THE ALPS IMAX DVD: JOHN HARLIN ON THE EIGER (Harlin, John, )

At the very heart of the film is John Harlin III's climb of the storied North Face of the Eiger, one of the world's most celebrated peaks but also one notorious among climbers for the unpredictable weather changes and the deadly showers of falling rock.

Harlin and the Eiger have had a tenuous relationship for decades. Forty years ago, Harlin's father, famed alpinist John Harlin II, a rising media star considered one of America's best mountaineers, set out to pioneer a bold new route straight up the Eiger's 6,000-foot face. At 4,000 feet, approaching the summit, Harlin's rope broke, sending him plummeting to a tragic death that would shatter the lives of his family. Just nine years old at the time, John Harlin III has been haunted by the Eiger, by its mythic allure and its deadly nature, since that day.

Now, Harlin will face his inner demons and honor his father's memory on a climb that is about so much more than simply a physical achievement. For Harlin, the expedition is also about following in his father's footsteps by exploring why his father came to love the Alps and its culture and giving that knowledge to his own young daughter.

The filmmaking team knew from the start they were in for some of the biggest objective dangers even this adventuresome group had ever faced. The responsibility was considerable. 'Safety was literally priority number one,' notes director Stephen Judson.

MacGillivray Freeman Films assembled a crack team of aerial and mountain photographers who were used to doing creative work at the very edges of the earth, including mountain cinematographer Michael Brown and SpaceCam inventor and operator Ron Goodman. Just wielding IMAX cameras in these famously brutal mountains required bravery, climbing skills and vast stores of patience. 'While digital video cameras keep getting lighter and lighter, IMAX camera equipment, because of its oversized nature, remains heavy and cumbersome, so our talented team did quite a dance working with it in such raw conditions,' comments director of photography, Brad Ohlund.

Helicopters were central to providing the filmmakers with unprecedented access and safety in the mountains. 'Helicopters not only took the cameras places they couldn't otherwise have gone, they also meant that if the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse, we could pluck our crew off the mountain in a matter of minutes,' explains Ohlund.

An accomplished climber, extreme skier, adventurer, writer and editor who grew up partly in Switzerland, John Harlin III serves as the audience's intrepid and informative guide in THE ALPS. At the center of the story is his emotional quest to climb the myth-enshrouded Eiger, the mountain that took his father's life 40 years ago.

John Harlin III was raised in Leysin in the Swiss Alps, where his father, John Harlin II, founded the International School of Mountaineering. After his father's death on the Eiger in 1966, nine-year-old John returned with his mother and sister to America.

He currently serves as the editor of the prestigious American Alpine Journal, the journal of record for new mountain routes worldwide, and has written and edited several books about mountains, climbing and travel. As an adventurer, he has made first telemark and first ski descents, climbed new routes and made first river descents in Peru, Bolivia, Tibet, Alaska, Canada, the Alps and the U.S.

John lives in both Oregon and Oaxaca, Mexico with his wife, Adele, and daughter, Siena. He has also completed a memoir of his family and his life-long obsession with the Eiger, The Eiger Obsession: Facing The Mountain That Killed My Father, which we have in stock both autograohed and not autographed.