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The Asgard Project

chrisireland

13-Apr-2010
11:03:12 AM

http://www.theasgardproject.com/

This looks like an amazing trip. Has anyone seen the DVD yet? Or know where I might get it in Aus? Just the inspiration I need to get my sorry @ss onto the rock again.


nmonteith

13-Apr-2010
1:04:54 PM

"To reach Mount Asgard top climbers Leo Houlding, Sean 'Stanley' Leary and fellow Berghaus athlete Carlos Suarez sky dive into the heart of Baffin Island, in the Arctic Circle, whilst the film and rigging crew take on the gruelling 5 day trek carrying 30kg packs. "

Lazy buggers. I wish I had someone to lug my gear into that place...


wallwombat

13-Apr-2010
1:25:55 PM

On 13/04/2010 nmonteith wrote:
>"To reach Mount Asgard top climbers Leo Houlding, Sean 'Stanley' Leary
>and fellow Berghaus athlete Carlos Suarez sky dive into the heart of Baffin
>Island, in the Arctic Circle, whilst the film and rigging crew take on
>the gruelling 5 day trek carrying 30kg packs. "
>
>Lazy buggers. I wish I had someone to lug my gear into that place...

Yeah, I think that bit is a total wank.

onsight

13-Apr-2010
2:17:52 PM

> a total wank

Why? I was spending some time with Leo when he was organising this and think it was brilliant. If you have the skills, why not? Everyone would have been carrying multiple load if they hadn't done an air drop.


nmonteith

13-Apr-2010
2:30:34 PM

On 13/04/2010 onsight wrote:
>Why? I was spending some time with Leo when he was organising this and
>think it was brilliant. If you have the skills, why not? Everyone would
>have been carrying multiple load if they hadn't done an air drop.

I reckon walking into that place is half the climb itself! I just reeks of 'stunt' to me. Why didn't the whole expedition just chopper in with all the supplies rather than the lowly film crew having to walk whilst the 'stars' parachuted in?

"The story gets off to a spectacular start as the plot twists and unforeseen problems come thick and fast in this unrelenting epic. Once the team commit to the wall the drama only increases..... order your DVD now to find out the climax to this stunning blockbuster."

I think that sums up the reason.


wallwombat

13-Apr-2010
2:37:45 PM

On 13/04/2010 onsight wrote:
>> a total wank
>
>Why? I was spending some time with Leo when he was organising this and
>think it was brilliant. If you have the skills, why not? Everyone would
>have been carrying multiple load if they hadn't done an air drop.

OK. How about "a bit of a wank" then?

Where the crates of gear attached to Leo and his mates?

Was having an air drop dependant on them jumping out of the plane too?

You say "If you have the skills, why not?"

I know fat guys who can't walk around the block five times who can sky dive.

Sure, climb the route and base jump off. That's great. Very exciting stuff indeed. But to sky dive in like MacGyver is a bit contrived and , as Neil said, a bit lazy.

What was the point?

So they could have the tents set up by the time the film crew got there? Have a brew waiting for them?

That's jolly nice of them.

I'm sure, however, that it helps sell the DVD to the masses, which I imagine is the point.

Anyway, whatever gets you excited, I suppose.

I simply find that aspect of the whole trip a bit contrived and a bit of a yawn to tell you the truth.


wallwombat

13-Apr-2010
2:59:18 PM

Parks Canada used to be very stringent regarding their rule that air drops were not allowed inside Auyuittuq National Park. Obviously not if you are Leo Houlding and you are making an adventure film. Obviously not if you have the name and the money to grease a few palms.

Sorry, but I think if everyone else has to carry in "multiple loads" when they expedition in Auyuttuq NP, on Baffin, then so should Leo and his chums.


gordoste

14-Apr-2010
11:50:34 AM

Talk about tall poppy syndrome!

Duncan

14-Apr-2010
12:12:35 PM

On 14/04/2010 gordoste wrote:
>Talk about tall poppy syndrome!

I know, right? How dare people suggest that these super stars carry their own gear in, instead of having other people do it for them. It makes much more sense for them to just jump out of a plane and land in an already set up base camp.


nmonteith

14-Apr-2010
12:14:16 PM

I hope they also had some assistant rap down their climb and pre-place all their gear.


nmonteith

14-Apr-2010
12:18:23 PM

On a side note, many previous expeditions actually get the local Inuit villages to skidoo expedition supplies in during winter when it's a snowy highway and stash them somewhere polar bear proof. Sadly these expeditions have then left their rubbish behind when they left! We feasted on left over food from an Italian expedition that left 2 large drums at the base of Mt Thor, mostly full of rubbish but when we scavenged we found quite a bit of uneaten food.


wallwombat

14-Apr-2010
12:32:02 PM

On 14/04/2010 gordoste wrote:
>Talk about tall poppy syndrome!

I have nothing against Leo Houlding. All I am saying is, the whole sky diving in thing is a bit of sensationalist nonsense made to sell the film and if other expeditions to Baffin don't have the option to air drop their gear in, why should they?

Generally, one of the most interesting aspects of expedition films is the window into the group dynamics of the team that opens up on the approach. I'd prefer to see that than people sky diving.

As I said before, top marks for the climb and the base jump decent but the rest seems a bit contrived to me.

Climbers like Leo Houlding and the film makers that document (and sensationalise) their exploits have a symbiotic relationship - they make each other money. It's simple. I understand this and I can see why they do it. If I was in their position, I probably would do it too, if it meant I didn't have to work for a living and could just go adventuring all the time.

I wont apologise for not being impressed with certain aspects of this adventure that are clearly geared towards wowing an easily wowed audience. I just don't find jumping out of a plane with a parachute that impressive.

And besides, gordoste, your just calling it 'tall poppy syndrome' because I give you the shits and you don't like me.


gordoste

14-Apr-2010
1:06:12 PM

actually only about 1% of your posts give me the sh!ts. This one is not one of them.

The reason they get to air drop their gear is that they've jumped through all the hoops required to get (and keep) good sponsors. Guys like Leo Houlding and the Hubers are attracting money to climbing by making it interesting to a wider audience. Of course, people have different opinions on whether that is a good thing - it's similar to what has happened to surfing and skateboarding.

Maybe tall poppy syndrome is too harsh, but I can definitely smell reverse elitism.

Duncan

14-Apr-2010
2:04:02 PM

On 14/04/2010 gordoste wrote:
>The reason they get to air drop their gear is that they've jumped through
>all the hoops required to get (and keep) good sponsors.

"To reach Mount Asgard top climbers Leo Houlding, Sean 'Stanley' Leary and Carlos Suarez sky dive into the heart of Baffin Island, in the Arctic Circle, whilst the film and rigging crew take on the gruelling 5 day trek carrying 30kg packs." There's no mention and no vision of gear being air-dropped in with the skydiving super stars. It certainly sounds like Leo and friends just jumped in while the crew carried their shit in for them. That's what people are taking exception to.

>Maybe tall poppy syndrome is too harsh, but I can definitely smell reverse
>elitism.

What does that even mean?


wallwombat

14-Apr-2010
2:04:22 PM

On 14/04/2010 gordoste wrote:

>Maybe tall poppy syndrome is too harsh, but I can definitely smell reverse
>elitism.

OK. I think I'll have to give you that one.

One Day Hero

14-Apr-2010
2:11:28 PM

On 14/04/2010 gordoste wrote:
>The reason they get to air drop their gear is that they've jumped through
>all the hoops required to get (and keep) good sponsors. Guys like Leo Houlding
>and the Hubers are attracting money to climbing by making it interesting
>to a wider audience. Of course, people have different opinions on whether
>that is a good thing - it's similar to what has happened to surfing and
>skateboarding.
>
>Maybe tall poppy syndrome is too harsh, but I can definitely smell reverse
>elitism.

Bullshit! It's no different to Bear Grills getting up to ridiculously contrived skydiving and piss drinking. They are stunts made for T.V. which are completely unrelated to the task at hand........actually, old Bear has taken it so far down this path that there is no discernable task at hand, just one stunt after the next.

Now, this does't make it bad viewing. I quite like watching Bear drink his own piss, and I might like watching stunts based around climbing on baffin......just don't confuse it with actual climbing!

One Day Hero

14-Apr-2010
2:25:36 PM

On 14/04/2010 wallwombat wrote:
>
>Generally, one of the most interesting aspects of expedition films is
>the window into the group dynamics of the team that opens up on the approach.
>I'd prefer to see that than people sky diving.
>
I have to say, I get really sick of mountaineering films where it's all about the struggle and the team pulling together. The only mountaineering doco I ever liked was one with Alex Lowe, Jared Ogden? and one other dude...........the team clearly hates each others guts and the whole film consists of two alpha males banging heads and fighting for supremacy, while one small man runs around doing the dishes and generally tries to overenthusiastically compensate for something. Absolute gold!


wallwombat

14-Apr-2010
2:37:54 PM

They were on Trango Tower. The other dude was Mark Synott. Yeah that was good.

There was one short one I saw with Andy Kirkpatrick and Ian Parnell in Patagonia. They went in winter. They had miserable weather. Went up, got scared, came down and spent 5 days bivied under a big boulder, in a big pool of melt water and then went home. It was actually pretty good but only because they are both funny guys.


pmonks

14-Apr-2010
2:53:31 PM

On 14/04/2010 One Day Hero wrote:
>Now, this does't make it bad viewing. I quite like watching Bear drink
>his own piss

Ditto! Did you see the episode where he was floating about on a raft and his only water was collected from a bird-sh1t encrusted pool of rainwater from the side of a sea stack? After explaining that there was no way you could safely drink the water, he proceeded to "ingest" it via a home made enema!!

One Day Hero

14-Apr-2010
2:59:33 PM

Well, a movie about sitting in a puddle sounds like it has more potential for interest than most climbing flicks anyway, I'll have to track it down. It's so much better watching films with funny people than films with americans!

Hey, I've had a competing omlette theory suggested to me. Apparently it "kicks arse on wombat method"........which would be a bit surprising cause my 'school of wombat' effort turned out pretty damn good. Anyway, I'll let you know

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