Gee Atherton and and his long time crew re-define the Ridgeline riding series with the latest episode.
Every Ridgeline film has presented a new challenge, and pushed the team that bit further, but moving out of Wales into Alpine terrains super-sized the challenges, instead of hiking up to Terren y Gesail 666m above the Bike park Gee, Moonhead, Jamie, Brodie and Nico were facing 3,600m ascents with crumbling rockfaces and 600m sheer drops, every step they took the mountain resisted their efforts.
Ridgeline V was co-directed by Gee and his long-time friend and collaborator Dan Griffiths (Moonhead Media) a veteran of the entire Ridgeline series. Rather than honing in on only spectacular riding shots they set about showing the whole process, 8 days of physical and mental overdrive.
From the start, the Ridgeline Series has been about taking mountain biking to the limit, exploring what’s possible on a bike and creating the most stunning footage in the most amazing places worldwide. I love that feeling of being on the very limit of how far we can go. I’m super proud of what we achieved in the Series so far, but I wanted to move beyond the adrenaline and glamour of a 4-minute edit. I wanted to show the reality behind those action highlights, the hard grind, the setbacks, and the absolute trust in my bike, my crew, and my equipment that are essential in making these films. I want to keep on pushing boundaries and this film gives an unvarnished insight into what that takes.”
Gee Atherton
It’s the most intense and personal to date and shows Gee as we’ve never seen him before. Advised by Camera Operator and Lead Mountaineer, Brodie Hood, a hugely experienced action and adventure specialist, The team abandoned the final 50m ascent to the summit and headed back down the mountain.
It was so hard, absolutely gutting. We’d had two quite unproductive days because of the weather, but we’d found this spectacular peak and had scouted right up to 100m from the summit before it got dark. The next day we’d headed back up there, bike on our backs, gruelling hours of anaerobic climbs across this vast 45-degree slab, we were at all at our limit. And then we saw it, this tricky ridge, no anchors, overhangs, crumbly rock. I’ll admit I was in full turbo mode my default mode is always “Let’s get it done”, I kept walking back up to the difficult part and looking down the 600mm cliff edge, the rocks crumbling away in my hands, it was terrifying – such a slap in the face. I was so, so close to just picking up the bike and going for it, but even at times I kind of knew.”