Our athlete produced film “Samsara” won the Charlie Fowler Award at Telluride Mountainfilm this last weekend. We are stoked!…especially considering Mountainfilm only hands out six awards in a very competitive field of films during the festival…..and it’s the first film Renan has ever put together and submitted to a film festival. Check out the trailer in the previous post below or view the entire film in the “Meru Shark’s Fin Expedition” section of my Projects page. 

In the esoteric game of high-altitude big-wall climbing, the Shark’s Fin, a blade of pale steep granite deep in the Garwhal Himalaya, lies right at the boundary of what’s possible. The peak’s inaccessible beauty has inspired many of the world’s best alpinists to attempt it over the past 25 years. None have reached the summit.

In September of 2008, Conrad Anker, Renana Ozturk and Jimmy Chin set out to attempt the notorious East Face. The Shark’s Fin has been the setting for numerous climbing epics. Over the course of a 20 day attempt, the climbers faced severe storms, starvation rations, mind riot climbing and had an epic of their own. “Samsara,” a film created and produced by the athletes,  is an unfiltered perspective into a powerful Himalayan climbing experience. 

“Samsara” Trailer from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

Mark Synnott rapping back to our wall camp.

Just finished the initial edit from the recent expedition to Borneo. I was shooting for The North Face, Timex and Mens Journal. We spent a few weeks putting up a new route on the steepest big wall I’ve ever been on. The wall was literally overhanging for a couple thousand feet. Here are a couple of the favorites so far…..(If you haven’t had a chance, check out some of the video blogs below too. Those segments are part of a film project that will be put together for an half hour tv show to be disclosed later.)

View more photographs from this expedition.