FIRST FEMALE ASCENT of 'China Doll' (5.14a R) | ft. Heather Weidner

A film about psychology as much as movement, and it is the rare send film that admits fear is the subject. Heather Weidner makes the first female ascent of China Doll, a 5.14a R trad route in Upper Dream Canyon, Colorado, on June 15, 2016, after roughly a year of effort. At the time the route had reportedly seen fewer than ten ascents despite sitting 25 minutes from Boulder, and she became only the fourth woman to climb 5.14 on gear.

This is for climbers who want to see how a technical crux and a runout combine, and for anyone interested in how self-confidence and gender expectations sit inside a hard project. Jon Glassberg directs and Caroline Treadway writes, and Chris Weidner appears as husband and partner. Skip it if you want a how-to on the moves. The film spends its time on the commitment to insecure pro, not the sequence.

What works is the parallel narrative. Heather's doubt is treated as part of the climb rather than a side story, and the R rating becomes legible as a mental problem. What it gets wrong is that twenty minutes of a year-long effort compresses the falls, and on a runout route the falls are the point.

E11, the film on Dave MacLeod and Rhapsody, is the fullest treatment of fear on gear the site has. China Doll is the American version, shorter and more personal. Both are honest that the hardest part is not the crux.