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.
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
Here is the second Chapter of the Cuba series, an informal exploration of the climbing and culture this past January. This is part 2 of 5. Thanks for checking it out! ~renan
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