New climbing film documents first ascent of Utah’s Supercrack

Showing this Saturday

In 1976 Earl Wiggins, Ed Webster and Bryan Becker teamed up for the first ascent of Supercrack, an unbelievably aesthetic crack climb in Indian Creek, Utah. A stirring film recounting that day, Luxury Liner: The First Ascent of Supercrack, is coming to Crested Butte and will be playing at the Center for the Arts on Saturday, August 15 at 7 p.m.
The film includes actual footage of the first ascent shot by Stewart Green and Michael Gardner on two rented Eolex Super 8 cameras and a reunion of the first climbing party back at Supercrack.
Filmmaker Chris Alstrin knows Green and approached him about the footage of that day.
“I knew Stewart had the original Super 8 film,” explains Alstrin. “I asked him if he was going to do anything with it and he just handed me the reels.”
Alstrin then proceeded to track down the rest of the climbers who were there on that day. Ed Wiggins had passed away but Alstrin lined up interviews with the other climbers involved.
Ultimately, an interview with Webster fell through, sending Alstrin back to the drawing board for his film.
“Originally I was going to fly out to Vermont to interview him,” says Alstrin.
He put the project aside another year and returned to the project with a fresh idea.
“I thought, what would be a better way to do this,” says Alstrin. “What I needed to do was put a reunion together. They were psyched once I said I’d pay for the food, booze and gas. Things don’t change much.”
The end result turned out to be an emotional return to the desert for Webster and crew as they reunited to attempt Supercrack once again.
Tickets are $15 and all proceeds from this showing of the film will go to the Rocky Mountain Field Institute (RMFI), an environmental and educational non-profit organization, which has worked for over 20 years to mitigate the environmental impact of climbers on the delicate area of Indian Creek, among other projects.
RMFI founder Mark Hesse and RMFI director Eric Billmeyer will join Chris Alstrin for a discussion following the viewing of the film.
In addition, climbers Jim Donini and Chuck Grossman will be at the show. Donini has a legendary reputation. He just finished a three-year term as the president of the American Alpine Club and he has many, many first ascents, primarily in Patagonia and Alaska. Chuck Grossman was another early, early hard climber.
This evening is not to be missed by anyone with a love of adventure, an armchair interest in the psychology of adventurers, or a desire to save wild places for future generations.