Ollie and Brian kill a lazy afternoon warming up on the Breithorn. This three
minute short is a nice introduction to easy alpine climbing. Blue skies
prevail, with stunning views down the massive Breithorn North Face from the
summit.
Music: Coldplay - "Speed of Sound"
Liskamm - 4527m
North Face (Norman-Neruda Route)
with Jon
August 12-14, 2005
21 min 46 sec
106MB
WARNING: Contains explicit music lyrics. Not suitable for young children or old
grannies
Watch Jon Giffith and Brian tackle the legendary Liskamm north face, a D+/TD
classic alpine route. This epic climb over three days involved 13.5 hours of
climbing on the summit day, up 55-60 degree ice faces and horrendous
powder-covered rock conditions. Victory then achieved, the duo finishes off
with a bit of "ice bouldering" on the Gornerglaciar.
Music:
Infected Mushroom - "Deeply Disturbed"
Infected Mushroom - "Frog Machine"
LCD Soundsystem - "Tribulations"
Rage Against the Machine - "Killing in the Name"
Chamonix 2004
A freeride ski short
7 min 46 sec
27MB
Brian's first ski bum season in the alps, at the epicenter
of European extreme skiing - Chamonix. Brian and some of the
Chamonix crew - Thomas, Leif, Aussie John, and Dr. Paul -
give a breif but thurough tour of the joint, from the popular
Col de Crochets tour to Le Buet to the more scenic "Mont Blanc
Panoramic" tour to the Italian border.
Music:
At the Drive In - "Patteragainst the Huser"
Jedi Mind Tricks - "Animal Rap"
Vrai Vallee
A freeride ski short
3 min 34 sec
21MB
Not fantastic snow, not hardcore skiing, but the backdrop can't be beat as Tom and Brian
spend a lesuirly day skiing a variation on Chamonix's famous Vallee Blanche.
"We headed up to maybe do the Cosmiques, but it wasn't in great condition and we didn't
feel like hiking back up to do the Envers du Plan, so we decided just to take it easy and
enjoy the 12km long, 2500m vertical classic glaciar trip back to Cham'."
Music:
Radiohead - "2 + 2 = 5"
First Tracks
A freeride ski short
with Colin
October 28, 2005
4 min 46 sec
27MB
Brian dusts off his camera for the first ski video for the 2006 winter season! Brian links up with fellow ski bum Colin O'Farrell
("the only guy I know with skis bigger than mine") to throw down some sick pre-season lines on the Kliene Matterhorn glaciar. The duo
makes the best of horrible conditions to stich up some inspiring turns that almost look like powder. Spiced up generously Zermatt Gravity
Park footage as Brian shows off the park skills learned during the last summer.
Music:
Sambomaster - "Seishun Kyousoukyoku"
Ober Gablehorn - 4063m
with Paul July 27-29,
2005 10 min 24 sec 72.6 MB
Paul
Hodges a.k.a "The Bionic Man" teams up with Brian to tackle the Ober Gablehorn,
a pure rock climb with over 600m of sustained climbing up to UIAA IV. The All
American team was blessed with amazing weather making for some dramatic
panoramas including lots of close-up views of the Matterhorn.
Music:
Black Eyed Peas featuring James Brown - "They Don't Want Music"
Miles Davis - "So What"
Zinal
Rothorn - 4221m
with Ollie July 11-12, 2005
14 min 25 sec
76.0 MB
Zermatt expats Ollie Bowman and Brian Birtle climb the Zinal Rothorn in
semi-winter conditions. Crystal-clar blue skies and the Zinal Rothorn's unique
position in the center of so many high Alps peaks make for stunning views as
the duo struggles up the massive mixed snow and rock climb.
Brian links up with Seven-Summit aspirant Lee Farmer and friend Gary Palmer to
finally nail the Rimpfishorn, after three previous failed attempts. Stunning
glaciar scenery and a breathtaking sunrise marks the start of the
long summit day, culminating in a solo bid for the summit, with unroped
free solo climbing and downclimbing to UIAA III+.
Music:
Radiohead - "Where Bluebirds Fly"
Dave Brubeck - "Take Five"
Alice Deejay - "Better Off Alone"
Lenzspitze
- 4294m
North Face Route
with Jon, Walter, and Connie
Aug 7-10, 2005
6 min 48 sec
39.9 MB
Jon and Brian link up with German climbers Walter and Connie Lackermayr to tackle the lengendary
Lenzspitze North Face - the "Dreieselwand" - a 600m high altitude sheer ice wall. A perfect day
on the mountain awaits the four, with picture perfect skies and not a breath of wind. The
atmosphere is energy charged and euphoric as the team carves and hacks their way up one of the
Alps' most direct, most famous, and longest ice climbs.
Music:
Paul Van Dyk - "Time of Our Lives"
Prodigy - "Out of Space"
Winter
Sessions 2005
A ski mountaineering video
20 min 38 sec
73.6 MB
Brian's first attempt at video editing, with not bad results. A kind of
half-video, half-slideshow, Brian captures well the spirit of Alpine ski
mountaineering, as well as the "do a season" resort-worker party
atmosphere. Features chonicles of the first ten peaks in his quest to
climb all forty of the Alpen 4000m peaks, including ascents of Mont Blanc,
Monte Rosa (Dufourspitze), Aletchhorn, and various other Swiss high mountain
peaks... and the joys of skiing down from the summits in perfect powder snow.
Music:
Space Budda - "Silent Galaxy"
Dispatch - "The General"
Yellowcard - "Only Once"
Incubus - "Just a Phase"
Paul Oakenfold - "Brainbug Nightmare"
Faithless - "Insomnia"
AFI - "Misera Cantare"
Moby - "7"
No Doubt - "New"
GMS - "Juice"
Breaking Benjamin - "Forever"
Lagginhorn -
4010m
with Sophie and Petra
July 23-24, 2005
5 min 45 sec
39.5 MB
Brian teams up with German Petra Prechtl and French-Canadian Sophie Huot on the
girls' first 4000m peak climb. Opening with a stunning sunrise panarama of the
Saas Fee high peaks, the trio makes fast tracks to the summit, where a party
atmosphere prevails.
Music:
MC Solaar - "Nouveau Western"
Queen - "We Are the Champions"
Wired Top to Bottom -
Les Diableretes
with "TeleAl" Maturo
Feb 22, 2006
3 min 57 sec
15.6 MB
"Tele" Al Maturo shows Brian the goods at his local hill Les Diableretes on a powder day. 7600m of vertical descent says
Al's watch at the end of an unforgettable pow day in Switzerland.
Music:
Africa Bambaataa and Leftfield - "Africa Shox"
Wired Top to Bottom
Vrai Vallee
First Tracks
Liskamm North Face
Lenzspitze North Face
Ober Gablehorn - 4063m
Zinal Rothorn - 4221m
Rimpfishorn - 4199m
Winter Sessions 2005
Breithorn - 4159m
Lagginhorn - 4010m
Comments
bbirtle Jun 19, 2007 at 07:34 am
Thanks Tom! I'm using a Panasonic GS200. The autofocus is really screwy, ruining a lot of otherwise good segments, but I think this is pretty common for the lower end cameras. Other than that complaint, it's a great camera.We got a fair amount of late season snow this year, so the face might even be in good condition... no first hand info though. Anyway good luck and hope if you don't hit that one you find some other fine things to climb.
Tom Gallagher Jun 13, 2007 at 05:53 am
Great shots of the Lenzspitze! We were hoping to do it this year but I've heard there's not been a lot of snow so far this year... What video camera are you using for these clips?
Comments Page 1 of 3
Post a Comment
Name:
Email:
Remember me
Forget me
Security Code:
Please enter the text that you see on the right. If you cannot read the text, click here to generate a different image.
