Mountain In The Hallway Full Film

Mountain In The Hallway full film by Teton Gravity Research is now available online! So, I thought I'd share the link with a little bit of the personal inspiration for the story. This was the point of inception for the project.

If these walls could talk...

It’s been two years since I’d started walking towards this photo in the long hallway of my cancer center. When you’re diagnosed with cancer you begin to find meaning in a lot of things merely because you’d like to believe that everything in this world has a meaning, even tragedy. 

At that point in time, the sudden death of my friend Erik Roner was extremely fresh and I was searching for a way to process both experiences at once. The mountain in a hallway being a symbol of an unavoidable obstacle that needs to be overcome and the metaphor for a tumor in a rectum hit me with a smirk. I could hear Erik giggle in my ear as I stood in this exact spot thinking “Rubbs, I’m scared of heights.” I heard his memorable giggle, followed by “You’ve got this!” Ya see, Erik was a skydiver/BASE Jumper/ Nitro Circus Stuntman and on several occasions he’d try to get me to film while hanging off a cliff in Switzerland or something and I’d quickly decline insisting there was a better angle. 

Erik & I in Antwerp Belgium filming for Roner Vision

A quest! A better reason to change my lifestyle and prepare for battle than just some bullshit old persons disease acting as a warning shot across my bow, let’s do this! 

People often ask me if I'm disappointed that I didn't climb The Grand, honestly, I’ve climbed it so many times in my head that it serves a purpose for me constantly. I often use it as mediation. Every time I’ve been jammed into a confined MRI machine, writhing in pain, scanned, poked, cut, shaved, burned, poisoned, sick, tired, or painting my way through insomnia, I've let my mind trace the route through each section of the Owen-Spalding Route as I've seen it in the guide books.

The Mountain In The Hallway painting. The background resembling a colon to depict the mountain as a tumor. The top of the mountain is missing it's summit because I haven't reached it yet.

In my mind when I reach the top, I say a few words and let the wind take Erik's ashes. I look down at the pewter medallion that reads "Grand Teton Elevation 13,770ft above sea level" and I yell and scream as the mountain crumbles away inch by inch. With igneous scratched hands, nose dripping and spit spider webbing from my mouth until the mountain and tumor is a mere pile of dust. On all fours I’m left in silence, exhausted on the valley floor. Released from the weight of my disease and my friends death.