Suffering through a hot, humid, sticky New York summer, we like to escape to the ice with laps on DRY ICE Tools, and also some get-amped-for-winter films.
Hot Aches consistently produces excellent and award-laden climbing films. From their early work in E11 to their latest installments, they are able to weave very beautiful pictures coupled with a compelling story, something lacking in many of today’s climbing films.
How close to the edge can you take it? How do you reckon the route and the risk? The film asks two simple but loaded questions. However the film’s main mechanism is not an original idea. It’s the main character, a Yorkshireman who once worked in the coal mines, quietly narrating over footage of him climbing.
Andy Cave, full of energy and zeal for life, shows us some of the best of Scottish winter climbing. At around 34 min tho, shit gets real. The climbing... The story... I’m not going to spoil it. It’s just a fabulous piece of filmmaking and storytelling.
Intercut with literary moments and scotch barrels are Steck-style fall line assaults and excellent, hard earned camerawork to capture Cave and his partner Gary Kinsey climbing on Ben Nevis and other Scottish areas.
Worth a look for sure. Def worth the purchase (or rent). Pour three fingers and enjoy.
Produced and directed by Paul Diffley. 42 min
-Bc