chossmonkey.com Blog

“Good weather, bad weather, any time is a good time for climbing.” That’s just one of the many classic lines from the 1975 action movie, The Eiger Sanction. For a Hollywood movie, it’s a great climbing movie. There’s real technique, real climbing and some great scenery, none of this blue screen fake stuff. A lot of the American climbing was filmed on location in Zion National Park and Monument Valley so as a climber, it will get your palms sweaty. In the movie, you can see Clint Eastwood climbing the Cave Route in Zion National Park, a 5.7, and climbing the Totem Pole, which is featured in Alpinist X, including a slick summit picture of Clint on the cover. Before or after you watch the movie, check out Alpinist X. It’s got a great little article about the Totem Pole, including pictures from the summit register, including the note from the fifth ascent of the tower that was done for the movie.

The Eiger Sanction is a fun movie to watch and you can laugh at some of the 1970s era things that they do and talk about, like their portrayal of women and homosexuals. I watched it for the umpteenth time last night with takeout Chinese after a great afternoon/evening of climbing. Plus, Clint Eastwood is an all-around badass! Which brings up this question, what type of climber would Clint Eastwood be if he were really a climber? What types of climbs would he do? What style would he do them in? Is he the guy that would screw you by climbing through without asking? Leave a comment here and let’s see what you think, regardless of if you’ve seen the movie or not.

I highly recommend picking up The Eiger Sanction this weekend. You won’t be disappointed.

The Dirtbag Diaries does it again. Here’s another great podcast that will grab your attention. It grabbed mine, it made me cry (no joke! – and don’t make fun of me for it either!). This episode is a touching, inspiring story about Timmy O’Neil’s brother, Sean, and their climb of El Capitan. Sean lost the use of his legs when jumping off a bridges 17 years ago and shows here that he is not “confined” to a wheelchair. Check it out.

The first annual 5 Point Film Festival is coming soon to Carbondale. (See if you recognize the dude on their web page) Check out the trailer on their site, it will get you fired up for the festival or for your next adventure. Sorry, I’m having a terrible time embedding the video without it jacking up the rest of my formatting. Anyway, enjoy and I hope to see you there!

The Dirtbag Diaries, by Fritz Cahall, are excellent podcasts about climbing and related subjects. Done in a “NPR-style” format, the interviews and commentaries are fun and enjoyable to listen to. Sometimes, they’re downright hilarious.

I particularly enjoyed “Help Wanted,” in which Cahall interviews former employees of Disneyland’s Matterhorn Mountain, where climbers were hired to do nothing but climb all day. The goofball antics typical of a bunch of relatively unrestrained climbing dirtbags are memorable, to say the least.

The latest episode, “True Meaning of Radical,” details the life of an Earth Liberation Front (ELF) member. ELF has been a leader in the radical environmental movement, famously burning down Vail Mountain’s Two Elks Lodge in 1996. As I listened to the interview and commentary on the podcast, I certainly had mixed feelings about the subject. I have long been interested in the Vail Mountain incident and the actions of ELF in general, particularly after reading Daniel Glick’s Powder Burn. In a way, I admire the dedication to the environment of ELF members as it makes me feel like my efforts to ride my bike and carpool are pretty meager. At the same time, burning down buildings and destroying property, no matter how egregious that property may seem, seems counter to a movement that wants to save resources. To me, it seems that radical environmental groups like ELF have let their emotions and anger overrule peaceful, well-grounded protest that is more likely to have the broad appeal necessary to attract more followers and truly make a change. Powder Burn is a great book on the subject and I highly recommend it, as well as Fritz Cahall’s podcast, “True Meaning of Radical.” Enjoy.