The Wake

Photo By Michael O’Donnell

Using Harlin’s story as a frame, the film explores the relationship between the Swiss Alps and the people who live in their shadow. Harlin grew up in the village of Leysin, where his father founded the International School of Mountaineering. As a boy, Harlin III observed the relationship between the Alps and the residents of the region. The people had adapted to the environment, developing agricultural techniques according to the steep landscape. Climate expert Professor Bruno Messerli talks on film about the people of the Alps and how they coexist with the natural world without destroying it, an idea which is repeated elsewhere in the film.

Snow-covered peaks jut upwards into the startlingly blue sky. Ice and rocks tumble down from their jagged summits. Scattered below are the quaint houses and churches of the different villages built into the slope of the mountains. “The Alps”, an IMAX film at the Science Museum of Minnesota, immerses the viewer in this stunning and dangerous world, one in which humans have struggled to coexist.

Directed by Stephen Judson, narrated by Michael Gambon, and featuring music by Queen, “The Alps” focuses on American mountain climber John Harlin III. His father, John Harlin II, was killed while attempting to scale the Eiger, the Alps’ most treacherous peak, in 1966. Almost forty years later, the younger Harlin took on the same climb.

Inhabitants of the Alps must also contend with the mountains’ dangers. Avalanches threaten villagers and climbers constantly. Interviewed in the film is avalanche expert Christine Pielmeier, a doctor of geology who works for the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. The institute studies the formation and properties of avalanches and publishes a twice-daily avalanche warning bulletin for the Swiss Alps. The filmmakers captured intense footage that includes a shot of snow roaring head-on and enveloping the camera.

Mountain climbing, which is said to have originated in the Alps, is central to life in the area. The elder Harlin successfully climbed the Eiger’s North Face in 1962, becoming the first American mountaineer to do so. Four years later, when his son was nine, he fell to his death while attempting a more direct route to the summit. The film reconstructs the ill-fated climb in a flashback sequence. A similar reenactment depicts explorer Edward Whymper’s climb to the top of the Matterhorn, another famous Alps peak. Whymper and his men became the first to reach the Matterhorn’s summit in 1865, but the climb ended tragically when four of the men fell to their deaths on the descent.

The film’s look at the Alps reaches far beyond the human interaction with them. As John Harlin III explains the natural history of the mountains to his young daughter, accompanying graphics help viewers understand how plate tectonics and Ice Age glaciers created the peaks. The Alps arose as a result of the prehistoric collision between the African and European tectonic plates. Pressure on the sediments of the ocean between the landmasses formed giant rock folds that pushed up to form the mountains. During five ice ages, glacier erosion carved at the rock to create the sharp ridges and peaks seen today.

The most climactic part of the film, of course, centers on Harlin’s climb. Experienced Swiss climbers Robert and Daniela Jasper join Harlin III in this expedition, and as they train for the climb, Harlin III explains that he and the Jaspers want to “get a sixth sense about each other,” developing the absolute trust necessary for being harnessed together on a dangerous rock face. While climbing, Daniela Jasper says that it is scary and also inspiring to reach places on the mountain where previous climbers have died, feeling them beside you as you push past another obstacle. The filmmakers used helicopters and other equipment to get close to the climbers and capture footage of each step of the 13,000-foot vertical journey, including a few gasp-worthy slips and scares. “The Alps” provides a vantage point that is otherwise inaccessible to most viewers, and all from the comfort of a seat in the Omnitheater. As the snow outsides starts to melt away, those who miss the white fluffy stuff can trek over to the Science Museum and go for a virtual clime.

The film is showing daily through June 12. For more information please visit: http://www.smm.org/