Mad Rock Releases Excellent New Tahoe Bouldering Film "Pioneer"

To me, Mad Rock's new film Pioneer is the ultimate in climbing films.

It's subtle, it's quiet, it's understated.

It's about camaraderie

I want Joel Ruscher to narrate every climbing film in the future. Heck, I want him to read me bedtime stories.

Going against the grain of screaming, whooping, the overuse of the F word (well, there's some of that), the overuse of the term brah , and the overuse of everything that makes climbing films bloody awful, Pioneer takes DP George Bruce Wilson and photographer Phil Lee into an area south of Lake Tahoe where Joel Ruscher, Ethan Pringle, Matt Fultz, Taylor McNeill, and Dave Watson explore boulders.

While they were filming, they cleaned a new route that Ethan Pringle nabbed the first ascent of—via a 5.13 free solo. They dubbed the impressive new route Mirage.

The copy describing the film is the usual fare: "It takes the heart of a true explorer to remind us of the importance of adventure. Over the course of 5 days, we followed one of those people: Joel Ruscher. A crag pioneer and developer, Joel took us on an adventure through an undocumented area he’s been developing for 7 years. Countless FAs, exploration of new findings, and delicate conversations all filmed for one purpose: to carry the legacy of pioneering forward."

While it's decent copy, there's a point in there that's really important: 7 years.

You know folks are subtle when they can hold off on the good old spray-a-thon for 7 years.

I say bravo.

Get these guys making more films, teaching film courses, and showing the rest of the world how to slow down and shake things out properly.