By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Editor & Publisher
Wow.
For anyone watching the Milan-Cortina Olympics and thinks the ski jumpers and downhill skiers are extreme – and they are, no question about it – then you should take a look at this film on Documentary+ and PBS. Because it takes extreme skiing to the super extreme.
Trango is documentary from The North Face that follows four renowned extreme athletes as they become first-ever people – daredivils, really, if you ask me – to do a ski descent of the formidable Great Trango Towers in Pakistan. The Karakoram Range, home of the Trango Towers, is among the gnarliest terrains on Earth. It has an elevation of 20,627 feet (6,286 meters) and is renowned for having the world’s greatest nearly vertical drop with its east face at 4,396 feet (1,340 meters) above the surrounding terrain.
On May 9, 2024, Jim Morrison (not the lead singer of The Doors, obviously), Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger, Nick McNutt and Chantel Astorga and their team were the first to successfully climb and ski down the 20K-foot West Face of Great Trango Tower. Among the many dangers faced by the team beyond scaling the mountain and the steepness of it are the crevasses and the potential for avalanches. Utilizing GoPros and drones, the footage is nearly as spectacular as the feat itself. And that’s saying something.
For anyone who thought the movie K2 was insane, Trango takes it to another level. It also makes some of the scenes in the classic ski movie series from Warren Miller Films seem tame by comparison. Trango is the ski equivalent of rock climber Alex Honnold scaling the Taipei 101 building without ropes.
“Trango represents a long arc of effort,” Morrison said. “The summit and the skiing are just minutes in a story built on years of preparation and exploration. We shared a vision of existing in that granite cathedral on skis, and persistence is what kept bringing us back to try to leave our tracks on that wild line.”
Lusti said, “the day itself was nothing short of incredible. The captivating position that seized our imagination lived up to everything we had dreamed of. A moment in life that surpasses expectations is rare, and a luxury earned.”
Trango is on VOD release on Documentary+, with additional streaming release on Roku and other major platforms, along with a PBS broadcast in select markets in the spring. Don’t miss it because if you do, you will be missing out on a spectacular feat that will leave you gasping at the attempt and accomplishment.
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