Outliers
Inspiration
Photos by The African Attachment
Salomon Running TV presents the latest episode: Outliers, a film that explores the emergence of a new style of Alpinism with Jordi Tosas sharing valuable insight while Michel Lanne searches for a balance between this approach and his life in Mountain Rescue. We caught up with director/producer Dean Leslie of The African Attachment to talk about the making of the film and the unique challenges it posed.
What were the messages that you were trying to bring together?
We wanted to document the rise or resurgence of this practice of this light and fast style of Alpinism. It’s been popularised over the last few years with the FKT [fastest known time] exploits of Kilian Jornet and there has been a lot of discussion around the possibilities of moving quickly with minimal gear and then obviously the associated risks. We felt that Michel Lanne would have a unique balanced perspective on this from his life in Mountain Rescue. And then you have Jordi Tosas who has been quite involved with Kilian’s ‘Summits of My Life’ project and comes from a slightly more traditional mountaineering background. Alongside this you have a continual progression and advancement in gear and technology that has led to the possibility of this much simpler and direct approach in the mountains and Salomon has been at the forefront of that, so this was an obvious story to tell.
It’s beautifully shot, but it must have been difficult. What were the main challenges?
I think we are often lucky with these films in that we are in such beautiful environments that it is pretty easy to do them justice. Usually the toughest part is keeping up and I know that wasn’t any different for the team filming with Jordi Tosas. Fortunately the guys are usually patient with us. There was obviously a lot of logistical planning around the Mountain Rescue part of the shoot and we had to tread lightly in order to not interfere with the daily operations of the PGHM.
Was there anything unexpected that came out of the film?
Not really. I think a lot of people assume that people that practice and play in these extreme environments are reckless but that is obviously not the case. You can sense the deep respect they have for the mountains. Moving fast and light is about reconnecting with this, being in tune with the environment without being hindered by excess gear. I feel that this is a great parallel for how a lot of us feel in our daily lives and that the resurgence of the fast and light practice of Alpinism is almost a counter reaction to all the rules and conformity that we all face day to day in our lives, cultures and society at large.
See the full multimedia story here.
A production by The African Attachment // Music: “Hakan” by Sylvan Aztok, “No More Tears” & “Bottom of the Sea” by Miles Sievwright “A Piece for Rudolf Fritsch”, “In the Morning”, “The Upper Reaches” & “In the Shade of the Wild Fig” by Guy Buttery
