Petzl RocTrip Argentina 2012 - The official movie
2013 · 23 min · Sport Climbing, Trad, Big Wall, Documentary · Petzl
Shot at the Petzl RocTrip held in November 2012, this film records climbing in La Buitrera Canyon and on the isolated Piedra Parada monolith in Chubut province, Argentina. The canyon is described in the source as roughly 5 km long with cliffs up to 200 m high; Piedra Parada rises from the surrounding pampas. The footage follows visiting climbers and the local team of route developers as new lines are put up and as established routes are climbed. The directors are Guillaume Broust and Vlad Cellier. The movie is notable as a document of a large international climbing gathering rather than as a portrait of a single ascent. It shows the practical work of developing a new area, the scale of the cliffs in La Buitrera, and the mixed conditions reported at the event (wind, dust, heat and cold). More than 1,500 people attended the tenth RocTrip in 2012, and the film is useful for anyone interested in how a climbing festival interacts with a newly developing multi-pitch area in Patagonia.
Review
A document of a gathering rather than a portrait of an ascent, and useful for exactly that. The Petzl RocTrip of November 2012 lands in La Buitrera Canyon and on the isolated Piedra Parada monolith in Chubut, Argentina: a canyon roughly 5 kilometers long with cliffs up to 200 meters, and a stone rising out of the pampas. More than 1,500 people attended. Guillaume Broust and Vlad Cellier direct.
This is for anyone interested in how a climbing festival interacts with a newly developing multi-pitch area. The film follows visiting climbers and the local route developers as new lines go up and established ones are climbed, and it records the conditions honestly: wind, dust, heat and cold in the same week. Skip it if you want a name to follow. Twenty-three minutes spreads across a crowd, and the cast is the crowd.
What works is the sense of place. Piedra Parada from the pampas is a real image, and the canyon's scale is clear. What it gets wrong is that a festival film without a protagonist is a montage, and this one is.
Petzl RocTrip China 2011 is the previous year's edition, and it has what this one lacks: Dani Andrada on an eight-pitch 8c, Gabriele Moroni on a 9a. That film has ascents. This one has a party. Watch China for the climbing and Argentina for the landscape.
