In reply to UKC Gear:
This prolonged product placement video set has got to be marketing pants, with the climbers participants positioned as athlete and explorers on TNF's web site - https://www.thenorthface.co.uk/exploration/our-journal/antarctica.html?utm_... - : "In 2017, we dispatched a team of the world’s finest explorers to the Queen Maud Land territory where they spent a month climbing and establishing new routes on the Wolf’s Jaw massif. Enduring brutal storms and freezing winds, these six athletes put our pinnacle alpine equipment to the test during the ultimate expedition at the bottom of the world."
You see piccies of the "athletes" and explorers, like Konrad Anker followed by:
SHOP MEN'S SUMMIT L6 AW SYNTHETIC BELAY PARKA
SHOP MEN'S SUMMIT L4 SOFTSHELL PANTS
It's a shame, I think, that climbers take the sponsor's dollar and go on the sponsor's trip and help flog the sponsor's gear; Anker indeed. I want to see videos of climbers going on trips they have organised and raised funds for, not prolonged product placement videos conceived by some dratted marketing department of a gear company.
Berghaus sponsoring Leo Houlding's trip to Antarctica had a better balance to my mind, and Berghaus stayed in the background.
This TNF trip is pants, all pants, even if Alex Honnold is involved. Souls have been sold here and the trip has no integrity. It's like another Red Bull circus. Enough already.
Throughout October The North Face has published four short films which explore their 2017 expedition to Queen Maud Land, Antarctica from the perspective of Savannah Cummins. These films give an insight in to the athlete's experiences ahead of the full release of the film of the expedition later this year. We've featured each of these videos here on UKClimbing and now you can watch them all in one place.