ROCK TRIP | The North Face

In March 2024 nine The North Face athletes gathered in and around Valle Encantado, near San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, to climb, bolt new lines and explore the granite spires that punctuate the valley. The film is assembled and directed by Matty Hong and intercuts polished cinematography by Mike Call and Ben Nielsen with on-the-ground iPhone footage shot by Cedar Wright. The edits make room for process as much as performance: bolting, route-finding and low-angle approaches appear alongside climbing sequences rather than being edited out of the story. The value of the piece is documentary rather than athletic spectacle. It records a short, collaborative trip—featuring Matty Hong, Shawn Raboutou, Sam Elias, Felipe Camargo, Angie Scarth-Johnson, Brette Harrington, Cedar Wright, Matt Segal and Caro North—and shows how a mixed international team exchanges techniques and local knowledge while developing new sport lines and scrambling up spires in Valle Encantado. Technical details in the credits (cinematography, music direction) and the mix of phone and cinema cameras give the film a practical, climber’s-eye frame that will interest viewers who care about route development, group dynamics and place-based climbing culture.