You
could call it the extremely scenic route. In the alpinist world, the forbidding
Shark’s Fin route up Mount Meru was one of the last great conquests. Three
climbers came maddeningly close in 2008, but fell short. Filmmaker-alpinist
Jimmy Chin and his producer-co-director wife E. Chai Vasarhelyi document the
2008 expedition, their 2011 return, and the dramatic intervening events in Meru (trailer here), which screens
during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Located
in the Northern Indian Himalayas, Meru had been summited before, but never via the
Shark’s Fin. It is an arduous field of ice obstacles, frozen sheer, offering
precious few footholds or crevices. So why climb it? Presumably, because it is
there. As one of the most respected alpinists climbing today, Conrad Anker was
an obvious candidate to finally lick the Shark’s Fin. Chin also had extensive experience
as a climber and photographer. Renan Ozturk was the junior man on the team, but
the trio meshed well together. They just didn’t quite make it on their first
attempt.
Frankly,
Chin and Vasarhelyi do not spend must time establishing the significance of
Mount Meru or the Shark’s Fin, pretty much launching into the climbing right
away. Similarly, we do not get much sense of the three climbers’ personalities,
until about halfway through. However, when two of the three are sidelined by
misfortune, we start to get a better sense of who they are and what Meru means
to them.
Anker
had previously lost one regular team-member (ultimately marrying his widow), so
he already knew tragedy first hand. Nevertheless, the time between Meru
expeditions was comparatively less eventful for him. In contrast, after Ozturk
barely survives a spectacular accident, it is unclear how much basic mobile
function he will regain. Initially, the notion of mountain climbing in general
seems awfully ambitious, let alone attacking the Shark’s Fin. Somehow, Chin
also survived a freak avalanche. He is relatively unscathed physically, but
clearly quite shaken, emotionally and spiritually.
By
the time the three men launch their second campaign against the Shark’s Fin,
the audience is thoroughly primed for a feast of redemption. Frankly,
everything about the 2011 just sort of boggles the mind, especially some of the
jury-rigging we see them do with faulty equipment. Co-cinematographers Chin and
Ozturk capture some absolutely awesome shots, particularly given the
circumstances they were working under. Indeed, the film looks incredible and it
eventually delivers the comeback satisfaction it promises.
