With the arrival of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) this weekend, Squamish Climbing Magazine will be featuring stories all this week and next about the festival. VIMFF has always been a time of inspiration and this year is no different. With the festival beginning Friday, February 13th, 2015, we are more than excited to welcome such a talented group from all over the world into our lives.
On Sunday February 15th at 2pm, the Rio Theatre in Vancouver will be host to the Beautiful BC Matinee, an afternoon show dedicated to a selection of adventure films all made here in Beautiful British Columbia including the films Wideboyz II Slender Gentleman, Going Strong, Stikine, and Seven. Below is our review of the film Wideboyz II Slender Gentlemen, by Hot Aches Productions. Set in our very own Squamish, BC, this film is surely not to be missed.
In the 2012 Hot Aches production Wide Boyz, we got to follow two pasty Brits around the United States as they systematically crushed the nation’s hardest wide cracks, culminating with a first ascent of Century Crack (5.14b), likely the hardest off-width in the world. What made this film so compelling was Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall – the pasty Brits in question – had no off-width skills whatsoever. Their success was the result of a single harebrained idea followed by many months of strange and torturous training on contraptions devised to simulate wide cracks in their dank British cellars. The amazing thing was, it worked.
Wide Boyz 2 looks to replicate the original formula, but with a slender twist. This time the boys set their sights on one of the hardest finger cracks in the world, Squamish’s notorious Cobra Crack (5.14a/b).
Although it helps to have seen the original film to get the full gist of what they’re all about, Wide Boyz 2 provides a brief recap to get the ball rolling. Once complete, the new climbing goal is introduced and the story gets underway. Again, it’s back to the cellars but this time the wooden cracks are thin. You see, the problem is long, hard cracks of any size are a rarity in England and this puts those intent on honing their skills at a distinct disadvantage (see the film Blood, Sweat and Bagels for the original take on this unique problem). However, the boys are not deterred and they train their asses off on some pretty interesting devices and the odd outdoor rock climb. What sets their training apart in this film is the nastiness of it all. Finger cracks can be oh so painful and the torture is obvious, enough to make any viewer squirm.
With training complete, Pete and Tom jet off to Squamish and get to the business of attempting Cobra Crack. This is full of the usual trials and tribulations that surround “hard” ascents, and Squamish can really dish it out, especially in the form of funky weather. This is the meat of the film and I enjoyed it, but a little more exploration of the area might have given viewers a better taste of what it means to climb in Squamish. We see only one route, and that’s Cobra Crack, but interview clips with Sonnie Trotter, the route’s first ascentionist, really add depth and insight to Pete and Tom’s experience.
Unfortunately, I already knew the outcome and this dampened the impact of the film’s dramatic ending. But if you don’t, steer clear of the search engines and enjoy the excellent tension that’s created as the success of the journey comes down to the wire in a way that would make any passionate climber’s palms sweat.
In this age of digital media, climbing videos are easy to come by. Any punter with a smart phone can film his buddies on their climbs and post it on YouTube. Footage is easy to collect, but good stories are not, so it’s great to see companies such as Big Up, Sender Films and Hot Aches Productions embracing the story-telling aspect of our sport, and doing it well. Wide Boyz 2 may not be as action packed as some and it falls a bit short of the original, but it still tells a good tale, and it’s refreshing to watch climbers who are able to laugh at themselves in a genuine way. My only “WTF” moment in the film was watching Tom gleefully chase dying, spawning salmon up the Stawamus River, a clip I hope the Squamish Streamkeepers will never see. I’ll chalk that one up to a complete lack of knowledge and experience. Just like cracks, I guess there’s no salmon in England either…
For tickets to this event only, please click here.
For the full 2015 VIMFF schedule, please click here.
