The Alpinist
I watched The Alpinist this week. It’s a documentary about alpine climber Marc-André Leclerc. I won’t say too much because I don’t want to spoil it, but at its core there is a very interesting question. Marc is a young man who climbs mountains all the time and he is essentially a genius - the finest climber of his generation and maybe one of the greatest ever. He lives an unconventional almost monastic existence in pursuit of his passion. He is also, however, deeply embedded in a series of relationships with his girlfriend, Brette, his mother and countless other people who he has met and befriended on his adventures. What he does is extremely dangerous. According to one talking head, half of the people who do what Marc does die whilst doing it. As you’ll see from this clip, alpine climbing is a form of extreme nature appreciation: the beauty of the mountains, the sky, the snow, the rock, the clouds, the clear air, the sunlight. There is a spiritual component to all of this…
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