“Yo, do you want to cancel all your plans in June and come to Madagascar for a month?? Patagonia needs a videographer!”
I was driving out of service when Lenore called, and as the line stuttered, I did as well, “Um, I’ll call you back when I’m in service!” I said, and the line clicked dead. My friend Gena was next to me in the car. “You have to go!!!!!” She said excitedly. My first reaction to the news was, “I’m tired.” I had just gotten back from 2 months of international travel only 10 days prior. I was getting into a climbing rhythm again, and had to be in Yosemite Valley for work for the next 2 weeks as well, which would leave me less than a week to turn around and pack up and travel to one of the furthest places in the world for a month. It all seemed overwhelming. This is the side of being an adventure photographer / filmmaker they don’t tell you about. Don’t get attached to too many personal plans, because they will all be thrown away in an instant. Usually, I need some time to settle in with the news – first slamming the door shut in its face as I deal with the surprise, and then opening it back up meekly, saying, “sorry, come on in I’m so happy to see you!” And then, I get stoked.
Two and a half weeks later, I started the long journey to the Tsaranoro Valley. First, a 5-hour drive from Bishop to LA. Then, 2 days of flights. LAX to SLC, SLC to Paris, Paris to Antananarivo. Then comes the fun part: 2 days of driving on the worst roads ever all the way to the southeastern part of the island, where a remote valley of granite massifs awaits.
I was there to film for Patagonia. Doerte Pietron, one of their ambassadors, was close friends with Lenore and they were going as a team to attempt to climb a route that Lenore had equipped when she was there last.
Lenore and Elise halfway up the first ascent of their route, Tsofa Dombo (5.12b A1)
Doerte and her husband, Daniel, are the best climbers no one’s heard about. The quiet crushers. While everyone else is fixing lines and working routes to death, they are going ground up, every time. Trying or establishing viciously hard routes, with no one around to document it.
So I tried to keep my camera as non-invasive to their process as possible.
Daniel on the crux pitch of Lalani M’panjaka (8a+)
Some iPhone snaps from the trip:
Highlights:
Only crashed my drone once
Lemurs.
The most beautiful sunsets you’ve ever seen
Got to climb the mega-classic, Out of Africa with Lenore and Elise - 14 pitches, 11+
Lemurs.