King Line reflections

www.kinglinesmovie.com

*When I see King Lines (see Review) what strikes me is the incredible icon status of Sharma as a climber and person. Although it may be positive it also shows how eager we are, as people, to put someone on top, whether it's about performance or way of life. I mean, here we have a guy that climbs only for the feeling of climbing, lives climbing and doesn't care about grading. But instead of promoting just that we, the climbing world, start to evaluate his performances and compare them with those of others. I think it is a petty that we make out like Sharma is the only one looking for those "perfect hard lines" (in general, not only in this movie). It seems to me that we think we need a superstar who takes the sport so much further than everybody else and climbs much harder than all the rest. No offense to Chris who is an awesome climber and genuine person, but we have to realize that part of what he does (like everyone) is just to challenge himself and his capabilities. There are some pretty strong men and women out there that "live climbing" and have their own "perfect" lines, which might be harder (or not) than the ones shown in, for example, King Lines. As Chris himself says in the Climbing's The King of Kings interview: It's a line that calls out to them, ... a line that motivates them to become better climbers . In this interview we see another example of what I am talking about when the interviewer compares Sharma to Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, and asks why there is a gap between him and the other climbers. Who says there is? Chris, being nice to the interviewer, tries to avoid answering this question. Ethan Pringle is currently crimping his way through the dyno at Es Pontas and La Rambla appears to be an elimination and "only" 9a the way Chris did it, at least according to Ramonet. If you speak up about this people think that you're caught up with grades. At the same time the difficulty is the whole reason everybody's talking about it, and I'm just saying that when it comes to performance, there are several climbers that can match Chris. But when it comes to finding obscure and spectacular lines..., Chris is the King.

Although it didn't strike me until later I was very upset with the climbing and filming of the bouldering trip to the table-top mountains in Venezuela, Matawa Tepui. Matawa Tepui means the house of the gods, and is considered to be sacred Indian ground to the Pemon Indians. They call it the place of the dead and it is part of their ancient history. Access to the area is limited to the Pemon Indians and scientists with permits. In addition, these type of environments are very rare, holding some of the most unusual species in the world. Because of the altitude and the isolation of these plateaus to the ground forest, many species that exist here are endemic (i.e. they only exist here) (you'll find a great summary of all this at Wikipedia). Most tapuis have been declared World Heritage Sites by Unesco. Climbing at a site like this and filming it could be seen as a very disrespectful gesture towards the Indians, them not being able to judge as they live in a different world.  Also, it is very possible that the climbers, not being aware of their own impact on the environment with regards to bacteria and the food they bring, impacted on the very sensitive flora and fauna in this place. I wonder if this is part of the "natural way of life" and "true spirit of climbing" that this movie wishes to portrait? Confronted with this Josh Lowell responded accordingly:

Johan mentioned the fragility and sacredness of the tepuis, and he is absolutely right. We thank him for mentioning this in the review, as it would be a tragedy for climbers to think this was a place to be developed or affected in any way. While filming and bouldering there, we became very aware of the impact of each footstep we took and each rock we climbed, so we made explicit efforts to walk only on bare rock or on established Indian trails, and to carry out all of our trash, including leftover food. The areas where we established camps and bouldered are places where the few people who venture into these parts had camped in the past.
 We were guided on this trip by a group of Venezuelan climbers who work closely with the Pemon Indians, and are helping them with medicinal needs, and educating them on how to handle increasing tourism. Since Chavez has given control of much of the federal land in the Gran Sababa back to indiginous tribes, they are the overseers of all activity in the area, and they are just now developing a model for tourism control. The more popular tepuis see dozens of visitors a week, who are guided to the summits by Pemon Indians, or flown to the top by helicopter. Our Venezuelan guides talked with the leaders of each indiginous tribe and worked with them in assuring our expedition was respectful to the community, and that we hired Pemons as porters and local experts, and that we tread only in areas that were acceptable to the Pemons. We always had at least one indigineous guide with us, educating us on the moors of the area. Nonetheless, we agree that an expedition to this area is not something to be taken lightly, as travelers are confronted with many cultural, environmental and ethical considerations. We hope any travelers to the tepuis, climbers or otherwise, will treat the area with the greatest respect, and will follow the guidelines set out by the Pemon communities.
Josh Lowell

Independent of the circumstances, this highlights a big problem in climbing, the access issue. Who has the right to the land and what should we be allowed to do in and to nature? These are not easy questions and I must say that it is not clear if actions such as those promoted in this movie should be encouraged. Independent on what your beliefs are I don't believe in violating others world view, and even more so, violating restrictions manifested by the UN to protect historical and biological values. Compensating the land owners, or Indians in this case, doesn't always make up for destroyed nature. We cannot sit by and watch as climbing becomes an industry like any other. As a growing sport and industry our responsibility is to grow in a way that coincides with the type of world we want our children to live in.

About the movie, it's very good. Go see it! But think not only on the hard moves and smart editing. Try to think further...

*This article has been altered after it was first published since the authour felt he needed to separate the review from his reflections. Also, there were things in this artcle that needed clarification.