I’m not a movie critic, nor do I aim to do movie reviews on this site, but I saw a movie the other day, on the plane of all places, that I thought was worth noting. Ironically, its title aligns with the name of the mountains that I’ve come to love so much. The White Mountain, a film by Luke Wiles and Gwyn Williams, doesn’t cover the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but another white mountain—one I visited many years ago.
The film follows the adventures of Hadley Hammer and Bastien Fleury, two accomplished and mindful explorers of the great outdoors, and offers us a close examination of Mont Blanc—its beauty, its challenges, and its dangers. It also highlights some important things for the backcountry community to consider. Particularly right now, as we approach the spring climbing season in our own White Mountains here at home.
Mont Blanc, as seen in summer of ’99
Hard Truths
Covering climate change on Mont Blanc is a big purpose of the film, revealing how warming temperatures are shortening the snowy season and changing the behavior of crevasses. This is important not only for understanding the concerns with our environment, but in managing the risks of an everchanging mountain. Not knowing could be fatal to mountain adventurers.
Whenever we take on big mountains, our mortality is always at risk, and the film doesn’t shy away from this topic either as it goes rather deeply into the loss of Miss Hammer’s partner David Lama, who tragically lost his life in an avalanche in the Canadian backcountry. I’ve seen a lot of documentaries that gloss over such events, focusing more on the beauty of the mountain and the challenge, not wanting the sadness to take over the film—I appreciated that this film didn’t do that, and allowed Miss Hammer to speak with candor about the loss.
In Courmayeur, at the foot of Mont Blanc, they know all too well the hard realities of mountain exploration
Adventurers Keeping it Real
But what I appreciated most while watching this film was how two extreme athletes took on extraordinarily risky adventures climbing and skiing Mont Blanc, and used their platform to admit their fears. They approached their endeavors pragmatically, in the company of colleagues they could depend on, and communicated concerns openly and without false bravado. It was refreshing to see these two athletes recognizing, well, their humanity, serving as a model for other adventurers to not feel like they have to be made of non-human fortitude to achieve superhuman feats.
Social media, with its perfectly curated filmography, shows extreme skiers and climbers in great numbers, performing all sorts of heroic things in the mountains, and it worries me how many young people might think a key component of the adventurer’s makeup is “no fear.” When we only consume media in thirty second clips that show people leaping from Corbet’s in Jackson Hole, or throwing themselves off of planes in the latest Red Bull commercial, we start to believe that they and a million other online legends, are made of different stuff. Special stuff. Non-human stuff.
Two adventurers heading up the snowfields (8/1/99)
A Fretful Friend
But have you ever listened to the interviews of an X-game competitor who just hucked a corky McDuff or whatever you want to call it, hurtling himself for a record number of flips? You should, because a lot of times they admit they were terrified. Some of the younger athletes don’t let on that they were nervous, and maybe they’re not for now, but over the years, most of them eventually admit to getting a little freaked out up there in the air. For crying out loud, Philipp Raimund is a German ski jumper who won Olympic gold and he admits to being afraid of heights!
I remember watching another skier once who did a record number of flips on the vertical jump in the Olympics, and when asked how he felt about it, he said he “did not like doing it.” It was a nerve-wracking experience he would not soon repeat. And I believe he was the winner! I respected the hell out of that and wish we could hear more of those perspectives. Because fear is not the enemy in these situations. It’s a fretful friend, heightening our awareness and making sure the reckless part of our brains still has a vessel to carry it after we’re done doing whatever it is we are trying to take on.
A summer campsite on Mont Blanc, back in the day
Into the Spring, We Go
So, as the spring melt starts here in New England and the rest of the northern hemisphere, and people feel encouraged to leave the lowlands and head up to the mountains, I recommend that all adventure seekers give The White Mountain a look, and remember that when making plans for the spring, to exercise caution. While it may feel like summer soon in the valley below, the mountains will still be covered in ice and snow, causing dangerous trail conditions. Falls will happen, hikers will get lost on the trail, and rescues will be needed. We want to minimize that as much as possible. Bring your trackers & beacons, bring your wits, and don’t worry about being epic. The epic will come, one way or the other. Stay safe out there.
It’s always warmer, and looks a lot safer, in the valley below