I was hanging out with the Sender Films crew at SXSW for the Dawn Wall premier right around the time we all learned the sad news that Marc Andre-Leclerc had gone missing and was presumed dead in Alaska. Pete Mortimer was supposed to attend the SXSW premier but instead booked a ticket up to Alaska to be there to document this story as it unfolded.

Sender had been hoping to release a profile of Marc Andre-Leclerc for the next Reel Rock Tour, and obviously this news made that schedule impossible—which, of course, was the least of the concerns at the moment. Three years later, it seems to the team has completed their homage to Marc Andre-Leclerc, one of the most promising young alpinists of his generation, and slated it for a theatrical release this fall.

I think back to the spate of years during this timeframe when it seemed like most of the promising young alpinists all died, beginning with Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson, including Ueli Steck, and leading up to David Lama, Hansjorg Auer, and Jess Roskelley. It seems like this spate of death was almost one big long wave of loss that basically wiped out virtually all of the top, active alpine climbers of our time. This trailer seems to suggest the film takes this question head on, though these questions are tough and hard to really answer honestly without falling into the usual cliches and romanticizations about risk and reward.

Anyway, I can’t wait to see The Alpinist this year, and learn more about Marc Andre-Leclerc and who he really was. Congrats to my friends at Sender Films for wrapping up this long-time project. I am sure this film will pay homage to one of the most enigmatic and interesting climbers of the past decade, a guy whose life was cut far too short.