A Month In Rocklands with Kyra Condie

A trip film that admits what most trip films cut, which is why I trust it. Kyra Condie's fourth season in Rocklands, shot and directed by Carlos Mason, starts with the goal of one project worth a month and ends with more projects than sends. She says so on camera.

This is for anyone who has wondered what a full Rocklands season looks like from the inside, hours and days rather than highlights. Condie works Basic Instinct, The Beaten Path, L'Arch and Distance, takes a detour to Cape Town for a competition and a deep water solo session, and spends rest days at a braai, a fish fry and a board game table. Skip it if you want a send reel. The climbing shares the runtime with dogs and wine.

What works is the honesty about choice. Rocklands has so many options that committing to one is the hard part, and the film makes that a real problem rather than a montage. Basic Instinct, with its committing topout, is the best sequence. What it gets wrong is length. Thirty minutes of not deciding starts to feel like not deciding.

Compare it with A Good Season, Mellow's film on Jimmy Webb in the same valley, which is nothing but sends. That film shows what a Rocklands season can produce. This one shows what it usually produces, and I think most climbers will recognize themselves here.