Lander Climbing Film

Work is underway of the portion of the film capturing Wolf Point Development. The story is developing even better than expected! Thanks BJ and Tom for letting me tag along and film!

Wo

Going through all the old archival footage sent by Amy Underwood Skinner, Paul Piana, and Peter Mallamo. Here is a picture of me reviewing VHS footage and digitizing all that tape. Paul also sent me around 100 slides from the “Iris early days”.

Work continues on the section describing the early sport climbing in Sinks Canyon. Greg Collins describing early work in the Killer Cave, accompanied by various climbers sending an assortment of cave routes.

Had an awesome week during the Climbers’ Festival, interviewing a number of visiting climbers as well a few locals from back in the day.  Amidst what has been a hectic filming schedule I was still able to cut this teaser to show during Tellurides’ touring Mountainfilm showing, one of my favorite events of the week.  Special thanks to Kris ‘Odub‘ Hampton for sharing his excellent cowboy poem made up almost entirely of route names from the Lander area!

Spent a beautiful evening with Vance White out at Fairfield Hill on friday.  This under rated crag in Sinks sees hardly any traffic despite only being a 30 minute hike from the road.  Fewer visitors means more opportunity for bolting though, which Vance and a few others have been taking advantage of the past few seasons.  Here he is on his latest line, dubbed ‘Flight Club.’  I am Jack’s palm sweat glands.

The Rock Shop is a new climbing area near South Pass that is being developed primarily by Chris Marley, Jesse Brown, and David Lloyd.  So far the quality of the problems seems quite high.

“It’s the future”
-BJ Tilden

I had the chance to interview Amy Underwood (formerly Amy Skinner) for the film last week and it was awesome!  Amy was great on camera and had so many fantastic things to say about Lander and the people who have called this place home.  From reminiscing about the first summer when Todd’s sister discovered the Wild Iris to recounting first ascents and her fondness of the “Cowboy Spirit” of Lander it was easy to see why Amy fell in love with this place as so many others have.

Here’s a little taste of her wisdom.

P.S. I think I have a name for the film.

David and Ashley Lloyd seem to be, from my perspective, a pretty genuine form of “lifers.”  In their mid thirties with two adorable daughters they have begun to make a life in Lander, but they don’t let that get in the way of their climbing.  In fact it seems they structure a good portion of their life around being able to get out and explore new bouldering areas.  Sunday was no different.  Kids in tow, they chose this particular spot to take me based on the limit of how far the daughters were willing to hike.  It seems they were promised ice cream  afterward if they behaved well.  We were able to access this fairly remote spot with the family mini van and a quick half hour approach.  West of Lankin Dome we headed to a spot known as the “God Eye” area.  They showed me a few warm ups and I snagged a couple easy first ascents of my own, then we headed to the objective of the day.  David was psyched and feeling good, having worked out the beta on a previous visit, he sent the new traverse problem “True Grit” on the first go of the day.  You can read more about the specifics of the route on their blog.

Here’s a short vid of David on the roof problem that shares the same finish as the traverse.

Ashley working on “Norwegian Wood” a beautifully polished piece of rock established on a previous visit, that’s just around the corner from “True Grit.”  That’s Sierra and Autumn in the background diligently trying to earn their ice cream.

BJ Tilden has upped the ante for challenging routes in Sinks Canyon by completing a route at the grade of 14c.  ’Double Down’ is a link up of two existing 14a routes in the Moss Cave via a steeply overhanging traverse on, you guessed it, mostly monos.  BJ had been projecting the line over most of the winter and thinks his send was in part due to the warmer temperatures we’ve been having recently in this unseasonably warm march.  Not one to rest on his laurels BJ has already equipped another line further left in the cave that looks to be quite challenging.

Almost through the traverse.

On the sustained upper section.

Working on the opening moves for the new project.