When I was at Oliana, Spain, earlier this year I shot some footage of Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra attempting a probable grade 38 (9b+) project (called La Dura Dura — meaning the hard hard one). That’s right, they both seemed fairly confident that if sent it would be the hardest route in the world and warrant a new grade (there are about seven 9b routes in the world; most of which have been climbed by either Chris or Adam).
I watched Chris and Adam attempting this project on many days and on eight days also shot video of it for Big Up Productions. Every time Chris or Adam tied in for a shot I’d jumar up a rope and wait for them, high up the 50-metre route, so that if either of them got through the lower crux’s I’d be in place to film the upper part of their send. Sometimes I got to shoot from other angles. Not the most glamorous job ever but it was really interesting watching them work the route, refine their sequences and gradually unlock the route’s secrets. Well I won’t spoil the story for Big Up. In the meantime check out their teaser for the Reel Rock Tour. It’s good to see some of my crux action footage used there. I can’t wait to see their full clip!
I have to know, at 2:23, how are they doing that shot? Did they fix a crane to the wall or is there a pulley system pulling the cameraman up the wall?
Hey Tyler, you have eagle eyes! Same effect as at 0.33 perhaps? It was actually an elaborate trolly system running on guy ropes parallel to the cliff. The set up is courtesy of Matt Maddoloni and his Sea to Sky Cablecam rig: http://bit.ly/TJQAHl They also used it for some footage of Sasha on Era Vella. Great effect so long as it wasn’t windy.
Wow, should have guessed that’s how they did it. What a setup! I was thinking about a pully system with a haul bag as a counter-weight; a friend on the ground could pull me up easily. Another friend could lock off the slack incase the counter-weight failed. Thanks for the reply, that footy of Sasha is really great as well.