Reel Rock: Riders on the Storm

With the first free ascent of Riders on the Storm in Patagonia, Siebe Vanhee, Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, Nicolas Favresse, and Drew Smith made climbing history in February 2024. They finally achieved what countless teams had attempted and failed over the last 33 years. Determined to send all 41 pitches to the summit in one push, they had taken Patagonia’s notoriously bad weather into account. What they did not anticipate was the storm rising within their own team. It turns out that the true crux isn’t a 7c+ pitch at the edge of the world; it’s navigating a generation gap.