"Essential" Adventure Documentaries?????

I'm probably going to get more red squares than a checkerboard for even mentioning this, but I really enjoyed Sherpa John's movie, 48.

And I'll second Michelle's recommendation for "Appalachian Impressions".

I'll have to put in my support for the PBS everest one. I own it, I watch it every so often when I need some motivation.

I don't know if it's for sale yet, but the recent IMAX on the Eiger (I believe it was called "the alps") was really good.

Of the several I've seen about hiking the AT, I really enjoyed "10 Million Steps." I don't know if it's still being sold, but you can come to our potluck next year and watch it.

Alone Across Alaska (http://www.bucktrack.com/Alaska_Brooks_Range_Traverse.html)
Some really nice footage.

"The Last Place on Earth" -- Amundsen and Scott to the South Pole (both of them) and back (one of them.) Writing, acting, and filming are all top notch.

I like The Rest of Everest
They have 80 hrs of video of Ben Clark's expedition to Everest from getting supplies at Walmart to summitting. Its condensed down to 5 hours. I have not finished it yet. Its distributed as a FREE VIDEO Podcast, which means you will need Itunes to view it. (Itunes is free, and you do not need an Ipod).


If you want to check it out, install itunes from Itunes Download Page At Apple, go to the itunes store and search for "the rest of everest". Subscribe to it, and all episodes will download. It will take a very long time if you have dialup access only.

A handful of years ago, this guy, Rob Perkins, came to Brattleboro VT and did a presentation on paddling the Great, green, greasy, Limpopo river in Africa. He was a spellbinding story teller. I read his book Into the Great Solitude and enjoyed it about as much as an "adventure" story. I'm not really into the adventure drama genre. But here is a link to his website. For anyone who likes the water, solitude, paddling, etc...it might be interesting.

roadtripper said:

Favorites so far...
- Trek (about the AT)
- Touching the Void (climbing)
- Alone In The Wilderness (about the man who built a cabin in Alaska)
- Step Into Liquid (surfing)
- Riding Giants (surfing)
- Endless Summer I & II (surfing)

Anybody willing to recommend any others that you can rent or buy???? Thanks!

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So is "Alone in the Wilderness" the same as "Into the Wild?" I found that interesting. And then there is the IMAX film "Everest" which is pretty cool. Of course there are some oldies but goodies out there: for example, a great documentary about Thor Heyerdahl the Norwegian explorer who built "Kon Tiki" (anyone else remember that one?) and of course Jacques Cousteau.

I must admit that I'm more into print than film, but I don't want to hijack your thread, so maybe I'll start another.

sardog1

Thanks so much for the link; I have been looking for this movie forever. I saw this when in first came out on PBS in the early 80’s. If you have not done so read the book it was based upon by Roland Huntford. It was originally title “Scott and Amundsen “ There is a new edition out titled “ The Last Place on Earth” As for movies I would suggest Shacketon with Kenneth Branagh http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272839/

Tony

A "Alone in the Wilderness" and "Into the Wild" are two different stories. They really are polar opposite it how to achieve solitude in the wild.

WBB said:

If you have not done so read the book it was based upon by Roland Huntford.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272839/

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Yup, Huntford is the go-to guy on polar explorer biographies -- Scott and Amundsen/The Last Place On Earth, Shackleton, and Nansen -- The Explorer as Hero.

Chip said:

This thread is 3 years old but the in-laws are asking about Christmas gifts, so I thought it might be worth updating. Any one care to add to the list ? I'd add The Eiger Sanction, Vertical Limit and Cliffhanger for the entertainment value. Any great Mountain Movies on your list ?

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Here's some: http://www.adventurearchive.com/data/books_videos/order.asp

Tony said:

So is "Alone in the Wilderness" the same as "Into the Wild?" I found that interesting.

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"Alone in the Wilderness" is the story of Richard Proenneke who made a cabin by hand with simple tools in Alaska and lived there for many years.
Part of the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsfB6oJ55wM

www.dickproenneke.com

"Alone in the Wilderness" is also a book.


"Into the Wild" is a book by John Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, Into Thin Air) written about the last years and death of Chris McCandless. A thread with discussion here

It was made into a movie last year.

While they are not adventure movies, do any of you remember the TV series on public television called "Trailside" and later "Anything Wild" -- Brian and I have many of the videos they produced and find they give a good sense of a lot of different adventures. My favorite was of climbing the Grand Teton. They also covered back country skiing, kayaking/canoeing, bicycling.

eruggles said:

While they are not adventure movies, do any of you remember the TV series on public television called "Trailside" and later "Anything Wild" -- Brian and I have many of the videos they produced and find they give a good sense of a lot of different adventures. My favorite was of climbing the Grand Teton. They also covered back country skiing, kayaking/canoeing, bicycling.

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That's good info. It's too bad there isn't much like that on now. Part of my goal with this thread is to figure out what's out there and eventually own enough fun stuff to watch that I won't miss the fact that it's not on cable.(Then go back to "basic" and get my weather only on the computer.) There's plenty of good reading, but I need to read alot for work and school so by late Sunday afternoon I tend to want to veg.

I read through this quick and I'm pretty single minded towards the skiing, but the one that comes to my mind that I don't see listed is Steep. It's a documentary about big mountain skiing/ski mountaineering and the people who pioneered it. It starts out with Bill Briggs who was first to ski the The Grand, some of the Chamonix skiers, some Andrew McClean, and of course Doug Coombs.

IMO its worth a look if you like moutaineering or skiing. Came out last year I believe.

I've got a couple of new videos that I should be able to liberate from my local post office tonight. I'll let you guys know if any of those are any good....

Jen

eruggles said:

While they are not adventure movies, do any of you remember the TV series on public television called "Trailside" and later "Anything Wild" -- Brian and I have many of the videos they produced and find they give a good sense of a lot of different adventures. My favorite was of climbing the Grand Teton. They also covered back country skiing, kayaking/canoeing, bicycling.

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I'll put in another plug for the "Anything Wild" series. I remember one where Peter Whittaker, a lady editor from a woman's running magazine, and a local guide did a peak in SA. IIRC, it was a 2-part program, much of it given to instructing the woman on some of the techniques of mountaineering. I learned "rest-stepping" from what Peter demonstrated.

Kevin Rooney said:

I'll put in another plug for the "Anything Wild" series. I remember one where Peter Whittaker, a lady editor from a woman's running magazine, and a local guide did a peak in SA. IIRC, it was a 2-part program, much of it given to instructing the woman on some of the techniques of mountaineering. I learned "rest-stepping" from what Peter demonstrated.

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I also found it to be enjoyable, but the name was "Anyplace Wild".

The woman might have been Annie Getchell. She was featured in many episodes, including one on Tele skiing in the Chic-Chocs, IIRC.

My PBS link has gone dead, but the following search brings up lots of hits: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="anyplace+wild"&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

Doug

Two films I really enjoyed Never Cry Wolf (1983?) and Touching the Void.

Nif said:

I read through this quick and I'm pretty single minded towards the skiing, but the one that comes to my mind that I don't see listed is Steep. It's a documentary about big mountain skiing/ski mountaineering and the people who pioneered it. It starts out with Bill Briggs who was first to ski the The Grand, some of the Chamonix skiers, some Andrew McClean, and of course Doug Coombs.

IMO its worth a look if you like moutaineering or skiing. Came out last year I believe.

Jen

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I love this one. Watched it at least 5 times before returning it to Netflix.