Wednesday, April 27, 2011

BlueWater Anthem

Hey there V.C. viewers!!! Hope all is well and you are squeezing some adventure out of life! As most of you know by now Renan had a terrible skiing accident. He cracked open his head pretty good and broke his neck in a couple places. But, by nothing short of a miracle he is neither paralyzed nor dead. A few months from now he'll be out of the neck brace and back to filming and climbing. So everyone think good thoughts and in the mean time, enjoy this short Anthem piece I cut for BlueWater Ropes. Read more...

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

'Towers of the Ennedi' behind the scenes

Our crazy first year as a production team ended with a wild adventure to document the first ever climbing in the remote Ennedi desert of Chad, Africa. After 4 days/800km following a GPS coordinate on a roadless wasteland we found ourselves among thousands of beautiful unclimbed towers.

Tim​, Jimmy and I all have a lot of experience in expedition storytelling from the high himalaya to the jungles of Borneo but this trip redefined 'remote' for all of us. We were so psyched to collectively push our gear and creativity with our athlete friends at TNF.

Besides the knife fights with the locals and a few lenses lost to the sand things went pretty smooth. We were able to run our entire work flow without a generator using goalzero solar and battery setups. It was also our first time shooting the motion time-lapse setup on the kessler pocket dolly which was the secret weapon in so many ways.

A director's cut of the final film "Towers of the Ennedi" will screen at 5point ​at the end of April before the full premier at Mountain Film ​at the end of May!

Thanks for checking out this tid-bit. Cheers from the c-collar ~reo

Music:
Ki:Theory
"Step Outside"

Computer Vs Banjo
"Give Up On Ghosts"

Random Rab
"For My Corpse"
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Towers of the Ennedi - The North Face sneak peak of the film festival edit!!

This is an exclusive preview presented by The North Face of the film festival edit that will be showing at the 5point film festival and Telluride Mountain Film. If you have the ability to make these festivals I highly encourage it! Meeting the filmmakers, the big-screen viewing experience and the variety of amazing adventure film subjects are not to be missed.

At any rate, make sure you have solid 12 minutes to sit down and enjoy this cut of the Chad story. Thanks for taking the time to check it out, lots of love has gone into this edit so far. Cheers, ~reo

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Sunday, April 10, 2011

A Close Call

Hey all Vertical Carnival followers out there. Just a quick update on some recent catastrophic events. Although we really love taking on every project all the time and going full-steam 24/7, sometimes the powers that be overwhelmingly tell us to slow down.

In my case it all came to a halt last week in Jackson, Wy during a C4C/TGR collaboration that was supposed to follow big mountain riders into the Grand Teton National Park. During a pre-production shoot at the JH resort to capture b-roll on mellow terrain I caught an edge with to much speed just above a cliff band. What would have been a normal little fall turned into full on nightmare. My arms pinwheeled in the air fighting for life before the inevitable impact into the rock. During the unconscious lapse that followed my good friend Jimmy Chin 1st responded, playing a major role in saving my life. As I came back to consciousness I was still in the process of being extracted on a sled through the tight tree terrain below Rock Springs buttress by the highly skilled JH Ski Patrol. I shivered uncontrollably and was only able to see intermittently through the fogged oxygen mask and wallops of snow falling from the tight trees. The toll of injuries included a massive depressed skull fracture, collapsed lunge and 2 broken vertebrae. Any one of these could have easily killed, paralyzed or caused permanent brain damage. Luckily the emergency craniotomy and other surgeries were successful. The road to recovery will be slow but the recovery will also be a full one. So, besides just being thankful to be alive I'd also like to thank all of friends and supporters for the love and kindness during the painful start to this healing process. I will still continue to follow my dreams of adventure and creativity in the mountains but will do my best to pay attention to when the universe is telling me to slow down and not take anything for granted. ~reo Read more...

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Cuba Chapter5_The Cock Fight

This is the last of the Cuba series, thanks for following this tropical "vacation" adventure. Although there are a few hurdles for US travelers to go to Cuba once you arrive the culture is welcoming and the climbing is world-class at all grades. Highly recommended in all ways! ~reo
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