Can't Believe This Exists in New York City

A gym film on a site full of rock films, and I am glad it is here. Magnus Midtbø visits New York City and documents the after-hours bouldering scene at Afterhours Climbing, the people who run it, and the sessions that happen when the regular day is over.

This is for climbers who live in cities and know that most climbing happens on plastic. It is also for anyone curious how a dense city sustains a community around a sport built for open country. Skip it if you only want outdoor rock. There is no named line here, no grade that matters, and no landscape.

What works is the attention to session dynamics. Midtbø shows partner belays for projects, the social structure of a night crew, and the way training and friendship blur in a small space. Meciah Mahon's camera work and Sam Tuck's edit keep it moving. What it leaves out is any argument about why this matters. The film records the scene and stops. I wanted Midtbø, who has made a career of travel films, to say something about what New York taught him.

Stone Locals, Patagonia's feature on climbing communities, is the fuller version of this idea. It gives five portraits and seventy-two minutes to the question of who keeps the sport alive. Midtbø's seventeen minutes is one portrait, less polished, and closer to how most of us actually climb.