Some places you enjoy and some places you fall in love with. After a first trip to the popular “Rocklands”, worldcup competitor climber Mélissa Le Neve is back to her favourite bouldering spot in the world to do some worldclass rock climbing. Discover what makes climbing in this South African climbing Mecca such an addictive experience.
Back in 2012 we had the chance to visit South Africa to film bouldering in Rocklands. While bouldering there is amazing, we could not help but ask ourselves if there was good bouldering in other parts of Africa. With only satellite imagery from Google Earth as information, we decided to bet on the small, overlooked country of Malawi. During the summer of 2014, climbers Mélissa Le Nevé and Benjamin Rueck flew to Malawi, knowing almost nothing about the country.
What happens when some extreme sports people enter into a dialogue with some jazz musicians on the face of a rock? Andreas Pichler documents a project from the South Tyrol Jazz Festival, Alto Adige, in which climbers and tightrope walkers find their own unique rhythm. If you are not fully concentrated, if you are not present, you have lost. This rule is valid for both musicians and climbers. In an extraordinary symbiosis, jazz musicians accompany climbers and slack liners on their tours.
From America, England, France, Italy and Japan. Five climbers from each corner of the earth; Sam Elias, James Pearson, Caroline Ciavaldini, Jacopo Larcher, and Yuji Hirayama, attempt to open a new multi-pitch route on the Basalt Island of Reunion. Lost in the South Indian Ocean, Reunion is the childhood home of Caroline, and after traveling the world for several years as a professional climber, returning was something she had to do.
Nina Caprez and Cédric Lachat are passionate climbers. A passion they share and pushed them to become professionals. They travel around the world in search of walls and cliffs of exception. In Spring 2014 they set up camp beneath one of the most difficult multi-pitch routes in the world - Orbayu (2000 meters). Orbayu is a large limestone tooth which rises above the natural park of Picos de Europa in Spain.
Francisco Marin, also known as “Novato” (“Rookie” in Spanish), is a 61-year-old climber and the only known person in the world to climb at this level at his age. He reached his maximum sporting achievement on 24th September 2012, when he sent "Geminis", an 8b+ (5.14a) line, and nowadays he has “Florida” as a project, an impressive 8c (5.14b) route. All of them are located in Rodellar, Spain.
Justin Worst is a rock climber and archeologist who became a cyborg to get one step closer to his childhood dream.
