Siebe Vanhee

Siebe Vanhee is a Belgian climber from Leuven (born November 11, 1991) whose filmography here emphasizes big‑wall exploration and the early‑season project work that defines first‑ascent thinking. The shorts collected show him both on El Capitan engaging with Dawn Wall‑level difficulties and on remote granite in Madagascar addressing the practical challenges of establishing new lines where cracks are scarce.

Darkest Before Dawn: A Dawn Wall Story (2023) captures Vanhee’s first season working on the Dawn Wall alongside Séb Berthe. The film favors close, physical detail: fingertip mechanics, body position on marginal holds and the peculiar feel of learning a wall’s demands when much remains unknown. It’s less a pitch‑by‑pitch chronicle than a study of the early stage of a project, useful for viewers who want to sense what an opening season on El Cap’s hardest faces looks and feels like.

MAD in Madagascar - Climbing with Sean Villanueva & Siebe Vanhee (2017) records a different kind of problem: blank granite in the Tsaranoro massif where on‑lead bolting, power drills and skyhooks become practical necessities. That film shows route‑finding, the decision process around placing bolts, and how climbers adapt a light‑and‑clean ethic when a face leaves them few natural protections. Together the two films present Vanhee as a climber comfortable both with the microphysics of high‑end big‑wall movement and with the improvisational, tool‑heavy work of exploratory bolting in remote places.