I had a great night out at the Golden Age Cinema Theatre for The North Face event last week. The North Face was celebrating 25 years of their Summit Series, their top-of-the-line, extremely durable, and weather-proof outdoor gear tested in extreme conditions. They really go all out by having their best athletes push this gear to the limit.
We had some special guests, Sam Smoothie and Will Roundtree talking about their adventures climbing and skiing some of New Zealand’s highest peaks. Apparently, there is a one-in-three chance of actually succeeding due to weather and snow conditions.
The main film was about climbing and skiing down Mount Trango in Pakistan, which is about 6,286 meters high. In the first year, Christina Langenberger and Jim Morrison attempted it, along with Nick McNutt, but they didn’t quite make it. The following year, they came back with Chantelle Astorga joining the team since Nick couldn’t make it, and they succeeded. I found it incredible that they were able to accomplish the mission they set out to do, given the extreme conditions. They had to navigate multiple avalanches, crevasses.
I was honestly blown away by how rugged and gnarly these mountains were. It really highlighted the extreme conditions and made the whole night incredibly inspiring.
