Team Geared Up

Chiang Mai, Thailand (Team Geared Up) - It’s been a while since I received this and for some reason, I never got around to posting this up. Anyway, now that I see that Chris Sharma has climbed the project in Siurana that is heavily featured in this movie, I thought it was pretty apt!.

Simply, if anyone is looking for a DVD to inspire or get psyched from, add this to the list. After a nice and slow start with some gorgeous deep water soloing footage from Mallorca, the movie slowly increases in tempo with footage of Sharma on what is now the potential 9b ‘ Golpe De Estado’ in Siurana, Dani Andrada linking most of the moves on some the craziest routes in the Ali Baba cave in Rodellar and other inspirational footage of routes being sent in Spain (Siurana, Santa de Linya, Rodellar). Get yourself over to Laurent Triay’s website if you want to get a copy.

The interesting that surprised me with this movie is just how ‘real’ the movie is. Watch any of the more mainstream DVD’s and it’s very ‘proper’ - the climber is seen falling once or twice, and then he sends the route. As it shows in this movie, it has Sharma screaming and cursing his way up routes after skipping several quickdraws, Sharma trying a SINGLE MOVE hundreds of times in one go without success, Andrada cursing that he didn’t give it a proper attempt - this is the real deal. I’m just after watching BigUpProduction’s out-takes from Sharma’s new supposed 9b, and it just doesn’t give that emphasis, of just how much effort it takes to climb inspiring and right-at-the-top-end routes. For anyone who wants to be inspired, put this on your to-buy list!
Also, how many other videos can you see where you see top-end climbers getting to the top of projects and not having the moves worked out, making a mess of the sequence and almost taking a 20+ meter fall as they’ve skipped the previous 3 or 4 bolts?!?! It makes for pretty entertaining viewing :)

If interested, the DVD can be purchased from Laurent Triay’s website here

As some inspiration, here’s the trailer:

Image Credit: Cover of ‘The Fanatic Search’ DVD from LaurentTriay.com
- Neal :) -