Origins and a Merry Christmas!
Last week we met up in Joshua Tree with Kurt Smith and Chris Lindner to see if after 21 years Chris could bag the 2nd known ascent of Kurt’s route on Cap Rock, The Dunce Cap. When Kurt put it up in 1988 he gave it 5.13a/b. Pretty bad-ass for the times and for being in JTree! There are quite a few hard routes that were put up “back in the day” by Kurt and the fellow JTree old schoolers but Dunce Cap was pretty significant because it was the last FA that Kurt put up in true, old school ground up fashion. That means he started on the dirt went as high as he could then at a stance or off of hooks he would drill a bolt and then lower to the ground and go once again from the ground to as high as he could until he came to his next stance to drill another bolt. Going ground up is all about the experience and the adventure. The end result is just as important as the journey to get there really. There was this story Kurt told us of how on the fourth bolt he couldn’t place a hook cuz it would rip this flake off so he took off his shoelace and draped it across the whole flake and clipped into it to hang from and drill his next placement!
But before we could set up all the camera’s (big shout out to the help we got from Sender Films and Big Up Production!) Chris and Kurt had to get ready…
Chris getting loosened up from his mom Elke =)
Kurt chillin’ with his kids Daisy and Elvis in his sweet Sprinter
Russel checking and double checking all of the cameras
Frosty jugging up the line for the sick closeups
Everyone in positions…
Chris getting belayed by the First Ascentionist Kurt Smith…How cool is that?!
Chris really needing to clip the 3rd bolt!
We shot for 3 days with 5 cameras in multiple locations off of ropes and using a 20 foot crane! So much fun!! Big props go out to Chris who had no problem doing a move or a route as many times as we needed to get the shot.
Another great part of this shoot was beingn able to hang out with some pretty historically significant and prominent figures in not only Joshua Tree’s history but climbing’s history as well. A few memorable highlights of mine would have to be hanging out by a fire sharing some scotch with Scott Cosgrove, listening to Alan Swanson and Kurt going back and forth about the good ole days, watching Dave Hatchett jam on his guitar with Kurt kinda singing Sabbath in the background and Tommy Thompson being the chillest and funniest character being interviewed ever!
There’s so much that goes into making a climbing movie (even one as short as 15 minutes) but when it’s all said and done there’s nothing better than hanging out with your bro’s and having a great time!
Happy Holidays to everyone out there and I’ll keep you posted as to when you can see the movie… ;)
