One mountain. Four years. The line that almost broke them.
Mountains can have a certain energy to them and mountain called Split, located in the High Sierra Mountain Range in eastern California, has an energy with a dark side. Split Mountain is a 14,000 foot peak with a perfect couloir dividing two prominent summits. Visually, it’s a line that begs to be skied yet is guarded by a series of icefalls, rock steps and blue ice patches that make it extremely challenging. On top of that, the towering walls of the couloir present significant rockfall hazard along with an upper basin that can create dangerous avalanche conditions. It’s a line that requires patience, perfect timing…and many many attempts. Over the last 4 years, Cody Townsend, Nick Russell and cinematographer Bjarne Salén have been waiting, trying, scoping and learning about the history of this line, its moods, its conditions and its energy to successfully, and safely, ski it.
Cinematography
Bjarne Salén makes vertigo an aesthetic.
Direction
Four years of failure, edited into poetry.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Split Mountain's couloir has claimed multiple lives, including a 1989 attempt that became Sierra backcountry legend.
The film's structure mirrors the mountain itself: long stretches of waiting, brief explosive action, then silence again.
US
