Twenty-nine years ago, a bunch of climbers gathered in Telluride to climb during the day and watch climbing films at night. One of those first features was Fitzroy, directed by one of the Mountainfilm festival founders Lito Tejado-Flores. Since then, this festival has grown, evolved, changed even. But in its themes of exploration of the unknown, stirring physical beauty and, of course, indomitable spirit, Fitzroy is classically and quintessentially Mountainfilm. This definitive climbing film tells the story of the 1968 first ascent of the The Southwest Ridge in the Patagonian Andes with Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth, Chris Jones, Doug Tompkins, and Lito. Fitzroy has a lovely pace and feel, and with the exception of a strange score—sort of a ’60s version of technopop—it very much holds up.
—David Holbrooke