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KM
Mountain climber
Milan
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 17, 2009 - 01:55am PT
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Dear Sirs
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
I am trying to identify the name of the features which Clint Eastwood climb in Monument Valley.
http://www.mitteleuropa.t35.com/climbs.html
www.mitteleuropa.t35.com/climbs.html
FISSURE
http://mitteleuropa.t35.com/files/snapshot20091215093424.jpg
Monument Valley starts at 00:57:25 after a cut from the canyon above Zion Lodge at Zion in Utah.
Clint Eastwood is climbing up a fissure between a huge spire and the mesa behind it. He reaches the top and appears to jump from the mesa to the spire. Although the camera angle changes a little which makes comparison difficult.
Does any one recognize this feature ?
TRAPEZE
The next scene is when he is pulling himself across a rope between a spire and the mesa. In the background is the Totem Pole
Q: What is the name of this Mesa and what is the name of the climb ?
TOTEM POLE
The next scene is the Totem Pole itself.
Q: On what face of the Totem Pole is the route and does it have a name ?
Thanks for your help.
Kurt.
http://www.mitteleuropa.t35.com/climbs.html
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Dec 17, 2009 - 02:01am PT
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I know they climbed the Totem Pole, but I'm not sure about anything else.
John
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 17, 2009 - 02:19am PT
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Much of the footage ( including the "training climb", and most of the close up climbing footage of Clint and George Kennedy, was performed above Goulding's Lodge. The lodge has been rebuilt since the film was made, but if you wander around over there (on the other side of the road from Monument Valley), you will recognise some of the cliffs in the movie.
Of course the Totem Pole itself was climbed too, Eric Bjornstadt was part of the real climbing crew. They climbed the original route, that faces the road, and the route was chopped per agreement after the film was made. All of the (illegal) ascents since were made on the opposite side (the "Bandito Route"), which is hidden from view from the Totem pole turn-off road.
Some of the shots were taken on short cliffs with background scenics, such as this one:
Incidentally, I got to bag the first ascent of the Rooster Rock (with Alan Humphreys), beauty adventure.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 17, 2009 - 02:40am PT
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Funny, I have never heard of the name "Pioneer Woman". I have always thought of the five smaller spires behind the Totem Pole all as the Yei Bi Chei's (and have climbed the first ascent of two of them).
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 17, 2009 - 02:48am PT
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In any case, get in touch with Eric Bjornstadt, in Moab, Utah (you can usually find a contact for him at Lin Ottenger's Rock Shop). He'll have all your answers.
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Dec 17, 2009 - 12:06pm PT
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The route on the Totem Pole is on the west face.
It was not given a name at the time of the first ascent (1957)--the tower is so skinny, they never thought anyone else might climb another route!
But there are now two routes.
It could be called the West Face of the Totem Pole, or the Original Route, or even the more formal Powell-Wilson-Gallwas-Fuererer. My vote would go to "Original Route," accurate, concise. The west side of the formation is so thin, it's barely a face.
The climbing team on the 1975 movie ascent was Eric Bjornstad and Ken Wyrick.
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Jack Burns
climber
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Dec 17, 2009 - 01:03pm PT
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I always thought the route he's doing when he trundles the rock on George Kennedy is the Cave Route in Zion. It's that wide 5.7 with a bunch of jugs on it that is furthest left on the Cerberus Gendarme. That's what it always looked like to me anyway.
When I did that route, I was thinking "suppose I can't cling to the edges...suppose I got forced down into the gut of the chute."
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Dec 17, 2009 - 01:14pm PT
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When I did that route, I was thinking "suppose I can't cling to the edges...suppose I got forced down into the gut of the chute."
Well...
"If the edges are not a go, we'll retreat and follow one of the classic routes."
Friggin' classic quotes...!
-Brian in SLC
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Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)
Social climber
CO
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Dec 17, 2009 - 03:26pm PT
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Eric Bjornstad strung the TP with rope for the film, then jumared up, yanking the original hardware, and was helicoptered off the top. Weirdly, the entire time Clint and George were on the summit, Eric was just dangling over the edge, out of sight. I have one of the bongs Eric and...darn, who was the other climber?...used in establishing the fixed ropes.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Dec 17, 2009 - 03:35pm PT
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I have a bong as well as a copy of 'The Eiger Sanction' and just a few nights ago I was using one while watching the other.
Great Movie. Iconic now.
I also have a copy of 'Dirty Harry'. I love the scene where he has confronted/presented Scorpio with the ransom money at the big Cross on the hill in San Fran. When Scorpio has Clint down and is kicking him in the ribs is when Clint knives him in the leg. As the knife blow is delivered the camera view is from Clint's perspective on the ground looking up.
You can see an old leeper hanger up there on the cross. Does that route up the cross still exist and who put it there originally ?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Dec 17, 2009 - 03:38pm PT
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I don't remember wo the other climber was but there is a covedr shot article in either an old Summit or off belay. I will pick it up next week when i'm at the ranch.
What ever happened to the girl from the Eiger sanction?
-Brenda Venus, last seen in 48hrs according to IMDB
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KM
Mountain climber
Milan
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 17, 2009 - 03:41pm PT
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I had got as far as being unable to match one sequence of film to the next, when looking at the climbs. For instance, in the first frames on the page, they seem to start in Zion Canyon above Zion Lodge, then cut to that huge crack at Monument half way through. OK they never said it was one climb.
http://mitteleuropa.t35.com/files/es_eiger_sanction_clint_eastwood_frame_20091209184556.jpg
http://mitteleuropa.t35.com/files/snapshot20091215093424.jpg
For the others, I was beginning to be mistrustful of continuity in each scene. To the point where unless I had a photographic match, there was no saying where the scene was filmed based on a few seconds of continuity. For example, when Clint Eastwood kills the bodyguard and then holds Miles Mellough at gunpoint. The scene with Melloughs, the Thunderbird and the side of the shotgun just at the edge of the frame
http://mitteleuropa.t35.com/files/es_eiger_sanction_clint_eastwood_frame_20091215102714_01-01a.jpg
I think may have been filmed in a separate location to the fork in the road where Clint Eastwood spins the Ford Bronco around and heads back towards them. I am still trying to find two Mesas to make a narrow gap. Preferably with a road running between
them and even better if the road has a fork. You can make out some detail in the rock on the Mesa which is a help.
In the shot with Clint Eastwood pulling himself over the lip of the edge with Rooster Rock in the background, I could not get a match behind the scene or in front of it. My guess is that, as you point out, they filmed a lot of scenes in&around and then handed it all to the editor.
Poetic license I can live with: The bodyguard is shot not far from the Totem Pole. Miles Melloughs is told to get out of the Ford Bronco "in the middle of the desert" about five hundred meters from where the bodyguard was killed on the other side of the Totem Pole. But the editor intersposing different climbs, as well as pieces of bouldering is enough to drive you to strong drink. The only advantage we gain is that the editor's eye picks out attractive features and attractive features are
easy to identify.
GOULDINGS.
Has Gouldings being rebuilt from 1975 ?
I do not know the area well. I have driven own US163 once but I did not have all my prepared notes with me. I could only have done a day or so of work so this would not have been a big advantage now I have reached this stage with the detail.
Do you recognize the airstrip used to portray Clint Eastwood's arrival ?
https://mitteleuropa.t35.com/eiger_sanction_airfield.html
To drive from Gouldings to Monument Valley Road, Merricks Butte, et cetera. I head South away from Gouldings, rejoin US163, turning right, then take a left into Monuement Valley Road perhaps 1500m from there ? Do I have this right ? I do not have my aircharts / USGS with me as I am traveling in the Middle East.
Anyone know when Harry Goulding died ?
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Dec 17, 2009 - 03:50pm PT
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Funny, I already posted this name upthread!
The climbing team on the 1975 movie ascent was Eric Bjornstad and Ken Wyrick.
Wyrick was also on the first ascent of the Sundevil Chimney in 1971, with Harvey Carter et al.
What else did Wyrick do? Crooked Arrow Spire FA, River Tower FA, Window Route on Echo Tower FA....
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Dec 17, 2009 - 04:46pm PT
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Hey Cam, KM would be Kylie Minogue, don't you think?
Hey Kylie, Eric Bjornstad's phone is 435 259 7516. I'm sure he'd be psyched to talk about the Totem Pole, and the movie locations.
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Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)
Social climber
CO
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Dec 17, 2009 - 06:57pm PT
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Ooooohhh.
Steve, you know Kylie's sister....oh what the hell's her name?....is the big thing now.
BTW: I interviewed Eric on video regarding the Eiger Sanction (and other stuff) in October, but his memory has gone to sh#t, sadly.
BTW, I've been egging him on to finish his autobiography.
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Wack
climber
Dazevue
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Dec 18, 2009 - 08:28am PT
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In '85 on the way back from the Cirque of the Towers we ran into Eric at the REI SLC store. We told him we were buying wide pro for Castleton. Eric gave us Linn's name, we were shocked to find out that his Rock Shop actually sold rocks.
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