Why are you into it?
This is the one I'd text a friend about.
About
Marc-André Leclerc climbed alone. No cameras, no sponsors, no social media updates from storm-battered bivouacs. The young Canadian alpinist attacked the most technical faces in the world with a purity that made other climbers uncomfortable. The Alpinist documents his final years, when filmmakers Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen tried to capture someone who actively avoided being captured.
Leclerc disappeared for months at a time. He'd surface with photos of routes that redefined what was possible in winter alpine climbing. The Torre Egger traverse in Patagonia. New lines on Mount Robson's Emperor Face. Technical mixed climbs in conditions that turned other expeditions around. His girlfriend Brette Harrington knew the pattern. He'd study topographic maps like scripture, then vanish into weather windows that existed only in his head.
The film chases a subject who doesn't want to be chased. Directors spend months waiting for Leclerc to return their calls. When they finally track him down, he's planning something bigger and more remote. The documentary becomes about the impossibility of documenting someone committed to solitude. Archive footage shows Leclerc moving through technical terrain with an economy that comes from complete focus. No wasted motion. No backup plan.
Leclerc and Ryan Johnson were reported missing on Alaska's Mendenhall Towers in March 2018. The film was nearly complete. What started as a climbing documentary became something else entirely. A record of someone who chose the mountains over everything else, including the chance to explain why. The final frames show empty peaks under infinite sky. Leclerc got what he wanted. He climbed alone.
Fun fact
Leclerc often climbed major alpine routes without telling anyone, only posting photos weeks later after casually mentioning he'd soloed something considered impossible.