Mind Frame Cinema

Opportunities may be handed to you a little easier when you’re the son of a legend but that doesn’t guarantee success. Being dragged to Pakistan at the age of 1 for a climbing expedition only to come home with Chicken Pox and being told 'You’re never going to be as good as your father' would make any young child stay as far away from climbing as possible. Jess Roskelley the son of Legendary climber John Roskelley and the only American to receive a Piolet d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award for his climbing achievements thought the same way throughout his childhood until that one climb changed his entire life.

The Pursuit film takes you into the mind of Aaron Mulkey and his pursuit of mother nature’s greatest watery treasures. Interviews with his friends reveal that true adventure awaits those who choose to pick up the phone when he calls. With over 100 first ascents of frozen waterfalls and nearly 20 first descents of rivers and creeks around the world, Aaron Mulkey has proven he is not afraid to walk a little farther to explore unknown places.

Nalle Hukkatiaval is driven by first ascents. For him, the moment of actually climbing a boulder problem is secondary —a mere 10%— compared to the hard work of actually unearthing the line. But just because you have the vision of how a sequence should unfold doesn’t guarantee that you can do the moves. Is it too hard? Does it even go? This film documents Nalle’s battle with one of America’s hardest boulder problems: Sleepwalker V16 (8C+), in Black Velvet Canyon (Nevada), a project he could not complete in 2018 when he started it, and since then, only ascended by Jimmy Webb and Daniel Woods.

Mayan Smith-Gobat, who holds the female speed record on the Nose, teams up with Niels Tietse to have their go at freeing 'Free Rider' on El Cap and The Regular Northwest Route of Half Dome within one day’s push. As always with ambitious goals, success was uncertain. 5,000 vertical feet of technical climbing (more than 1.5km) can get the better of even the best of climbers. A Mind Frame Cinema film by Chris Alstrin.