"14 Peaks" The Movie

I watched this last night and would highly recommend it to pretty much anyone.  Staggering.  I'm not even able to comprehend what these guys did.

Yes, agree!

Total determination for success... amazing what can be achieved. 

Must watch!

Great movie review, guys. You couldn't even post a preview? Do you feel like expanding on the film's virtue? Is it a cliché of a climbing film or something else? At least give people a reason to care if you create a topic. I see it's a Jimmy Chin production along with 8 others. Currently has higher ratings than the Alpinist on IMDB (8.2 vs 7.9). Tearjerker? YGD?

Review on Salon (for Torn - Alex Lowe - & 14 Peaks)

Excellent movie, I appreciated Reinhold Messner's commentary particularly because there were the armchair experts on forums (probably sitting bored at work right now wishing they could be climbing) who disparaged his efforts because he used oxygen. 

Nims and his team crushed this challenge, even the logistics alone must have been insane to put together. The guy put a second mortgage on his house (what a wife!) to go do something that had an incredibly high probability of death. 

Even if you disregard climbing all Fourteen 8000m peaks in 7 months, just climbing Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 3 days! What??

"After the summit success on Annapurna on 23 April, he and his team fought their way up to the summit of Dhaulagiri on 12 May, partially in very strong winds: “If I’m honest, Dhaulagiri was probably five times harder then Annapurna due to the weather conditions,” Nims wrote afterwards on Facebook. Back at base camp, he immediately flew by helicopter to the base camp of Kangchenjunga. 24 hours after the arrival there, Purja and Co. stood on the 8,586-meter-high summit. "

And then there are his rescues, which are bone chilling.

"He already had to do this twice this season: on Annapurna during the rescue operation for the Malaysian Wui Kin Chin (who later died in a hospital in Singapore) and also on Kangchenjunga, when he gave his bottled oxygen during the descent to two Indian climbers suffering from altitude mountain sickness above 8,000 meters. Purja asked for additional oxygen by radio – in vain. The two Indians died."

https://abenteuer-berg.de/en/nirmal-purja-everest-lhotse-and-makalu-in-three-days/

also,

"Nims managed to complete all 5 peaks above 8000m peaks in Pakistan within just 23 days without using any helicopter support between base camps. Nims and the team had to cover 8 days worth of trek in just 3 days, carrying their own kit for most of the treks simply because the porters couldn’t keep up; but the team needed to hold pace to hit the time frame. "

Absolute monsters.

David S wrote:

"Giving up is not in the plot, Sir!  ...It's not in the plot."

“Giving up is not in the blood, Sir. It’s not in the blood.”

Inspiring attitude that guy!

Strings Attachedwrote:

Great movie review, guys. You couldn't even post a preview? Do you feel like expanding on the film's virtue? Is it a cliché of a climbing film or something else? At least give people a reason to care if you create a topic.

It seems like you don't like climbing films, judging by your response in one of The Alpinist threads, so why care about this one?

In another thread you wrote:

Free Solo wasn't all that interesting to me, nor Meru, nor The Alpinist, nor Dawn Wall, nor most of the old ones.

Strings Attachedwrote:

Great movie review, guys. You couldn't even post a preview? Do you feel like expanding on the film's virtue? Is it a cliché of a climbing film or something else? At least give people a reason to care if you create a topic. I see it's a Jimmy Chin production along with 8 others. Currently has higher ratings than the Alpinist on IMDB (8.2 vs 7.9). Tearjerker? YGD?

Review on Salon (for Torn - Alex Lowe - & 14 Peaks)

Chill dude. Everyone has access to youtube in about 5 seconds.

Great movie and inspiring. It's bigger than "just a climbing film" and as much about huge goals and driving through to accomplishment. Great cinematography. 

Also it has personal story line that's reminiscent of Free Solo. The identity of the executive producers came as no surprise. Sort of signature, at this point.

Finally, are Nirmal and Suchi Purja the next power couple in the world of mountaineering film? They come across as such beautiful people. The camera loves them both.

Watching it now.  Awesome, but funny that he's compared to Messner and others who did them all without oxygen.  Doing them without oxygen would be the comparison.  In high altitude climbing, "altitude" is all about lack of oxygen.  

Marc801 Cwrote:

It seems like you don't like climbing films, judging by your response in one of The Alpinist threads, so why care about this one?

LOL. Yes, I hate all climbing movies.

You may not care to hear why other climbers think 14 Peaks is a good movie, or the Alpinist, or Meru, or Free Solo, but I find value there. It's why Rotten Tomatoes is so successful. And how hard is it to embed a video, or expand on a movie's value if you are posting a new thread about a movie? Not at all, except here. Links, images, videos give life and context to threads.

Let's see what I wrote about The Alpinist:

"I can't imagine that the family doesn't appreciate having the film as a touchstone....

....films can act like a mirror and make us think about our own actions. To me, films like Meru point out just how foolish mountaineers can be. That's worth sharing.  And sometimes it's nice to look back at the pioneers who were seen as extreme in their day. I am glad the movies get made."

Watching Yvon as a young man climb is historically interesting and enjoyable even if the movies aren't all that interesting. Meru wasn't all that interesting as a climbing movie; but, as a profile of the foolish things people will do in pursuit of an obsession, and profession, it was worth watching. Free Solo's "backstory" wasn't all that interesting, the climbing felt shortchanged, but Alex's effort was worthy of a film. And all of the new Chin/Vasarhelyi projects seem to be heading into a cliche of themselves. 

The climbing media covered the 14 Peaks adventure after they finished. What does the movie bring to the table that other climbing movies don't?

Ward Smithwrote:

Watching it now.  Awesome, but funny that he's compared to Messner and others who did them all without oxygen.  Doing them without oxygen would be the comparison.  In high altitude climbing, "altitude" is all about lack of oxygen.  

Unless you have some 8000's with and without oxygen under your belt, maybe don't judge?

Shane Bennettwrote:

Unless you have some 8000's with and without oxygen under your belt, maybe don't judge?

Don't have to do an 8000'er to know that without oxygen is harder than with. Both are phenomenal accomplishments, though

When one of you (or anyone, really) does the 14 in less than a year sans oxygen, then I reckon you'll have a point.

Ward Smithwrote:

Watching it now.  Awesome, but funny that he's compared to Messner and others who did them all without oxygen.  Doing them without oxygen would be the comparison.  In high altitude climbing, "altitude" is all about lack of oxygen.  

 The armchair critics are just sitting at work watching this man achieve his dreams and make history and still pointing out why his achievement isn’t as significant as it would have been if they had done it. 

Great movie. All the armchair critics should take a break from MP and go outside. 

Shane Bennettwrote:

Unless you have some 8000's with and without oxygen under your belt, maybe don't judge?

I'm judging the comparison, not the  achievement,  which as I said is awesome.

 I've only been to the top of Denali and Axoncagua, and I was definitely feeling the altitude. Always wanted to go to the big peaks, but then I broke my ankle in an avalanche and became a sport climber.

Ward Smithwrote:

Watching it now.  Awesome, but funny that he's compared to Messner and others who did them all without oxygen.  Doing them without oxygen would be the comparison.  In high altitude climbing, "altitude" is all about lack of oxygen.  

I have no comparable experience near those altitudes. Still, I would think that without oxygen, at least two things would jeopardize completing in seven months: slower so unable to take advantage of narrow windows of opportunity; longer recovery times.

Time will tell if anyone can repeat in the time frame without oxygen. 

Charisma. Great message re: Nepaleses.

It all seemed very impressive until Ward pointed out the oxygen use.  Now I’m gonna do it next year.  

Pretty sure oxygen is the difference between 7 months and 16 years.  Seems you’d have to be in really good shape and have your logistics wired to do all 14 in half a year, let alone do Everest, Lhotse,and Makalu in 3 days -all without oxygen.   Lol.

(let the ridiculousness sink in). That simply had to be one of the greatest feats pulled off by humans.  Not just the climbing, but the leadership, planning, execution, teamwork.  Amazing.  Nirmal is the new Shackleton.  

Does it make me a bad person to think the whole thing a hoax?

Chris Trautzwrote:

Does it make me a bad person to think the whole thing a hoax?

Not a hoax but perhaps a bit of Hollywood magic with the story telling.