Renan "Reo" Ozturk discovered his passion for climbing while attending Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As a member of the small community of climbers there, he honed his skills, deepened his connection to the sport of climbing and dreamed of the remote and beautiful places it could take him.
Learn more about Renan Ozturk.
I'm just returning from a North Face supported expedition to Nepal, reeling in the inspiration of the mountains and culture at the roof of the world. Nepal is a place I first visited in 2001 as part of an intense language program and I'm been back almost every year for expeditions of all shapes and sizes. I can honestly say that it has molded my moutain experience as a TNF athethle more than any other place!
This time around instead of focusing on the big projects like the Khumbu Climbing Center, Caves of Mustang or a climbing objective we were lucky to be just zoning in on capturing the beauty of Nepal through film and artwork. I was humbly working with ultra talented Dave Mossop, one the main founders and creatives of Sherpas Cinema.
Our main goal was to capture footage for Sherpas Cinema new ski feature film that will be realed in the fall of 2013. Judging by the beauty and aclaim of their last film All.I.CAN it is bould to be utterly mind blowing! Along with cutting edge ski footage the film will be a creative depiction of intense environmental and social themes that are relevent in this day and age. For us, Nepal was the ultimate target rich environment to play with for such symbolism. The fact that we didn't have a big ski/climb objective also allowed us the "dork out" the full extent and go a lot heavier with cutting edge film gear to elevate the visuals we captured :)
Among the many highlights of our oddysey included shooting with one of the oldest Sherpas of the Khumbu, Karma Tsering (pictured above). At 80 years old he is one of the happiest and strongest people I know, still hiking the 5 hours to market each week with his Yak to buy goods. I've known him for years and was still sporting the classic TNF himalayan parka we gave him years ago :) The special light and moments we captured with him were pure magic!
Also pictured above (another iphone shot) is a Lama at the Upper Pangboche Monestry, the oldest in all of Nepal. He gently swung the burning pot of juniper doing his morning Puja (blessing) in the sacred upper chamber, ambling slowing across the old creaking wooden floorboards. The small skylight window above happened to catch the first rays of sun in weeks, creating a shaft of light, a slintered god beam like I've never seen before in my life. We rolled the cameras with all our facy equipment in slow motion, not even whipspering during his chants. After he finished the ritual we exited the monestary and into the glowing the vistas of the high himalaya, stunned to have catptured a few moments that could have been the most epic images of out lives.
There are no words that can do these experiences true justice, I'm just just trying to share the inspiration with a few photos and then the eventually film :) Thanks for checking it out and stay tuned! ~renan
Hey All! Just wanted to share a few thoughts on art, climbing how 7 years of being on the TNF athlete team has supported these endeavors.
Ever since I hit the road to pursue climbing after college art & climbing have always gone hand in hand. In the beginning, living in the desert southwest I began to try to do justice to the magical landscapes of Indian Creek, Joshua Tree and Yosemite.
I developed a style that was based on "being there" that was impressionistic, colorful and used a variety of mixed media on watercolor paper and canvas. Over the years when I became a TNF climber and had the opportunity to travel worldwide I was inspired to keep pushing my art and began creating larger mural size works in base-camps like the Trango Towers of Pakistan and the Mt. Everest region of Nepal. Its been great over the years to contribute a lot of this art for TNF teeshirts, duffle bags hats and beyond.
These days my art focus has mostly shifted to creating films to tell a fuller stories of TNF adventures. However, this summer I was able to get back to the roots and use my hodge podge of acrylic paints, watercolors, sharpies and micron pens on a few new and exciting projects: First off I got the opportunity to create a custom art installation for the new store in Calgary (see above). Also a friend of the TNF family put me in touch with the band Umphrey's McGee and Railroad Earth who ended up using art from a TNF expedition for their Red Rocks show poster.
Actually as I type this, I'm one week out from an art/timelapse expedition to Nepal. I'll be traveling with Dave Mossip from Sherpas Cinemas shooting a segment for their new ski film based on an overarching concepts of self exploration and actualization. It will be the first trip where I'll get to fully focus on art without any huge scary climbing objective ;) I think its safe to say this whole art and climbing thing is a life-long pursuit.
"As in climbing, so in art, so in life. In all three the full spectrum of emotions come into play. At times there will be uncertainty, insecurity and fear. At other times there will be inspiration and things will flow effortlessly.
Ultimately it is amazing that we are here at all. The more time we spend expressing ourselves through actions and thoughts the more richly we have lived. Climbing and art are two of the greatest vehicles I have found to carry me this direction."
We left basecamp in the Ruth Gorge beneath Mount Dickey and skied up the glacial cirque beneath the Eye Tooth at 6 a.m. on May 17th. Our goal was to traverse the Moose’s Tooth massif from Cavity Gap to The Gateway, passing six notable points along the way: the Sugar Tooth, the Eye Tooth, the Missing Tooth, the Bear’s Tooth, the Moose’s Tooth, and the West Summit of the Moose’s Tooth.
At first glance, conditions this season were far from optimal. Alaska had just experienced one of the snowiest winters in recent memory. Then, a significant storm cycle arrived the second week in May, depositing another three feet of snow throughout the range. In Talkeetna, dispirited guides and rangers told stories of nipple-deep faceted slopes and epic slogging – conditions not exactly ideal for the some 5 kilometers (or more) of corniced ridge we planned to cross. The only option for us was to counterbalance this reality with a relentless optimism best summed up by the Dougal dictum: If you can lead the next pitch, if you still have some food and gas left, if nobody’s sick or injured…. you can keep going.
The first section of the climb, from Cavity Gap to the summit of the Sugar Tooth, consisted mainly of low-angle mixed climbing interspersed with a few challenging rock pitches and rappels: nothing too desperate, but certainly deceptive. The amount of transitions the terrain demanded – from boots and crampons to rock shoes to boots and crampons to a rappel, ad naseum – made for slow going.
For the first three days of the climb, we stopped around 6 p.m. (quite early for Alaska climbing), dug out a comfortable bivy, and relaxed. This was our vacation, after all.
On day two, we climbed the Talkeetna Standard to the summit of the Eye Tooth. Although the original ascensionists, Jeff Hollenbaugh and Steve House, gave the route a modest grade, it has since rebuffed a number of suitors. In the conditions we faced, we found eight pitches or so of mixed climbing, followed by a couple of short but significant rock leads. On day three, we traversed a heavily corniced ridge towards the summit of the Bear’s Tooth, passing an alluring and possibly unclimbed summit along the way we had dubbed the Missing Tooth.
On day four, the nature of our adventure changed completely. Vacation was over. We summited the Bear’s Tooth by nine in the morning, rappelled the White Russian Route, and traversed the large snowfield to the start of the technical pitches on the Swamp Donkey Express, a route we had established in 2010, with Zack Smith. (Note: this section of the climb is the only place where we deviated notably from the crest of the ridge.) The first rock lead took Renan two hours – we suddenly felt Zack’s absence, who had originally led this pitch. I took over the sharp end for the one true aid section of the entire traverse, the Bleeder Pitch. Above, snow and icy cracks slowed me even down more. We eventually summited the Moose’s Tooth around 11 p.m.
The West Ridge of the Moose’s Tooth, our descent route, beckoned, and we decided to push on into the night. Six hours, three mixed leads, and three horizontal ridge rappels later, we stopped for a brew stop on the West Summit as the sun rose over the Eastern Alaska Range. Six hours after that, we stopped again on the West Shoulder of the Tooth. Six hours after that, we stumbled out onto the Ruth Glacier, having rappelled and glissaded down a seldom used couloir to deposit us safe and sound back on the Gorge floor.
Our only regret was that Zack Smith, with whom we had shared this dream for four years, was unable to join the final effort. That aside, the Tooth Traverse remains one of the most challenging – and fulfilling – mountain adventures we’ve ever had.
- Renan Ozturk & Freddie Wilkinson
The Tooth Traverse (5.10 R A2+ M5, 10,000 meters), May 17 – 21, 2012
The Video from the previous attempts:
As TNF athletes sometimes our biggest job is the tell stories and try to do justice to our fellow athletes. For this piece I worked with our crew at Camp 4 Collective to tell TNF athlete Jimmy's Chin story as he in turn highlights modern day climbing Yosemite for a National Geographic feature story. Thanks for checking it out! ~renan
Early this Monday morning I received a surprise update via a patch of cell service from the TNF team starting thier expedition to Newfoundland. The team includes Mark Synnott, James Pearson, Hazel Findlay and Alex Honnold. Also from Camp 4 Collective Tim Kemple, Matt Irving and Jimmy Surrette are there to document the adventure! See below for the first fresh tidbits of thier journey. Cheers, ~renan
From Tim Kemple: 50mph winds today. Smashing rain last night. We are miles and miles from any people. So random to find out we get cell service on this one pointy summit.
From James Pearson: Its 4am, light is starting to come, and I am staring out a tiny hole of my sleeping bag at the swarm of mosquitoes attacking my face-net. I'm shattered but I can't sleep; the noise alone is too much, not to mention the pain in my arms from the crippling position required to hold my origami fortress in place and keep out the blood-thirsty hordes. I would have been common sense to call in advance and book a hotel, especially as I knew I would be arriving very late, and have to spend the first night alone. For some reason I didn't, and now I'm suffering the consequence of an unexpected forest bivi. I stare hypnotised at the swirling mosquitoes and wish the time would pass.
Several hours later and I am a little further along my journey. Two shuttle busses have brought me to Burgeo, the end of the road (literally) and the place I scheduled to meet Mark and the rest of the team to begin the next phase. Tomorrow we have a five hour ferry to Francois- a small fishing village of 100 people on the east coast of Newfoundland, and the next will bring a ride aboard a fishing boat and the first view of our reason to be here- Blow Me Down.
Over 1,000 ft of pristine granite rising directly out of the ocean sounds almost too good to be true, but on the account of several trusted friends, that is what we will find. I'm so very excited to see this place and get on the rock, but a little intimidated by the logistics of landing- transferring several very heavy bags from a tiny boat to a rocky shore. There are all the ingredients in place for an EPIC, but on one level, epics are something that keeps life interesting.
This past weekend a number of The North Face produced films graced the the big screen at the amazing Telluride Mountain Film Festival. Situated deep in the mountain of Colorado this festival is one of the most recognized on the planet for bringing stories of postive change for the planet to thier audience. It is always a big energy boost to attend and a huge honor to have our expedition stories screen in the same group as films that tackle huge political, social and environmental issues. The TNF line-up of films included COLD (Forge Motion Pictures), TOWERS OF THE ENNEDI (Camp 4 Colective), DOWN OUT AND UNDER (Sender Films) and ON ASSIGNMENT (Camp 4 Collective).
As an athlete and filmmaker there is nothing more exciting (and scary!) than to be able to premier your work in front of a packed theatre of liked minded people hungry to absorb the adventure. Being able to see peoples reaction in real time and answer question on stage is one the most powerful ways I can imagine to share stories. For me, this realization of the power of film really stemmed from this particular festival in 2009 when Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and myself premiered SAMSARA and it took the Charlie Fowler Climbing film award.
I'm so proud to report that the TNF film hightlighting the historic ascent of G2, which is a very real and visceral depiction of what it is like to undergoe climbing a 8000M peak in winter won the Charlie Fowler Climbing Film award. Furthermore our film "Towers of the Ennedi" recieved a honorable mention in this catagory and was also nominated for the cinematograpy award. Athough I'm not much of a competive person it is always a bit nerve racking to attend the award ceremony and see how your peers, mentors and audieneces judge your art of storytelling. In the end it is all about all those special intactions you have throughout with event with the amazing people that inpsire you to take action to keep sharing & creating positive change for the planet! Thanks for reading and hope to see you all at the next T-Ride Mtn Film Fest :) Cheers, ~renan
Are you within range of Carbondale's 5point film festival this weekend?? If you have the ability to make it, it is highly encouraged! The festival atmosphere hanging out with filmmakers, the full cinema viewing experience and the variety of amazing adventure film subjects is not to be missed.
The North Face athlete films that will be up on the big screen are: 'Towers of the Ennedi', 'Cold' (film about Cory Richard's historic G2 ascent), 'Jimmy Chin: On Assignment' and The 'Life of Leo' (short from Cuba).
Here is a behind the scenes adventure with the Camp 4 Collective team of Jimmy, Tim and I. The expedition teaser is also live on TNF's youtube account. Cheers, ~renan
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