The FIFTY

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Originally Posted by tgapp

Absolutely incredible episode. My god that snow-covered-dirt me nervous as hell.

Loved the shot at the end of the local guide learning to ski. Did they just hang out at base camp the entire time?

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I had the same question. Assumed yes.

I'd like to have had more on the procurement of the guides, the guides, sleds, etc. But it probably didn't belong in this episode.

I loved that you included the bit on subsistence hunting.

Would make a great short I think.

Great piece. Thanks Cody.

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Am I the only twisted soul who thought the mixed climbing looked fun? I loved the comment about the shit cam placement.

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Originally Posted by MakersTeleMark

Yes, they make great tele binders.

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[emoji16]

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Originally Posted by MakersTeleMark

Am I the only twisted soul who thought the mixed climbing looked fun? I loved the comment about the shit cam placement.

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"Ssheetz (ugly) friend"

I spread the watch over a few days without the audio first . what an adventure

A few laps around the park and look what you made . spectacular .
I'd love to see what's on the cutting room floor

Thanx for the ride, Cody

Is there any chance someone picked up on Vivian's ski choice?

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Originally Posted by Gepeto

Is there any chance someone picked up on Vivian's ski choice?

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He's on the Dynastar M-tour 99. Looks like the middle length. As a mythic fanboi, I really want to get on that ski--it's an evolution of the old mythic 97.

Looks like Bjarne is on the BC Navis FB?

Oddly enough I got a chance to fondle both side by side at the shop this week.

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Originally Posted by uglymoney

I had the same question. Assumed yes.

I'd like to have had more on the procurement of the guides, the guides, sleds, etc. But it probably didn't belong in this episode.

I loved that you included the bit on subsistence hunting.

Would make a great short I think.

Great piece. Thanks Cody.

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For the guide question, Andy stuck around camp as we hired him for the entirety of the trip. A lot of trips aren't guided by locals, and even so much as outside guides are coming in hired by clients and only paying for drop off and pick up...which is becoming a bit of a point of consternation among the locals. Obviously Andy, Carlos and Jolly don't have ski guiding skills, but have been trying to spread the message that it's important to hire locals as arctic guides because this is their land where both their sustenance, life, culture and income is procured from. When outsiders come in and profit the most through guiding, it's starting to create a lot of tension and anger in the community. Anyways, Andy operated one of the sleds, and I operated the other. There were two groups in our camp so we often split up for the day to each go do our own thing.

Anyways, yeah the procurement was rough. For a year I couldn't get a message back from anyone. The week before I got one very short one line email back and that was all we had to go on upon arrival. But it worked! And you're right, that storyline wasn't necessary fort eh movie.

On that note, how was the grilled ptarmigan dinner?

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Originally Posted by Alkasquawlik

As far as the charter flights, well they weren’t jets so didn’t get in the six figure range…but the trip was on the six figure range in total and the flights could’ve been exchanged for a nice new Beamer or something. I could’ve done the trip cheaper, but with a much longer time window and far less guarantees on getting there. No matter what, even flying the most cheap commercial is going to minimum set ya back $5k-$10k round trip per person minus baggage fees (which are steep!) it’s not a cheap place to go and we paid handsomely for the hired help while in Baffin.

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Sounds about right. I said a long time ago in this thread that the crux was going to be as much financial as any particular line. Salomon and Red Bull come to mind as being the top two brands for being great in terms of supporting athletes to do cool shit (maybe North Face and Patagonia at one point too). Must have been stressful managing all of that but what a great film!

Saw this at the Boston show a few weeks ago. Was the main reason I went. It was absolutely amazing.

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Originally Posted by Buke

Awesome film. The Fifty is the only ski film that i can get my wife to watch. She genuinely enjoys the fact that there's a real story line and the content is about the process rather than just showing off the highlights.

I didn't look closely, but was Vivian leading on a Rad Line or did you have a dynamic rope for the sharp end stuff? Either way, watching others lead sketchy, poorly protected, mixed climbing is way better than doing it myself.

Super cool to get some insight into Vivian Bruchez. I think I'll finally rent "T'es pas bien là?" or "Le Diamant Des Alpes"

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Any idea where you can rent/buy Le Diamant des Alpes? I can find the others, but this one I'm having trouble with!

curious why you belayed with a munter hitch some of the time and a belay device (tube) other times....
i'm going to guess it had to do with the fall potential?

That was fantastic. I just watched it again (I couldn't wait until Jackie shows it here this week to see it again) and even with high expectations from the Instagram pics and Ryan's video and write up it still exceeded them.

The narration was excellent, so your studying and practice definitely paid off there. It really is as good as WM and Stump in their prime. Telling Vivian's story and what you were learning from him exploring Baffin helped it stand out.

I definitely felt Bjarne's prayer to the mountain in that moment of navigating the rockfall.

The last few months I've been doing some PT for knee injuries, and while setting rehab goals, I started thinking about my dream line again.

I've been dreaming about Polar Star ever since my first avalanche course back in high school where Mark Synnott shared a few pictures. While I've dreamed about other lines sporadically, no other line has been a regular occurrence, let alone for more than half my life now, even it seemed out of reach. I'm finally at the point in my life where longer term goals like skiing Baffin have an inkling of possibility, rather than just a pipe dream or something that I'll always have to live through others.

I've been rewatching the rest of rest of the 50 while working on knees, but this episode drove me to the next step toward Baffin of reaching out to some of my mentors to start working on the skills that I'm missing (or at least helping identify the ones I don't know what I don't know). Thank you. It's been a great adventure to watch (and rewatch) your ski mountaineering skills grow over the last few years, and it's inspired me to intentionally work on my skills.

Solid effort folks. Best ski vid of year. Excellent.

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Originally Posted by Alkasquawlik

Hello fellow mags, crawling out of the Tech Talk corner talking about SHIFTS non-stop to post up Episode 1 of The Fifty. Gonna be an interesting three years...

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Rewatched the first. Going on five years. Not three but that’s cool.

The first is really awesome. I hope you don’t think it cringy. The dream sleep bed and narration and story telling are awesome. A bit goofier than the last adventure. But entertaining and great narration.

What a great project.

Trying to figure out how this all ties together.
You could publish a new 50 book. But who buys books. Could have a dvd boxed set. But who plays dvds.

Such an awesome effort and great production all the way.

PS. You’re an idiot :fm: that kid cracks me up

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Originally Posted by romeo tango

curious why you belayed with a munter hitch some of the time and a belay device (tube) other times....
i'm going to guess it had to do with the fall potential?

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Because on a single strand rap—because of the Escaper use—any normal ATC won’t have the friction to safely rap on. So you go to a munter in those situations

If the rope is very thin, a super munster works well

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Originally Posted by rod9301

If the rope is very thin, a super munster works well

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I meant munter.
It gives a lot more friction

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As I have done with all the others I put the vid of this episode up full screen on a TV to watch and take inspiration while I stretch and exercise, and I just wanted to add that the opening shot was absolutely stunning, magically beautiful. What a great choice to put the viewer right there, to join in from the get go on this amazing trip!

https://youtu.be/tRrPmJ94UZo

Thank you and all your team for this incredible series!

I put this on with my flatmates who had apparently never heard of Cody Townsend or the Fifty. We had to stop watching after 20 minutes or so due to something coming up, but one commented about the eco-friendliness of the plane rental and all that. I told him for sure you would address that later in the movie. Watched the rest of it alone the other day, and amazing as it was, I was surprised to not see that aspect of the whole trip addressed, like, at all. Since you've been advocating for foot powered lines every now and then (I know a heli was used in at least one, and I remember seeing a plane before? and obviously driving around the continent has an impact), how do you fit this full blown plane rental in the picture?

Really curious to hear about it:) Again, place looks like a dream. Like Dolomites on Steroids.

It's a list, it's Baffin, planes are required. Pretty simple.

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Originally Posted by Pirene

I put this on with my flatmates who had apparently never heard of Cody Townsend or the Fifty. We had to stop watching after 20 minutes or so due to something coming up, but one commented about the eco-friendliness of the plane rental and all that. I told him for sure you would address that later in the movie. Watched the rest of it alone the other day, and amazing as it was, I was surprised to not see that aspect of the whole trip addressed, like, at all. Since you've been advocating for foot powered lines every now and then (I know a heli was used in at least one, and I remember seeing a plane before? and obviously driving around the continent has an impact), how do you fit this full blown plane rental in the picture?

Really curious to hear about it:) Again, place looks like a dream. Like Dolomites on Steroids.

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So I crunched the numbers, because quite often emotion is tied far more to perception than reality in these discussions. Trust me when I know how it looks rough to be on such a big plane with only 6 people on it. It was the last thing I wanted to do from a financial and environmental standpoint. But, that plane was an ATR 42, which burns 5.96 lb/nmi. The flight was 1164nmi. Which means we burned 195 lbs of fuel. CO2 output at 3.15g per gram of fuel means we put out 278kg of C02...which is .307 tons of C02....which is 1.9% of the CO2 output of the average American's output.

So is it good? No. Is it that bad? No.

So in reality, it wasn't important to the movie to talk about thoroughly and we did address it not being great with Viv's "American Trip" comment. We could've easily cut that entire section out because I knew we'd get questions like this. But I left it in because it is the reality of these trips.

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Originally Posted by Alkasquawlik

...which is 1.9% of the CO2 output of the average American's output. ....

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Or put another way -- 1 "average" American's output in a week. Or output of 7 average Americans in 1 day.

I suspect the actual week+? spent at camp was pretty damn low impact.

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Originally Posted by Pirene

I put this on with my flatmates who had apparently never heard of Cody Townsend or the Fifty. We had to stop watching after 20 minutes or so due to something coming up, but one commented about the eco-friendliness of the plane rental and all that. I told him for sure you would address that later in the movie. Watched the rest of it alone the other day, and amazing as it was, I was surprised to not see that aspect of the whole trip addressed, like, at all. Since you've been advocating for foot powered lines every now and then (I know a heli was used in at least one, and I remember seeing a plane before? and obviously driving around the continent has an impact), how do you fit this full blown plane rental in the picture?

Really curious to hear about it:) Again, place looks like a dream. Like Dolomites on Steroids.

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I'm not trying to be rude, and I don't think you posted with any ill intent, but Jesus Fucking Christ I hate this kind of shit. Let's all recycle! The actions of an individual (other than those at the helm of some of the world's largest corporations) don't mean a damn thing in our current global situation. They really don't. Drop in the bucket. / end rant

He could have used dog sleds to get there instead of the plane or planted a hundred trees at the bottom of the Polar Star, but he didn't did he?

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Originally Posted by muted reborn

He could have used dog sleds to get there instead of the plane or planted a hundred trees at the bottom of the Polar Star, but he didn't did he?

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I'm hoping he bought bitcoin with his sponsor revenue.