685
00:55:58,022 --> 00:56:01,860
I mean, here it was, at 2:00 in the morning,
and all of a sudden it was just like...
686
00:56:01,943 --> 00:56:07,407
this wave of anxiety came over me,
and I'm- I'm up there, like, going, "Shit."
687
00:56:07,490 --> 00:56:11,286
I've got two kids sleeping upstairs.
My wife's there.
688
00:56:11,369 --> 00:56:15,373
Another boy's off at college.
I'm responsible for them.
689
00:56:15,456 --> 00:56:17,959
And I'm going, "You're going back?"
690
00:56:20,128 --> 00:56:21,963
You know, the rewards
of climbing are huge.
691
00:56:22,046 --> 00:56:25,675
If you- if you survive it,
if your family comes out of it okay...
692
00:56:25,758 --> 00:56:29,637
if everyone comes out,
then climbing- climbing is so worth it.
693
00:56:29,721 --> 00:56:33,182
The problem is, as we know,
you don't always come out of it okay.
694
00:56:33,266 --> 00:56:37,145
People die. And then you can't justify it.
That is the great dilemma.
695
00:56:39,647 --> 00:56:41,733
Conrad knows this better than anyone.
696
00:56:41,816 --> 00:56:46,154
Look at what happened to Mugs,
and Conrad's next partner, Alex.
697
00:56:46,237 --> 00:56:48,573
After the death of Mugs in '92...
698
00:56:48,656 --> 00:56:51,701
Alex Lowe became my main climbing partner.
699
00:56:51,784 --> 00:56:55,121
Alex was the premier climber at that time.
700
00:56:56,247 --> 00:57:00,752
Conrad was Alex's favorite partner...
701
00:57:00,835 --> 00:57:02,962
and best friend.
702
00:57:03,046 --> 00:57:06,382
Conrad was just right for him...
703
00:57:06,466 --> 00:57:09,260
because he could match Alex's pace.
704
00:57:09,344 --> 00:57:12,472
And there wasn't too many people
who could do that.
705
00:57:12,555 --> 00:57:15,475
This is Nirvana, what this is.
706
00:57:15,558 --> 00:57:19,979
So we're gonna hang out,
just enjoy the mountains.
707
00:57:20,063 --> 00:57:21,606
You know, Mugs was the mentor...
708
00:57:21,689 --> 00:57:24,943
but Alex was much more
Conrad's equal.
709
00:57:25,026 --> 00:57:28,780
These are, you know,
two of the most brilliant climbers ever.
710
00:57:28,863 --> 00:57:30,865
I mean, people were blown away by 'em.
711
00:57:30,949 --> 00:57:32,951
And they fed off each other!
712
00:57:34,202 --> 00:57:36,663
They were this perfect match,
the perfect partnership.
713
00:57:36,746 --> 00:57:40,541
I went to Antarctica with
both Alex and Conrad in '97...
714
00:57:40,625 --> 00:57:43,544
in one of the best trips I've ever done,
and they were in rare form.
715
00:57:43,628 --> 00:57:45,338
Just brilliant to behold.
716
00:57:45,421 --> 00:57:48,466
So he had this new partner,
and they were gonna tear up the world.
717
00:57:52,720 --> 00:57:56,140
Alex did a remarkable job
of balancing family.
718
00:57:56,224 --> 00:57:58,810
We were all sort of vagabonds.
719
00:57:58,893 --> 00:58:02,730
And here's Alex. He's, like, legit.
He's married, and he's got kids.
720
00:58:07,402 --> 00:58:10,989
I was married to Alex Lowe for 18 years.
721
00:58:11,072 --> 00:58:16,035
And, um, in the autumn of 1999...
722
00:58:16,119 --> 00:58:19,497
uh, he was on an expedition with Conrad.
723
00:58:19,580 --> 00:58:22,709
It was to Shishapangma, in Tibet.
724
00:58:22,792 --> 00:58:26,295
And, uh, they went up
to take a look at the mountain.
725
00:58:28,381 --> 00:58:30,675
It was supposed to be a rest day.
726
00:58:30,758 --> 00:58:35,346
David Bridges, Alex and I
went up, getting ready to do the climb...
727
00:58:35,430 --> 00:58:41,102
and we got to this point-
it was probably 7:30, 8:00 in the morning.
728
00:58:41,185 --> 00:58:45,148
All of a sudden, there was, like, this crack,
and we looked up and it was, "Oh, shit."
729
00:58:45,231 --> 00:58:47,025
There was a- a release.
730
00:58:49,193 --> 00:58:53,072
Before Alex left,
I had this weird premonition.
731
00:58:53,156 --> 00:58:55,450
I didn't want him to go on the climb.
732
00:58:55,533 --> 00:58:57,452
I said, you know...
733
00:58:57,535 --> 00:59:00,788
"I'm worried that
you're gonna die in an avalanche."
734
00:59:00,872 --> 00:59:05,251
And Alex said, "I always come home."
735
00:59:07,545 --> 00:59:12,216
Alex and David ran straight
downhill. I traversed at an angle.
736
00:59:12,300 --> 00:59:15,803
I was like, "I'm gonna lay down
before the avalanche hits."
737
00:59:15,887 --> 00:59:21,017
And as I looked over, David and Alex were
still upright, and they were still running.
738
00:59:21,100 --> 00:59:24,395
I was picked up and thrown,
battered, tumbled.
739
00:59:24,479 --> 00:59:27,565
And just kind of half-buried.
740
00:59:27,648 --> 00:59:31,277
And then... it was silent.
741
00:59:34,906 --> 00:59:36,908
I remember standing up
and walking around...
742
00:59:36,991 --> 00:59:41,746
and going over to where I had seen them,
and there was nothing there.
743
00:59:41,829 --> 00:59:47,251
There was no ski stick or a glove sticking
out of the snow or anything like that.
744
00:59:47,335 --> 00:59:49,837
Our other teammates came up
to help with the search...
745
00:59:49,921 --> 00:59:54,675
and we searched there
for the better part of the day.
746
00:59:54,759 --> 00:59:58,096
I went back down to camp.
I needed some medical attention.
747
01:00:01,057 --> 01:00:04,477
I got the phone call.
I thought it was Alex at first.
748
01:00:04,560 --> 01:00:08,272
And Andrew's voice came on,
and I instantly panicked.
749
01:00:08,356 --> 01:00:11,734
Andrew's like, "Jenni,
there's been an avalanche."
750
01:00:11,818 --> 01:00:14,529
You know, and then my heart was racing.
751
01:00:15,780 --> 01:00:19,283
Right away, I said, "Is Conrad there?"
752
01:00:19,367 --> 01:00:21,994
Because, you know, I thought that...
753
01:00:22,078 --> 01:00:25,581
somehow Conrad would've protected Alex.
754
01:00:25,665 --> 01:00:29,210
You know, that it couldn't happen to him
if Conrad was there with him.
755
01:00:31,295 --> 01:00:34,340
I remember Jenni saying,
"Is there anything else you can do?
756
01:00:34,423 --> 01:00:39,637
Can you go back and look for him?"
And we're like, "No. It's just- He's gone."
757
01:00:39,720 --> 01:00:43,432
And it was- it was-
758
01:00:43,516 --> 01:00:46,394
There was, um-
There was just this finality of it.
759
01:00:49,605 --> 01:00:53,818
After Alex died,
Conrad went through this transformation.
760
01:00:53,901 --> 01:00:55,653
He was just- He looked gaunt.
761
01:00:55,736 --> 01:01:01,075
He was- He had retreated somewhere deep
inside and wasn't comin' out.
762
01:01:01,159 --> 01:01:04,412
I worried he was over the edge
and wasn't coming back.
763
01:01:07,081 --> 01:01:09,375
It's just- I mean,
the wheels were coming off.
764
01:01:09,458 --> 01:01:14,005
And, um, I didn't know
why I was so fucked up.
765
01:01:14,088 --> 01:01:18,217
Gil Roberts, a friend of mine,
who was in a very similar situation.
766
01:01:18,301 --> 01:01:20,678
He was there when
his climbing partner died.
767
01:01:20,761 --> 01:01:24,348
And more than once, he picked up
the phone, and he's like, "Hey, man."
768
01:01:24,432 --> 01:01:26,517
"I've gotta come talk to you.
We've gotta get together."
769
01:01:26,601 --> 01:01:29,562
And I didn't know why
Gil wanted to get ahold of me.
770
01:01:29,645 --> 01:01:32,440
And it was, like-
771
01:01:32,523 --> 01:01:36,819
I remember his line.
He's like, "Yep. Survivor's guilt is a bear."
772
01:01:36,903 --> 01:01:39,363
And having to do that. And it was, like-
773
01:01:39,447 --> 01:01:42,366
Because for me, it's, like,
this heavy fucking thing...
774
01:01:42,450 --> 01:01:44,785
that wouldn't leave me alone.
775
01:01:44,869 --> 01:01:47,038
'Cause Alex had it going on.
776
01:01:47,121 --> 01:01:50,625
Here he was, he was successful.
He had three kids, a happy married life.
777
01:01:50,708 --> 01:01:54,629
Everything was cool, and I lived in a van.
778
01:01:56,839 --> 01:02:01,886
Conrad was filled with remorse
over Alex's death...
779
01:02:01,969 --> 01:02:06,349
and he came back from the expedition...
780
01:02:06,432 --> 01:02:10,311
feeling like he was the one
who should've died.
781
01:02:12,438 --> 01:02:14,440
Trying to find balance and peace in that...
782
01:02:14,523 --> 01:02:16,150
I just didn't know where to go.
783
01:02:16,234 --> 01:02:18,402
But it always circled back
to being with Jenni...
784
01:02:18,486 --> 01:02:21,447
and the conversations
that we had on the telephone...
785
01:02:21,530 --> 01:02:23,950
and being together with each other.
786
01:02:30,706 --> 01:02:32,416
I think he felt like...
787
01:02:32,500 --> 01:02:36,337
to continue being a great friend,
he needed to be there for us.
788
01:02:38,172 --> 01:02:42,176
It was like a little connection to Alex
that was still there for me.
789
01:02:42,260 --> 01:02:46,764
And then, you know, before we- either of
us knew what was happening...
790
01:02:46,847 --> 01:02:48,766
we were kind of falling in love.
791
01:02:48,849 --> 01:02:53,437
The duress of this tragedy-
Jenni and I, we fell in love.
792
01:02:53,521 --> 01:02:59,026
And then eventually we married,
and I have adopted the boys.
793
01:03:04,824 --> 01:03:08,286
I wasn't like I chose and said, "Okay."
794
01:03:08,369 --> 01:03:11,539
"I'm gonna fall in love with another climber."
It just kind of happened.
795
01:03:13,541 --> 01:03:18,546
I still think I might have been
better off with a cowboy.
796
01:03:20,381 --> 01:03:22,758
Conrad has this side to him
that realizes...
797
01:03:22,842 --> 01:03:25,678
"I got some heavy responsibilities here."
798
01:03:25,761 --> 01:03:30,224
it's the key to Conrad.
There's this constant dialectic.
799
01:03:30,308 --> 01:03:34,478
He needs the mountains to climb, but
it's like, "Am I taking too many chances?"
800
01:03:34,562 --> 01:03:37,732
"Can I control the risk?"
Of course you can't control the risk.
801
01:03:37,815 --> 01:03:41,527
"Well, why am I doing this? Because
I have to do it or I go fucking crazy."
802
01:03:54,665 --> 01:03:58,336
In the end, Jimmy and Conrad
left the decision up to me.
803
01:03:59,503 --> 01:04:02,673
Even though it'd only been
five months since the accident...
804
01:04:02,757 --> 01:04:06,010
I decided I wanted to give it a go.
805
01:04:06,093 --> 01:04:10,639
We had become so close
after the 2008 ordeal...
806
01:04:10,723 --> 01:04:14,518
that to not give him the opportunity-
807
01:04:14,602 --> 01:04:17,438
it wasn't celebrating the teamwork that
we came into the climb with.
808
01:04:17,521 --> 01:04:19,732
That was the decision.
809
01:04:24,695 --> 01:04:28,532
Well, I wasn't really given
a choice... in the matter.
810
01:04:28,616 --> 01:04:30,993
Renan actually decided to go to Meru...
811
01:04:31,077 --> 01:04:33,454
and bought a plane ticket
and didn't even tell me.
812
01:04:34,455 --> 01:04:37,375
It was kind of a slap in the face, but...
813
01:04:37,458 --> 01:04:41,253
the bigger concern was his safety.
814
01:04:43,005 --> 01:04:45,216
He knew the heat that we were taking...
815
01:04:45,299 --> 01:04:49,637
and he knew that
we had to trust him to let him go.
816
01:04:49,720 --> 01:04:51,931
And that's what we did. We trusted him.
817
01:04:54,850 --> 01:04:57,353
Maybe that's way
over the heads of most people...
818
01:04:57,436 --> 01:05:01,774
that kind of risk
and that kind of expression of trust.
819
01:05:01,857 --> 01:05:07,071
But when Conrad was a young buck,
and Mugs was teaching him...
820
01:05:07,154 --> 01:05:10,324
they'd be at a really sketchy pitch-
dangerous, you can't afford to fall.
821
01:05:10,408 --> 01:05:14,620
Mugs would be like, "Okay, Conrad,
we all know that I can lead this."
822
01:05:14,703 --> 01:05:18,582
"Now let's see if you can lead it.
Are you ready?"
823
01:05:18,666 --> 01:05:21,752
So many decades later, it was Conrad...
824
01:05:21,836 --> 01:05:26,757
saying to Jimmy, Renan, "Okay,
you guys had a rough spring."
825
01:05:26,841 --> 01:05:29,677
"But you can do this.
I trust you, and we're gonna do this."
826
01:06:05,629 --> 01:06:09,467
The entire hike in was intense.
827
01:06:12,052 --> 01:06:15,973
There's no doubt that I had
a heavy heart going into it.
828
01:06:16,056 --> 01:06:20,144
It felt just like so much...
829
01:06:20,227 --> 01:06:21,812
pressure.
830
01:06:21,896 --> 01:06:26,358
You know, it felt a little bit like we
were heading to the gallows. You know?
831
01:06:47,922 --> 01:06:50,049
Fifteen feet, Conrad!
832
01:07:23,582 --> 01:07:27,878
The old geek ripped.
833
01:07:27,962 --> 01:07:30,214
- Is that what sent ya?
- Yeah.
834
01:07:32,049 --> 01:07:36,178
I just heard the "ping"
and then the fucking gear rattling.
835
01:07:36,262 --> 01:07:38,931
Cha-ching, cha-ching.
836
01:07:39,014 --> 01:07:41,725
Oh, it was a good-
Of all the places to fall though-
837
01:07:41,809 --> 01:07:42,809
Ah, it's dreamy.
838
01:07:42,851 --> 01:07:45,312
That was a good place to fall.
839
01:07:45,396 --> 01:07:48,732
It must have been, like,
five pounds on you, huh, Renan, like-
840
01:07:48,816 --> 01:07:53,279
Yeah. Well, I got lifted
off the triangle ledge.
841
01:08:06,333 --> 01:08:11,088
Oh! Fuck!
842
01:08:13,090 --> 01:08:14,800
Oh, man.
843
01:08:15,801 --> 01:08:17,678
Survival mode.
844
01:08:21,348 --> 01:08:23,350
It's broke.
845
01:08:25,352 --> 01:08:29,440
We're Himalayan big-wall climbing,
and we broke our portaledge.
846
01:08:38,449 --> 01:08:40,534
- That's more straight.
- Yeah.
847
01:08:49,418 --> 01:08:52,129
- Whew.
- Athletic tape...
848
01:08:52,212 --> 01:08:55,633
two eye screws, and-
and we're back in business.
849
01:08:56,216 --> 01:08:57,718
Whew.
850
01:09:08,228 --> 01:09:10,856
♪ One night of magic rush ♪
851
01:09:10,939 --> 01:09:13,817
♪ The start a simple touch ♪
852
01:09:13,901 --> 01:09:17,279
♪ One night to push and scream ♪
853
01:09:17,363 --> 01:09:19,323
♪ And then relief ♪
854
01:09:19,406 --> 01:09:22,034
♪ Ten days of perfect tunes ♪
855
01:09:22,117 --> 01:09:24,662
♪ The colors red and blue ♪
856
01:09:24,745 --> 01:09:28,415
♪ We had a promise made ♪
857
01:09:28,499 --> 01:09:31,502
♪ We were in love ♪
858
01:09:33,087 --> 01:09:35,839
♪ To call for hands of above ♪
859
01:09:35,923 --> 01:09:39,176
That there is called space hauling.
860
01:09:41,053 --> 01:09:43,597
This route's pretty steep.
861
01:09:43,681 --> 01:09:47,226
That's why all the shit's
hanging off in space.
862
01:10:01,782 --> 01:10:05,661
I just had to film
what we're eating right now.
863
01:10:06,787 --> 01:10:10,541
Conrad wants us to eat
yesterday's leftovers.
864
01:10:10,624 --> 01:10:13,252
Oh, it looks great.
865
01:10:13,335 --> 01:10:15,629
We have one choice
on the menu, and it is couscous.
866
01:10:15,713 --> 01:10:17,273
Tomorrow,
what are we having for dinner?
867
01:10:17,339 --> 01:10:18,340
Couscous.
868
01:10:18,424 --> 01:10:20,134
- And the next day?
- Couscous.
869
01:10:20,217 --> 01:10:21,927
What did we have for dinner
four days ago?
870
01:10:22,010 --> 01:10:24,138
- Couscous.
- Sweet.
871
01:10:24,221 --> 01:10:26,515
This looks really good, I think.
872
01:10:26,598 --> 01:10:30,686
I'm sure that, uh Happy and Leroy, my two
dogs, would just love this.
873
01:10:30,769 --> 01:10:32,229
They'd be like, "Yeah!"
874
01:10:32,312 --> 01:10:34,148
We're not his dogs.
875
01:10:34,815 --> 01:10:36,316
Mmm.
876
01:10:38,360 --> 01:10:39,862
Mmm, couscous.
877
01:10:57,921 --> 01:10:59,423
Whew.
878
01:11:15,189 --> 01:11:19,610
I was watching Renan,
and he seemed confused and slow.
879
01:11:19,693 --> 01:11:21,779
I thought it might have been the altitude.
880
01:11:35,334 --> 01:11:37,044
I'm not sure what's going on.
881
01:11:39,671 --> 01:11:43,008
Something was really wrong.
882
01:11:46,553 --> 01:11:51,683
I literally just turned
my face away and cried.
883
01:11:54,269 --> 01:11:57,314
When we finally
got the portaledge built and got inside...
884
01:11:57,397 --> 01:12:01,068
that's when Renan really fell apart.
885
01:12:01,151 --> 01:12:02,861
He just collapsed.
886
01:12:11,912 --> 01:12:13,872
He tried to say something to me...
887
01:12:13,956 --> 01:12:17,835
and it was just complete gibberish.
888
01:12:17,918 --> 01:12:21,380
You know, you could see the alarm
in his eyes that, like...
889
01:12:21,463 --> 01:12:23,173
however hard he was trying to speak...
890
01:12:23,257 --> 01:12:25,509
it wasn't happening.
891
01:12:28,846 --> 01:12:33,016
It'd been a year and a half earlier that,
uh, my father had suffered a stroke...
892
01:12:33,100 --> 01:12:35,853
and I'd seen what it does.
893
01:12:55,956 --> 01:12:58,876
You know, we're making calculations
in our head, and we're like...
894
01:12:58,959 --> 01:13:01,378
"Well, we can't go down right now.
895
01:13:01,461 --> 01:13:04,298
We'll make a mistake.
We're way too wasted."
896
01:13:06,300 --> 01:13:10,345
it was a moment of, uh,
anxiety. It was moment of unknown.
897
01:13:10,429 --> 01:13:14,391
It was a moment of acceptance that we
might not make it up the route.
898
01:13:14,474 --> 01:13:19,021
Acceptance that- of Renan's health...
899
01:13:19,104 --> 01:13:23,317
that where he was,
there was nothing we could do about it.
900
01:13:46,506 --> 01:13:49,092
The next morning, the sun was shining.
901
01:13:51,345 --> 01:13:53,221
I felt a little bit better...
902
01:13:53,305 --> 01:13:55,807
but I still couldn't really talk.
903
01:13:55,891 --> 01:14:01,146
All that I could think about is,
"I don't want to go down."
904
01:14:01,229 --> 01:14:05,275
"If we go down,
then I'll never forgive myself."
905
01:14:05,359 --> 01:14:10,364
I still just felt strongly that I had to
contribute to the team and not let us down.
906
01:14:13,241 --> 01:14:15,619
It was my turn to lead.
907
01:14:15,702 --> 01:14:20,540
Those guys didn't want me to go,
but I looked up at Jimmy...
908
01:14:20,624 --> 01:14:25,128
nodded, and it was understood
that I was going for it.
909
01:14:27,756 --> 01:14:30,050
They were monitoring me very closely.
910
01:14:45,482 --> 01:14:48,026
From somewhere,
I started to feel this momentum...
911
01:14:48,110 --> 01:14:50,237
and climbing started to feel good.
912
01:14:53,240 --> 01:14:56,660
I couldn't believe I finished my leads.
913
01:14:56,743 --> 01:14:59,121
It was this huge breakthrough for me.
914
01:15:04,418 --> 01:15:07,838
Jimmy and Conrad were still
really worried about me...
915
01:15:08,755 --> 01:15:11,299
and they carried most of my weight.
916
01:15:28,859 --> 01:15:33,071
Meru- it's relentless. Every time.
917
01:15:33,155 --> 01:15:36,366
We still don't know
what happened that day.
918
01:15:36,450 --> 01:15:40,203
We just smoked a cigarette
together and talked about it...
919
01:15:40,287 --> 01:15:42,622
and decided to keep going.
920
01:15:52,132 --> 01:15:57,054
After seven days of climbing,
we were just getting to the hard part.
921
01:15:57,137 --> 01:16:00,307
The wall got super steep and overhanging.
922
01:16:01,975 --> 01:16:04,227
This is pitch 20.
Jimmy's getting after it.
923
01:16:04,311 --> 01:16:07,647
It's the House of Cards,
the start of the Indian Ocean Wall.
924
01:16:11,902 --> 01:16:13,779
I knew he was scared.
925
01:16:15,155 --> 01:16:19,326
We all knew any mistake on this
pitch could be catastrophic.
926
01:16:20,911 --> 01:16:22,788
Wow, that's- it looks longer...
927
01:16:22,871 --> 01:16:25,916
than it did last night.
928
01:16:25,999 --> 01:16:28,251
In the House of Cards pitch,
they called it that because...
929
01:16:28,335 --> 01:16:31,088
it's these immense blocks of granite.
930
01:16:31,171 --> 01:16:35,092
If you pull one of 'em too hard,
this whole thing's gonna come down...
931
01:16:35,175 --> 01:16:38,887
like a house of cards, only each card
weighs, you know, 10,000 pounds...
932
01:16:38,970 --> 01:16:42,641
and those sharp edges
is gonna just floss 'em all off the wall.
933
01:16:43,767 --> 01:16:45,769
See these giant blocks?
934
01:16:47,646 --> 01:16:50,023
They are moving under my weight.
935
01:16:59,032 --> 01:17:01,368
Those are the sounds
you don't like to hear.
936
01:17:12,546 --> 01:17:16,675
It was really intense.
He was up there for six hours...
937
01:17:16,758 --> 01:17:19,719
and it was exhausting for all of us.
938
01:17:22,430 --> 01:17:26,309
They're on a sloping hill, and when you
hit 'em, you watch both of 'em going.
939
01:17:26,393 --> 01:17:29,229
- Yeah, and everything here, I mean-
- That would just chop everything.
940
01:17:29,312 --> 01:17:31,523
And then we'd- we'd be fucked.
941
01:17:53,295 --> 01:17:58,300
Well, it's our summit-bid evening.
942
01:17:59,426 --> 01:18:01,761
And it's dumping.
943
01:18:07,434 --> 01:18:09,186
- More suffering.
- It's been dumping...
944
01:18:09,269 --> 01:18:14,399
- for...
- since 3:30.
945
01:18:14,482 --> 01:18:16,526
Five, six hours now.
946
01:18:23,950 --> 01:18:26,953
How's it lookin' out there, Renan?
947
01:18:27,037 --> 01:18:30,749
Well, despite the, uh...
948
01:18:30,832 --> 01:18:33,251
heavy winds and getting battered...
949
01:18:33,335 --> 01:18:36,546
in the ledge for the last four hours...
950
01:18:36,630 --> 01:18:38,798
there's stars...
951
01:18:38,882 --> 01:18:41,927
so we're goin' for it.
952
01:19:17,170 --> 01:19:20,090
It's probably negative 20 out.
953
01:19:20,173 --> 01:19:21,925
I can't feel my feet.
954
01:19:24,761 --> 01:19:26,263
But at least it's windy.
955
01:19:35,522 --> 01:19:37,274
Just waitin' for the sun.
956
01:19:41,611 --> 01:19:44,531
Oh, man, I can't fucking think straight.
957
01:19:44,614 --> 01:19:46,950
Good job, Conrad!
958
01:19:59,087 --> 01:20:01,798
On the summit push, I think all of us...
959
01:20:01,881 --> 01:20:05,844
and probably Conrad the most,
was dreading the upper pitches.
960
01:20:05,927 --> 01:20:09,055
Because he knew he was
the only one that could do 'em.
961
01:20:09,139 --> 01:20:13,101
And it was a really hard
and dangerous lead.
962
01:20:17,897 --> 01:20:20,400
Conrad carried a lot of pressure that day.
963
01:20:22,277 --> 01:20:26,239
It's really hard to explain
to anyone what he did up there.
964
01:20:44,924 --> 01:20:49,679
We finally get to the summit ridge,
where we turned around in 2008.
965
01:20:49,763 --> 01:20:54,309
And we hadn't really talked about
who was gonna take the last lead.
966
01:20:54,392 --> 01:20:56,603
And that was the final, unknown section.
967
01:21:00,982 --> 01:21:05,695
Conrad looked at me,
and he was like, "All right."
968
01:21:05,779 --> 01:21:09,032
I was like, "Jimmy, this is your lead."
969
01:21:09,115 --> 01:21:13,078
"It's your turn to take the reigns."
970
01:22:11,010 --> 01:22:12,720
Nice, Jimmy.
971
01:22:29,279 --> 01:22:32,866
- Yeah, Renan.
- Fuck, yeah.
972
01:22:41,791 --> 01:22:43,126
Yeah.
973
01:22:45,628 --> 01:22:47,380
Yeah, Mugs!
974
01:22:48,214 --> 01:22:49,924
Got it for ya!
975
01:23:30,340 --> 01:23:33,426
Ten years of climbing together.
976
01:23:46,773 --> 01:23:48,691
There was-
977
01:23:50,151 --> 01:23:53,029
There was some points
where I didn't think I was gonna make it.
978
01:23:53,112 --> 01:23:57,617
And I know it stressed
those guys out a lot, so-
979
01:24:00,703 --> 01:24:03,039
Definitely happy to be up here...
980
01:24:04,249 --> 01:24:08,711
and, uh, take part
in Conrad's 20-year dream...
981
01:24:08,795 --> 01:24:14,300
and 10 years of Jimmy and Conrad
climbing together...
982
01:24:14,384 --> 01:24:18,555
and... yeah, feel part of the team.
983
01:26:01,908 --> 01:26:05,328
♪ When the cold bites your bones ♪
984
01:26:05,411 --> 01:26:08,665
♪ And gets in your heart ♪
985
01:26:08,748 --> 01:26:14,087
♪ It can make you feel hopeless ♪
986
01:26:16,381 --> 01:26:22,679
♪ And fear will come
to steal your sun and make it dark ♪
987
01:26:23,763 --> 01:26:28,935
♪ But don't believe you're lonely ♪
988
01:26:31,354 --> 01:26:36,859
♪ We've all had that moment
when our shoulders sink ♪
989
01:26:36,943 --> 01:26:40,446
♪ And we sit back and think ♪
990
01:26:40,530 --> 01:26:44,742
♪ We could just run ♪
991
01:26:44,826 --> 01:26:49,205
♪ But we're not born
to chase the fading light ♪
992
01:26:49,288 --> 01:26:53,042
♪ We're not born to fall
and lose the fight ♪
993
01:26:53,126 --> 01:26:58,715
♪ Never letting go
Oh, no, oh ♪
994
01:26:58,798 --> 01:27:03,886
♪ I'm askin' you to lift me,
lift me higher than I ever been ♪
995
01:27:03,970 --> 01:27:07,807
I Hold your breath and say
you're gonna come with me ♪
996
01:27:07,890 --> 01:27:12,395
♪ We were born to follow ♪
997
01:27:12,478 --> 01:27:16,232
♪ The light that never fails ♪
998
01:27:22,905 --> 01:27:28,828
♪ You're scared to fight,
you're scared to climb, afraid to die ♪
999
01:27:30,371 --> 01:27:35,042
♪ But I can be your courage ♪
1000
01:27:37,670 --> 01:27:43,509
♪ And help you see
you've already won this ♪
1001
01:27:45,261 --> 01:27:50,558
♪ We all have that moment
when our head hangs low ♪
1002
01:27:50,641 --> 01:27:54,103
♪ We question if we should go ♪
1003
01:27:54,187 --> 01:27:58,649
♪ Or turn back and run ♪
1004
01:27:58,733 --> 01:28:03,112
♪ But we're not born
to chase the fading light ♪
1005
01:28:03,196 --> 01:28:06,866
♪ We're not born
to fall and lose the fight ♪
1006
01:28:06,949 --> 01:28:12,622
♪ Never letting go
Oh, no, oh ♪
1007
01:28:12,705 --> 01:28:17,794
♪ I'm askin' you to lift me,
lift me higher than I ever been ♪
1008
01:28:17,877 --> 01:28:21,756
I Hold your breath and say
you're gonna come with me ♪
1009
01:28:21,839 --> 01:28:26,302
♪ We were born to follow ♪
1010
01:28:26,385 --> 01:28:33,893
♪ The light that never fails ♪
1011
01:28:33,976 --> 01:28:40,608
♪ Come along
We're settin' sail ♪
1012
01:28:41,651 --> 01:28:44,987
♪ Never looking back again ♪
1013
01:28:49,242 --> 01:28:52,829
♪ We're not born
to chase the fading light ♪
1014
01:28:52,912 --> 01:28:56,749
♪ We're not born
to fall and lose the fight ♪
1015
01:28:56,833 --> 01:29:02,421
♪ Never letting go
Oh, no, oh ♪
1016
01:29:02,505 --> 01:29:07,718
♪ I'm askin' you to lift me,
lift me higher than I ever been ♪
1017
01:29:07,802 --> 01:29:11,514
♪ Hold your breath and say
you're gonna come with me ♪
1018
01:29:11,597 --> 01:29:16,018
♪ We were born to follow ♪
1019
01:29:16,102 --> 01:29:20,857
♪ The light that never fails ♪
1020
01:29:20,940 --> 01:29:26,320
♪ The light that never fails ♪
1021
01:29:26,404 --> 01:29:30,867
♪ We were born to follow ♪
1022
01:29:30,950 --> 01:29:38,541
♪ The light that never ♪
1023
01:29:38,624 --> 01:29:45,756
♪ Light that never ♪
1024
01:29:45,840 --> 01:29:51,345
♪ The light that never fails ♪♪
86752
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