Meru, a 2015 film that documents the intense first ascent of Meru Peak's "Shark's Fin" route, beautifully combines stunning frames of the Himalayas with the personal struggles of mountaineering. Conrad Anker, a well decorated climber who has already been the first to conquer many other impossible feats on mountains around the world, assembles a three-person team to make an attempt at the impossible mission. Meru chronicles the issues that world-class mountain men face as they approach, and often cross, the limits of possibility for the human body. After narrowly missing the summit on their first attempt, in 2008, the team plans a return in 2011. Within months of their departure, however, they were cursed with a string of awful luck, leaving team member Renan Ozturk hospitalized, in life threatening condition. Weeks later, the other third of the team, Jimmy Chin, miraculously survives a massive avalanche, but it leaves him battling the metal trauma that an event like this causes. Still, though, they are able to fight through all of this and make another attempt at the summit soon after. All of the expedition footage in Meru is shot by the team themselves, adding a very personal feeling to the film, seeming somewhat like an extremely overproduced vlog for YouTube, a nice contrast to the much more heavily documented climbing movies that have become more prevalent in recent years.
Much of the movie's narration aims to explain why people risk their lives time and time again just to reach the peaks of the world. Many climbers describe it as something they absolutely need to do, a kind of addiction that they cannot stay away from. This provides interesting context into the minds of Conrad, Jimmy and Renan, showing why they were so determined to conquer Meru. This helps me more clearly understand why these elite athletes choose to risk their lives as a hobby. Without pushing their own bodies to further the limit of what a human can do, climbers like these three will always feel unfulfilled.
After Conrad witnessed his best friend and climbing partner, Alex Lowe, die in an avalanche that Conrad himself narrowly avoided, he swore off climbing for good. Lowe's widow, Jennifer, who later married Conrad, knew this was impossible for him. Picking a fight with the powers of Mother Nature obviously comes with immeasurable risk, but that is part of what mountaineers love. Winning a battle against some of the strongest forces we know, like avalanches, blizzards, or just the paralyzing mental state that miles of altitude forces unto someone is glorious. Conquering all of these restrictions has to be one of the proudest achievable feelings. It makes climbers champions, both in their own mind, and in the community around them. Before the ascent of Meru, Conrad was the only climber from the group with any notoriety, but since then, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk have become more relevant, household names within the climbing community.
As a short side note, the one part of the movie that bothered me was the scene discussing the avalanche that Jimmy survived. Instead of using footage from the actual one that he experienced, they showed a much larger avalanche that I recognized to be from Alaska, not the Himalayas. I was confused at this choice, as it was clear that there was plenty of video to show his actual experience, but instead the producers decided to embellish the event and mislead the viewers. The rest of the film seemed much more genuine than this, but my limited knowledge of climbing makes me wonder whether or not there were other scenes that I was tricked into believing were from the same expedition.
Meru is a fantastic film to watch, whether or not you have any interest or knowledge in mountaineering. The cinematography is beautiful as it pans over the magical peaks of the Himalayas, and extremely genuine during footage added by the climbers. The constant narration from the team, their family and friends, as well as notable guests, like the decorated author Jon Krakauer, keeps the scenes that lack action engaging, and provide insight into aspects of the complex climb that most viewers would be unable to notice. Aside from the one clear negative previously discussed, I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of this film.
