Darkest Before Dawn: A Dawn Wall Story
2023 · 19 min · Trad, Big Wall · EpicTV
Alex Eggermont's film covers Siebe Vanhee's first season on the Dawn Wall, El Capitan's hardest big wall, with Séb Berthe alongside him. It is a portrait of the early part of a project, the season where the route is still mostly an unknown quantity and the work is learning what it will actually demand. The filmmaking leans toward the physical rather than the narrative: hands on nothing holds, a body hanging thousands of feet up, the fingertip mechanics of climbing at that grade. Nineteen minutes, closer to a mood piece than a chronicle. Worth watching if you want the feel of being on that wall more than a blow-by-blow account of pitches.
Review
A mood piece about the beginning of a project, and it is honest about being that rather than a chronicle. Alex Eggermont's film follows Siebe Vanhee's first season on the Dawn Wall, El Capitan's hardest free route at 5.14d over around 30 pitches, with Séb Berthe climbing alongside him.
This is for climbers who want the feel of being on that wall more than a blow-by-blow. The camera stays on hands on nothing holds, a body hanging thousands of feet up, the fingertip mechanics of climbing at that grade. Skip it if you want the Dawn Wall story. Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson's 19-day push in 2015 and Adam Ondra's 8-day repeat in 2016 are the background, not the subject, and the film does not retell them.
What works is the physical focus. Nineteen minutes of texture, dust and small edges is a real choice, and it gives a better sense of the wall's compact granite than any summary would. What it leaves out is the outcome. This is the first season of a multi-year project and the film ends without telling you how far Vanhee got or what he learned.
FREE ASCENT of El Capitan's 2nd Hardest Route covers Magic Mushroom, the line ranked just behind the Dawn Wall, and it shows a finished ascent in five minutes. This shows an unfinished one in nineteen. I found the unfinished one more interesting.
