It’s been a pleasure sharing our story here with #thenewyorkermag. Today is the last day of our posts. Thanks for following from the whole crew: @alexhonnold@conradclimber@jimmy_chin@robfrostmedia@renan_ozturk. Photograph by Conrad Anker.
The photos themselves offer a moment of escape. That is sufficient, but you might want to read the captions (like the one above, which accompanies the last photo, of the climbers smiling), in which case go to the post on New Yorker‘s website. Better yet, the whole interview with Renan Ozturk excerpted here, is there:
What is your background, both as a climber and as a filmmaker, artist, and photographer?
After college and a degree in biology, I diverted from my studies and hit the road to pursue climbing and landscape art full time. That consisted of six years of living out of a backpack and hitching rides from climbing friends between national parks such as Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Canyonlands. Eventually, I became part of the North Face athlete team and gained the opportunity to take my climbing and art all around the globe. During these expeditions, I was driven to take up filmmaking in order to bring back more immersive stories to share these experiences. I don’t think I’ve ever called myself a photographer, but perhaps my newfound Instagram addiction classifies? Currently, I stay busy with a mix of all of the above: travelling on expeditions, film shoots, and art projects around the planet as part of the North Face athlete team and Camp 4 Collective, the production company I co-founded.
Briefly tell me about this expedition, and why it is significant.
Our Bugaboos expedition was one of the official adventures supported by The North Face this year. Our team really made the trip special, with a multigenerational representation of individuals who have all had significant impacts on the world of climbing. First, we hadConrad Anker (@conradclimber), the North Face athlete team leader and one of the most experienced expedition climbers on the planet. He is commonly known for discovering George Mallory’s body on Everest, but to us he has been an amazing mentor in terms of how to live the climbing life as low-impact as possible with respect to the mountains and cultures within them. Jimmy Chin (@jimmy_chin) also joined us. He is one of the most sought-after expedition storytellers of his generation, a true veteran of the expedition life, and a big creative mentor for me. Next, we had our friend Alex Honnold (@alexhonnold), the young gun who has emerged as one of the greatest free-solo climbers (meaning he uses no ropes) of all time. Alex is starting to become a household name with appearances on “60 Minutes” and other mainstream media, but the fame has left his personality and love for climbing unscathed. Last, I was working with Rob Frost (@robfrostmedia) on the video production. Rob is a veteran climbing cinematographer from New Hampshire, and we were lucky to have him for his climbing and shooting skills as well as witty humor. Besides the goal of pushing the limits of climbing in one of the most iconic alpine climbing areas in the world, we were also tasked with testing prototype equipment to make the necessary changes before going to market…
Organikos 