Film

TOM

Even before I was born I climbed the North face of the Eiger, so I think it's not much a surprise what I do now.
 

About

Director

Angel Esteban, Elena Goatelli

Producer

Kottomfilms, Ruggero Arena

Featuring

Tom Ballard, James Ballard

Sponsor

Scarpa, Camp Cassin, Val di Fassa

Running time

67 minutes

Country / Nationality

Spain, Italy

Our Judges say:

Nuanced documentary of an ambitious and private Alpinist.

Claire Carter Writer, Film Officer for Kendal Mountain Festival, 'Creative Consultant'.

Follow a family as Tom the son climbs though the winter

Ed Birch Director of Salt-Street productions

Tom lives with his father James on a campsite in the Dolomites, living off James’ small pension. Even though his mother, the great British alpinist Alison Hargreaves, died descending K2 when he was just six years old, Tom always wanted to be a climber. His whole life is dedicated to the mountains and his last goal is to climb solo the Six North Faces of the Alps in a single winter season. Nobody’s ever done it, and he wants to be the first.  We knew Tom just a couple of weeks before he began his winter project. His personal story and his solo winter project deserved to be told, so together with Ruggero Arena, photographer and climber, we decided to begin shooting . Ruggero followed Tom to the base of the North Faces and the climbing part was filmed by Tom himself with his gopro. It was impossible to follow him and we didn’t want to re-film anything, everything had to be filmed in the right moment it was happening.