Ryan: The final newsletter we sent out in August of 2023 talked about a scouting trip we had gone on in Mexico. Well, the shoot for it happened a few months later, and a few months after that, the movie came out on The North Face YouTube channel. It's called Izta, and we'd like to talk about that shoot in today's newsletter.
Stephen, what do you remember about those few days in October?
Stephen: Hello, Ryan. I remember feeling something close to fear. I think it was more apprehension. Does that make sense, clinically?
R: Of course it does. You were making us do a terrifying thing.
S: The assignment was to cover friend of the company and North Face athlete Laura Cortez as she attempted to run from Amecameca to the top of the local volcano, Iztaccihuatl. Normally, we wouldn’t bat an eye at something like this. But the altitude this was happening at really sewed some terrible nausea and anxiety.
Can you paint a picture of where we were for our readers?
R: We were in a small town roughly two hours south of Mexico City that sat at the foot of two enormous volcanoes that rise to about 17,500 feet. Yeah buddy, I'm talking above sea level. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that neither of us have ever been above 14,000ish feet. (editor’s note: he’s correct). Regular readers of our previous iteration of the newsletter will know that I am not a fan of getting past 10,000 feet. There's really no reason for us to be that high. But there we were, driving to a parking lot that sat at 13,000 feet, getting ready to climb even higher.
I guess I didn't really paint a picture of where we were, just mostly complained about how high it was. Is that okay?
S: No. Not really. The place we were at was magnificent and it deserves a few words more than your complaints about altitude.
To access a few of the routes to the peak of Iztaccihuatl, you can actually drive all the way to 13,000 feet to start your little walk. Driving this steep road out of town, you weave through a forest of pine trees until you hit a bit of a plateau. At the plateau is the office for the national park. When we were there, we were joined by a bunch of what I guess were national park police rangers? They were dressed in all black and had huge, terrifying weapons. Two of them came up to me and asked me to take their photo. Which I did. I wanted to ask if they’d take a photo of me holding their weapons, but I got too nervous! Anyways.
The road eventually turns to dirt and takes you to the foot of the volcano. It’s majestic as hell up there. Huge swaths of yellow grass contrasting against the reds and blacks of the rock rising above 17,000 feet. Dare I say I may have shed a tear at some point.
Was that better?
R: Yeah, man. That did the trick. Enough about landscape. Let's get down to brass tax. Tacks?
S:It's tacks. I just looked it up.
R:In order to do this, we had to hire a producer, who told us to get up that high the Mexican Government required us to go with guides. So we hired guides, and we filed permits to haul our huge cameras up the side of that thing. That thing being the huge mountain Steve was just waxing poetic about.
To prepare for this, we talked to a few filmmakers that have experience in high alpine filmmaking. I will not use names, but no one was helpful here. We thought there would be some sort of HACK to getting camera gear up there. It turns out there was no hack. Just strap what you can to your back and start hiking.
While we started our hike at 13,000 feet, Laura started her FKT attempt in Amecameca which was at just over 8,000 feet. We mapped out a few different spots on the route that we would be able to intersect her and had two different teams (me and a producer, and Steve accompanied by a real work horse, Tyler McCain) running around trying to follow her GPS signal on a Garmin she was carrying.
S: Quick aside — can you talk to me about what you’re feeling in this photo?
R: Where are we here? This is probably about 15,000ft. I was feeling not good. I am wearing a helmet the guide made me wear and we have just summited this little ridge that was littered with enormous rocks.
Laura's attempt got off to a pretty good start, I was with her for a few miles near the beginning while Stephen and Tyler were working on getting to the first meeting point. This is where things started to go a bit south.
S: It’s true. Things were not going well, but we had no idea save from a few very mysterious messages Laura would send me on the inReach. At one point I received one that just said “Fuck.” Which, if you’ve been outside and separated from someone, isn’t a message that bodes well for their safety.
The distress signal sent me and Tyler and I marching down from our outpost at a little refuge we made a basecamp.
The idea was to try and find Laura, but I cannot begin to tell you what a fool’s errand that was. The weather had suddenly turned cloudy and foggy as it is wont to do at high altitude and we were staring down a face of the volcano that had no trail. There were a few cairns, but Laura’s route was ostensibly off trail. So basically we were two idiots holding cameras shouting into the fog with no real idea about which direction she was heading up.
After maybe an hour of poking around, trying to make sure we also didn’t get too turned around, we saw Laura climbing the ridge directly east of us. It made for a really cool shot, thank god. And we were also relieved to see her alive.
We regrouped at our little basecamp with Laura and our two guides, both named Luis. Both incredibly nice.
With the weather window for summiting Iztaccihuatl now in the rearview, we made the call to not go for the summit. Laura really wanted to get to 16,000 feet though. So, in my very basic Spanish, I pleaded with the Luises to let us grant this one wish for our brave athlete. I think they said it was ok, so we went for it. We touched the highest point either of us had ever been, and then we turned around and headed back to the cars.
R: And that's basically the movie. Which we are very proud of. When we plan these sorts of projects we like to think out the two scenarios for our athlete: they do it or they don't. What do both of those potential scenarios do for our film? For the most part, we don't really have a preference. If they do the thing, it's a triumphant, happy film about setting a goal and completing it. If they don't do the thing, it's still triumphant and there's beauty in seeing someone trying to accomplish a dream.
So that's what we got: a film about Laura trying to do a very hard thing, with the added bonus of a homecoming of sorts. Being with Laura as she roamed the streets of Amecameca, seeing where her family was from, and trying to connect with her roots was something we don't take for granted. Her little trip up and down the mountain was just gravy on top.
How about some BTS photos from the trip, Steve?
S: I can do that.