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Fitz Cahall – Director

Fitz_Recording2

Fitz Cahall has worked in digital media and film since he made the leap from print in 2006. He owns Duct Tape Then Beer with his partner and wife Becca Cahall.  He hosts the popular outdoor radio show and podcast, The Dirtbag Diaries, and has earned awards for his filmmaking.  He’s been an avid climber for 17 years.

From the director

When we opened up that hard drive, I fell in love with Kyle as a character. He was funny, passionate and wildly intelligent.  A lot of climbing expeditions these days have clear marketing objectives to them. Sometimes, I feel like we’ve lost something, but Kyle’s story was real.  His approach was novel. To most veteran climbers, it would have been a daunting, almost borderline insane to do a trip in this style.

For me there are two scenes that stood out.  When I first saw the opening scene were Kyle is naked standing in a river, I burst into laughter. I thought “This guy gets it.  He’s not holding back. He is both literally and metaphorically naked in front of the camera. Awesome.” His letter home to his parents, sister and girlfriend left me in tears. Those were the two moments that I knew we had to work between.  This was the light and the dark of adventure. It takes a rare kind of spirit to capture it so unflinchingly.  Kudos to Kyle.

Out of all the projects I’ve worked on, this was the most difficult to piece together. There were a few glaring gaps we had to fill. The first breakthrough came when our editor Austin Siadak brought up Robert Frost’s immortal poem “The Road Not Taken.” That poem provided a sort ground work for our thought process. The second breakthrough came when we realized that we could recreate one or two small bits of audio and footage that keep the whole thing tethered together. I won’t say which, but it helped us get through a pivotal scene and help with a few key facts and details.