After two years of effort, Sender Films groundbreaking 6-part First Ascent: The Series is now being released on DVD box set and digital download at www.senderfilms.com. For those of you who have been following them for a while, this is NOT to be confused with their 2006 film “First Ascent.” It’s a whole new thing. A co-production with National Geographic International, First Ascent: The Series is a culmination of everything they have been striving for in terms of cinematography, story-telling, and cutting-edge vertical feats. They are really proud of it…. enjoy
Dean Potter is characterized by creativity, commitment and challenge. He started climbing as a child, with a free solo fall from a stone wall as one of his earliest memories. Since that time, he has speed soloed Half Dome and El Capitan, Cerro Torre, and Fitzroy. He was the first to make a one-day free ascent of El Cap and Half Dome, and a one-day speed linkup of both of those big walls and Mount Watkins, Yosemites third Grade VI wall. He has also established testpiece crack routes in the Utah desert and highball boulder problems in Yosemite.
Dean has walked the longest highlines, often without a safety leash, though he has dedicated over a decade of engineering and testing to create the safest highline systems currently used. Most recently, he has combined BASE jumping skill with highlining and free soloing, using a specially engineered ultralight BASE rig as his backup system.
Dean currently bases out of Yosemite, where he can usually be found on a large piece of granite.
Favorite Climb: Power of Silence, Hueco Tanks Training
Greatest Climbing Achievement: Winning the 2009 Vail Bouldering World Cup.
When Not Climbing: Hanging out with friends, playing card games, and eating tons of cookies and ice
cream! =)
I love to share my passion for climbing with everyone I come in touch with. Climbing is everything to me and it has brought me great things in life. It has given me the opportunity to meet so many awesome people and has led me to cool places around the world. There is noting better then traveling around and getting to climb at different places. There are so many different types of rock and various types of movements and I want to experience them all!
Dean Potter will be featured as part of the World of Adventure Sports Series on NBC this Sunday November 8th at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT.
The episode will cover Potter’s first “FreeBASE” ascent of the North Face of the Eiger. Potter, a leading climber, attempts the first solo ascent of a 5.12d on the Eiger, carrying a BASE-jumping rig on his back in case of a fall.
Potter was also the first person to free climb up El Capitan’s The Nose and Half Dome in a day, and has climbed major routes in Patagonia.
Please check local listings for broadcast schedule. Show times are subject to change.
Note from Dean, after his record 2min20sec flight time off of the Eiger. We’ll post footage of the jump when it’s finalized, but for now, a teaser from the edge…
“just shot a record jump with pete yesterday off the eiger.
the helicopter pilot has been around BASE for a decade or more and said
he’d never seen flying like that before. he called me ‘the eagle’
afterwards. the skill level of the pilots here is unbelievable. he had
so much control and actually flew ‘air to air’ with me about 100 feet
off my wing. i could feel the reverberation of the blade thudding
through my body.
a friend here ‘went in’ a few days ago flying his wingsuit through a
notch. he missed calculated by about 5 feet and impacted with no
parachute out. grim. i’ve lost 6 bros this year, so far. it makes me
see that i am not invincible. i’m still drawn towards the ultimate
though and making sure to do everything in my power to be safe and aware
of every detail.
hope things are well with you. i’ll be back soon. say hello to all.
ciao. dean”
We noticed our most recent post on Dean’s freesolo at Taft Point <LINK> had a lot of readers concerned and a few skeptical. We asked Dean to share with us a little about his training on the line, and dug up a prior video clip from a video feature on Dean in the New York Times earlier last year. In his own words, here’s what Dean had to share:
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I rarely read blogs and am kind of an old fashioned guy who likes writing letters or talking to people face to face. Most of the time I do literally live in a cave or under trees and forget that the public sees or cares about what I do. It’s come to my attention that a few of the prAna blog readers are a bit concerned about me falling off of highlines while I’m solo walking. Even though this last freesolo crossing at Taft Point was a distance record of 100 feet I assure you I was in total control. In fact I soloed it five times in a row. Here are a few ideas that might calm things down. Usually I don’t divulge my secrets but maybe it’s helpful in this case.
For a long time now I’ve been interested in the martial arts. I’m fascinated with the Aikido and strategy expert Miyamoto Musashi and have learned from his book, ‘Go Rin No Sho’ (A Book of Five Rings) and teachings over the years. Though he lived in the 13th century his values and openness to new ideas drove him to the forefront of swordsmanship simply by disregarding others’ rules. In his most famous dual he struck down a stronger opponent with a wooden oar that he spontaneously carved into a sword, simply because he wielded a longer blade. (more…)
