The Alpinist

Between 2015 and 2016 Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen tried to follow the Canadian climber Marc-André Leclerc. The difficulty was that Leclerc had no phone and no car, lived nomadically, and believed a film crew's presence corrupted the purity of a climb. The most honest thing about the film is that the documentarians keep losing their subject. At one point Leclerc goes to Patagonia without telling them and makes the climb of his life alone. Free solo films usually build their tension out of risk. This one is about temperament instead: why a twenty-three-year-old indifferent to spectacle, sponsorship and recognition would go up the world's most dangerous routes without a rope. On 5 March 2018 Leclerc and Ryan Johnson disappeared while descending from a new route on the Mendenhall Towers in Alaska. Both died and their bodies were never recovered. The film was released in 2021. Who it is for: viewers who like climbing documentaries and character-driven storytelling. Who it is not for: anyone uncomfortable with heights, or who will find it heavy to watch knowing the ending.