Tough Enough: Big Wall Climbing in Madagascar
2008 · 48 min · Big Wall, Trad, Documentary · WORK LESS CLIMB MORE FILMS
Tough Enough is one of the hardest multi-pitch routes in the world, a granite line in the Tsaranoro massif of Madagascar. This film follows the team that made the first free ascent of it, sharing the work pitch by pitch: Stephanie Bodet, Arnaud Petit, Sylvain Millet and the filmmaker himself.
At forty-eight minutes it has room to show what a project of this size actually involves, the logistics of living under a wall in Madagascar as much as the climbing on it. This upload is the French-language version of the 2008 film, so you will need some French to follow the commentary, but the climbing carries itself. Worth it for anyone drawn to the era when hard free climbing went looking for walls far from Europe.
Review
The definitive record of one of the hardest free big walls of its era, if you can follow French. Tough Enough is 380 meters and ten pitches on the Karambony wall in Madagascar's Tsaranoro massif, five of them 8b or harder, and this film follows Arnaud Petit, Stephanie Bodet and Sylvain Millet through the first free ascent in June 2008.
This is for climbers drawn to the period when hard face climbing went looking for walls far from Europe. It is also for anyone interested in what a project of this size costs in logistics: living under the wall, working single pitches for days, then linking the whole thing. Skip it if you have no French. This upload is the French-language version and the commentary carries a lot.
What works is the sharing of the work. The film gives each climber their pitches rather than crowning one hero, and the thin, sparsely bolted face climbing looks as hard as the numbers claim. Laurent Triay, the fourth team member, shot it from inside the team. What it leaves out is the aftermath. The route's history since, and its place in Madagascar climbing, are not here.
Compare it with A Big Wall Story, Anna Hazelnutt and Matilda Söderlund's film on the same massif. That one is about partnership and hands the route name to nobody. This one is about a route, named and graded, and the difference in ambition shows.
