Why Do They Willingly Put Themselves Through This?

Why do people willingly put themselves through extreme danger? After watching two intense climbing films released by Field Productions, that question remains unanswered.

The films, “Trango” and “Harila: Merciless Mountains,” together contain more than three and a half hours of climbing footage. One follows Kristin Harila, who climbed the world’s 14 mountains above 8,000 meters in 92 days, though the review says the achievement did not make her happy.

Climbing films sometimes offer a kind of pseudo-philosophy, the reviewer writes. But after watching these films, the reason people expose themselves to such risks seems about as mysterious as before. The review concludes that death appears to be the essence of climbing.