'Torn' a beautiful harrowing documentary

In the National Geographic/Lightbox presentation of ‘Torn,’ widely hailed as the greatest mountaineer of his generation, Alex Lowe was a towering figure in the world of outdoor sports.

But he loomed even larger for his oldest son, Max, who was only 11 in 1999 when Alex was buried by an avalanche along with cameraman David Bridges while attempting to ski the north face of Mount Shishapangma in the Tibetan Himalaya.

Seventeen years after their deaths, Lowe’s and Bridges’ bodies were found by two climbers attempting the same route, and in the following months, Lowe’s family journeyed to the remote mountain to recover them. In the powerful and deeply moving documentary, director Max Lowe examines the long-buried feelings this unearthed for him and his family.

‘Torn’ is an incredibly emotional and, at times, heart-wrenching look at a family’s dealing with the past experiences of the tragic death of Alex Lowe. The documentary also features some incredible footage of Alex and his group climbing and archive footage of the news of the climber’s death.

There are also some truly touching moments of seeing the late climber’s family and seeing them talk about Alex and everything about his climbing career. This 2021 National Geographic documentary also serves as a beautiful tribute to a world-renowned mountaineer.

The emotion definitely kicks in once the family is notified that Alex had been found. The footage of those moments are really moving and you will likely shed a tear or two.

So, during the Spring Film Festival, make sure to check out this amazing documentary. It’s truly emotional at times and has a lot of heart.

‘Torn’ is directed by Max Lowe, who is the oldest son of the late Alex Lowe. He has also worked on a few short documentaries, including ‘Slacker,’ ‘Adventure Not War,’ ‘Bare Existence’ and ‘Sky Migrations.’

Alex Lowe was born on Dec. 24, 1958 and died on Oct. 5, 1999. He has been described as inspiring “... a whole generation of climbers and explorers with his uncontainable enthusiasm, legendary training routines, and significant ascents of rock climbs, ice climbs, and mountains all over the world.”

In June of 1995, Lowe helped the National Park Service rescue several Spanish climbers on the 20,320-foot Denali in Alaska. On June 9, the group had been trapped for four days at 19,200 feet. Lowe and a couple other climbers were lifted by a military helicopter to a plateau above the Spaniards, scaled down a 400 vertical foot, 50-degree slope of ice and rock, to reach them. Only one climber didn’t survive and the remaining suffered from hypothermia. In September of 1999, Lowe, Conrad Anker and David Bridges (a two-time U.S. national paragliding champion) traveled to the 26,291-foot Himalayan giant Shishapangma, the 14th highest peak in the world, as part of the 1999 American Shishapangma Ski Expedition. The plans called for Lowe and Acker to be part of the team that would ski down, to become the first Americans to ski down the summit of an 8,000-meter peak. On October 5, the team split into two groups as they searched for a route up the mountain when the avalanche occurred.

‘Torn’ is not rated and has a running time of 92 minutes.

The show dates and times are as follows: Saturday, Apr. 16, at 4:15 p.m.; Tuesday, Apr. 19, at 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, Apr. 21, at noon; Monday, Apr. 25, at 2:30 p.m.; and Wednesday, Apr. 27, at 7 p.m.

https://youtu.be/SkSzzxj3BDI