Cheyne Lempe: Lucky Monkey

"One year ago I made a promise to myself: to try as hard as I can to climb huge mountains. And to help people." This is how this short film by young climber Cheyne Lempe begins. Apart from being a formidable alpinist, Lempe is also a member of YOSAR, the Yosemite Search and Rescue squad. These are beautiful and poetic images, but also powerful and cruel, like those of this summer's rescue mission on El Capitan's Muir Wall that, unfortunately, ended in tragedy: all help came too late for American climber Marc Venery. A stark reminder of how beautiful, but also terribly ugly, climbing mountains can be.