Swissway to Heaven - Full movie

A measured survey of Swiss climbing across generations, and the interviews are why it works. Guillaume Broust follows Cédric Lachat around the Eiger, Gastlosen, Wendenstöcke, Lauterbrunnen and the Rätikon, with multi-pitch climbing at 8a and up cut against conversations with the people who opened the routes: Beat Kammerlander, Claude Remy, Roger Schaeli, Stephan Siegrist.

This is for climbers who want to understand how Swiss big wall climbing got from mountaineering to hard multi-pitch, and who care about the continuity between the two. Nina Caprez, Mélissa Le Névé and Tobias Suter climb alongside Lachat, and the film gives the first ascensionists real time. Skip it if you want a single objective. Fifty-six minutes across five areas is a tour, and the climbing is illustration for the argument.

What works is Kammerlander. Hearing the man who put up WoGü in 1997, and named it for Wolfgang Güllich, talk about style while Lachat repeats his routes is the heart of the film. What it gets wrong is depth on any one wall. The Eiger's Odyssee, 1,400 meters of 8a+, gets a few minutes here.

The raw edits are the answer. Odyssee (Eiger North Face, 1400m, 8a+) and the WoGü full ascent are Broust's outtakes from this project, and they give the two hardest walls the time the feature could not. Watch the feature for the people. Watch the edits for the climbing.