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Ken Ryder's avatar

Have you read Gary Hemming, Beatnik Of The Alps, by Mirella Tenderini? It's a good biography, well researched. I too, have read Solo Faces a few times. I heard that James Salter and Robert Redford were planning on collaborating and making it into a movie. It could have been a cult classic. It never happened.

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Mark Twight's avatar

Tenderini’s book is a delight. I hadn’t heard about the possible film rendering of Solo Faces, that would have been quite incredible, especially if held true to the book — no need for embellishment when it is such an engrossing and wild and tragic story.

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Ken Ryder's avatar

My late, great friend Rick Reese was a climbing ranger in the Tetons at the time of Hemming's death. Per Tenderini's biography Bill Briggs discovered Hemming's body. Rick retrieved it. Rick was such an amazing man. He was one of the ranger's involved in the famous rescue on the North face of the Grand in 1967. Pete Sinclair's memoir, WE ASPIRED, THE LAST INNOCENT AMERICANS, describes the rescue in great detail. There is also a fair amount of discussion about Hemming in Sinclair's book. There is also a very good film about the rescue called The Grand Rescue, released in 2014.

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Tristan Denton's avatar

Thanks for mentioning this, I’ve just ordered the book, loved Solo Faces.

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Ryan Holm's avatar

Casually paragliding?

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