Marc-André Leclerc preferred to go under the radar. For him, achieving a daring ascent should be an authentic, personal experience, not a publicity stunt. “Marc-André, he was like that,” recalls his father, Serge Leclerc, a native of Montreal. He was not a person who bragged about his business. I hadn’t really realized the greatness of what he was doing. ”
The mountaineering world was starting to pay attention. To the point of arousing the interest of Peter Mortimer, director of the film The Dawn Wall, which chronicled the ascent of a virgin wall of El Capitan, California.
PHOTO FROM ARC’TÉRYX FACEBOOK PAGE
It was when Marc-André Leclerc began to obtain sponsorships that his father, Serge Leclerc, understood that he was making remarkable climbs.
Peter Mortimer followed Marc-André Leclerc for two years, increasing the number of interviews with the young man, with his relatives and with the greats of the climbing world to make the film. The Alpinist, available this Thursday on Amazon Prime Video.
In his conversations with his father, Marc-André Leclerc had minimized the importance of the project, speaking of a “small company”, of a “small film”.
When he met the film crew for an interview, Serge Leclerc realized that the project had a much greater scope than his son suggested. And he got nervous. “I told them that Marc-André is young, impressionable, he recounts, in an interview with Press. I don’t want him to feel pressured to do things he’s not ready to do. I don’t want to lose my son to some movie bullshit. ”
The director wanted to reassure Mr. Leclerc, explaining that it was simply a question of following Marc-André, and not of suggesting anything to him.
But what reassured Serge Leclerc somewhat was the very attitude of Marc-André. When he wanted to make a major, dangerous climb the Emperor face of Mount Robson, he said nothing to the film crew and went alone to the Canadian Rockies to carry out his project. “He told me that he didn’t want to have a film crew following him, because that was going to change everything the way he did things,” recalls Serge Leclerc. I was glad he told me that. ”
Peter Mortimer found the situation a little more frustrating, but Marc-André Leclerc was a good player: he repeated his daring rise for the film crew, resulting in images that were both magnificent and terrifying.
Love of the outdoors
Serge Leclerc went to British Columbia in 1978 for “just a summer job”. “I arrived here, I saw the mountains, I saw the sea, I fell in love,” he says from his home in Vancouver. I did not come back. ”
He married an English speaker, had three children, including Marc-André. The latter has never mastered French. Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, he had a difficult school career. The outdoors have been a lifeline.
His love for being outside comes from our family. It’s something we did all the time. He grew up with it all. For us, it was a natural progression to see him do what he was doing.
Serge Leclerc
Sad irony, it was not during the filming, it was not during a dangerous solo ascent, without rope, without protection, that Marc-André Leclerc was killed, in March 2018, at the age of 25 years old. He was swept away by an avalanche with another experienced climber, Ryan Johnson, on an Alaskan mountain.
PHOTO FROM THE ALPINIST FACEBOOK PAGE
Marc-André Leclerc traveled the Canadian Rockies, Patagonia and the land of Baffin to achieve his climbs.
Serge Leclerc remembers with emotion the days which followed the disappearance of the two men, his hasty departure for Alaska. He says he was in the search helicopter when the crew spotted a rappelling station at the top of the mountain, then a rope a little lower, half buried in avalanche debris.
“I said it was Marc-André’s rope. I had seen him, he had come to my house before he left for Alaska. That’s when we knew they were under the snow. ”
Peter Mortimer and his team were devastated. The documentary, which was intended to be a portrait of an enthusiastic young mountaineer, took a tragic turn. It offers particularly moving moments with the testimony of Marc-André Leclerc’s friends and, above all, of his girlfriend, Brette Harrington, herself an exceptional mountaineer.
“I did not know that life could be so painful,” drops this very young woman who, until then, had been invariably radiant.
More than three years later, the two bodies are still there. Unless a movement of the snow discovers them, there is no question of going in search of them.
” To do what ? We’re going to bring the body back here, we’re going to have it cremated, we’re going to take the ashes and put them on a mountain somewhere? He’s already in a mountain. He’s frozen solid, he’s going to be young forever. ”
Serge Leclerc is grateful to see the life of his son represented in a film.
“It’s a beautiful tribute. What I love about the movie is that it shows not only that he was good at rock climbing, mountaineering, but that he was a good person. What he did in the mountains, of course I’m proud of it, but what I’m most proud of is the person he’s become as an adult. ”
Available on Amazon Prime Video
The Alpinist
Peter Mortimer
With Marc-André Leclerc
Documentary
In English
90 minutes