RE: [pct-l] VERTICAL LIMIT! Non-member submission from ["William Edward Kendall" <WilliamEdwardKendall@msn.com>] (fwd)

I have a similar list of annoyances about that movie.  In addition to those things that you noticed:

1.  they did the same mistake in this movie that they did in Cliffhanger:  they carried all this Pro and then never used it!!!  if you go back and look at the movie and pay attention, you will notice that every person was carrying at least 1 and sometimes 2 snow pickets which would be used as anchors during rescue.  In addition, I know that there is at least one scene where Scott Glenn's character(Montgomery Wick) has a big bundle of Ice Screws hanging off his harness and they never made use of these.  In fact, if he is such a climbing stud, when he showed up at the rescue scene, he would have insisted that they abandon that feeble attempt at a rescue and actually USE some of the gear that they all bothered to carry up to 26,000ft. 

2. Since they knew they were going to rescue people, they most certainly would have brought pulleys, but they didn't.  That is always the very first piece of rescue gear that you will need in a crevasse rescue(along with anchors).  I never even saw a pulley in the movie.  In fact, I am almost certain that there would be no possible way for Chris O'Donnel to pull out his sister with just his bare hands and no pulley, and not ever connecting the rope to his harness to get better pulling power with his legs.  There is no way that a person could pull up all that weight and get the grip required on a 11mm rope.

3.  when the guy lost his pack and slid down the mountain and saved himself and his pack at the very last second by catching his ice axe on the edge of a cliff:  HAHAHAHA!!!!!  there are several things here.  First off, when the woman walks out to the edge of the cliff to rescue him, she doesn't even anchor herself in and self-belay down to him.  No experienced climber would ever think about walking to the edge of a cliff like that without being roped in.  secondly, and almost as bad:  when she goes down to check on him, she actually did a sitting glissade!!!!!!  what the hell?!?!  no one would do a glissade down a slope that someone else just slid down and couldn't self arrest on!! ...and above a sheer cliff no less!!

4.  The nitro...  why did they need the nitro to blast open the crevasse if it was so thin at the top that they could poke a hole right through it with an ice axe and a bag of human blood??  ...without even breaking the plastic bag (that they just happened to have in a crevasse at 26,000ft).

5.  the helicopter scene was a total joke.  the more weight (people) that got off the chopper, the harder it was for the pilot to control it.  doesn't physics work opposite of this??  and... if they were going to the absolute limit of altitude for a chopper, they would have taken one person at a time.  in fact, they actually did that in Everest in '96...one person at a time.

6.  don't even get me started on the scene where Chris O'Donnell jumps from one side of a chasm to the other and clings on to a vertical wall with only his ice axes.  ...all I can say is:  At least he had a belay, or at least a rope.   perhaps that is were they left all the pickets, but the movie never shows them using the pickets for that.

7.  I figured that Ed Vistuers was a technical advisor on the set and they just ignored everything that he said because making bombproof anchors isn't as exciting as people dying every time they take a step.

all in all, I new that the movie was going to be like that, so my explosions were low.  but it made it difficult to sit through seeing all the blatant impossible stunts and unrealistic accidents.

peace and merry xmas,
Dude

>Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 09:52:24 -0800
>To: pct-l@edina.hack.net, WilliamEdwardKendall@msn.com
>From: "R.J.Calliger" <calliger@infolane.com>
>
>Guess it is a matter of perspective- having climbed several hundred peaks
>I thought the movie was a little boring becasue of **MAJOR** technical
>inaccuracies:
>
>(However I will admit that without the goofs the movie would have
>been even worse!)
>
>1st- one does not use nitro in the mountains; it is composition C4 or CX4
>which you can burn to heat your soup and it does not blow up; the
>actuating device is a small easily kept blasting cap (I trained on this
>stuff). Also- the actuator was mechanical- NOT used in cold weather-
>we use purely electrical timers that are not affected by sub-zero
>temps or moisture.
>
>2nd- EVERYONE of their anchors and belays were *wrong*- a proper
>ice anchor uses screws into the ice; perhaps a snow anchor back up.
>Three anchors are used as a matter of course- and it is not debated
>whilst one is climbing:-)) The fall at the beginning would not have
>happened with three anchors properly placed- especially if you
>have 3 people on one rope! Then you use at least 3 sets of 3 anchors
>to take the weight...a 150 falling person (from physics) generates
>several thousands of pounds of force as you might guess.  It looked like
>the ropes were static (ie they did not bounce when they fell)- they
>should have been dynamic- but I admit I might have missed the
>bounce.
>
>3rd- they made conspicuous NON-use of boulders that were near their
>ice-axe anchors; looping a rope around the boulder (duh!!) that size
>would have made a bombproof anchor.
>
>4- next- their ice axe anchors were wrong-- rope should be tied near the
>middle of the ice axe and shoved into the snow if they did not have
>a snow anchor (highly unlikely- I carry one always in the winter with
>a lenght of 7 mm safety rope._
>
>5- They never used double ropes!! (Biggie)
>
>6- Ed ? Vistieurs (sp) was there and should have known better if he advised
>the director on this film.
>
>7- If you looked closely you can see several people had their harness on
>wrong! The belt should be looped back into the D-ring- it was hanging loose!!!!
>
>8- I understand one of the actors did an ice climb for real-- if he did he,
>used no safety (top rope) that was apparent in the movie!
[ *** too many quoted lines.  automatically truncated *** ]

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