MAD in Madagascar - Climbing with Sean Villanueva & Siebe Vanhee
2017 · 11 min · Big Wall, Documentary · Petzl
Mad in Madagascar follows Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll and Siebe Vanhee on an exploratory push on the blank granite of Tsaranoro Atsimo in the Tsaranoro massif, Madagascar. Shot during an August 2015 trip, the pair identify a large unclimbed line on the face and work it ground up. Because the rock is largely devoid of cracks they carry a power drill, place bolts on lead and use skyhooks to bridge blank sections — techniques the film shows in practical detail. The film is useful for climbers interested in route‑finding and on‑lead bolting on remote big walls rather than for grade‑focused footage: it documents the decision making and headspace of a first‑ascent style exploration in a place where traditional protection is scarce. It also records how Villanueva and Vanhee adapt their usual light‑and‑clean approach when a blank massif forces the use of power tools and fixed protection.
Review
Eleven minutes about a decision, and the decision is the film. Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll and Siebe Vanhee find a large unclimbed line on the blank granite of Tsaranoro Atsimo in August 2015 and work it ground up. The rock has almost no cracks, so they carry a power drill, bolt on lead and use skyhooks to bridge the blank sections.
This is for climbers interested in route finding and on-lead bolting on a remote wall, and in what happens when a crew known for light and clean tactics meets a face that will not take them. The film shows the techniques in practical detail. Skip it if you want a grade or a finished route. Petzl made a short about headspace, and it stays there.
What works is the honesty about compromise. Villanueva O'Driscoll usually climbs with instruments and no drill, and watching him adapt to fixed protection is a real moment. What it gets wrong is length. Eleven minutes for a first-ascent exploration on a massif this big leaves the wall unexplained.
Tough Enough: Big Wall Climbing in Madagascar is the same massif seven years earlier, a named 8b+ route freed pitch by pitch over forty-eight minutes. That film shows what Tsaranoro's granite can be when it has a line. This one shows what it takes to make one.
