The Players are the best American athletes of the modern rock climbing era. Dave Graham, Chris Sharma, Emily Harrington, Daniel Woods, Lisa Rands, Joe Kinder, Alex Puccio, Chris Lindner, and Ethan Pringle each embody the progression of their sport. This showcase of action packed HD footage reveals each player's ability to make climbing at the pinnacle of their sport a daily routine. Featuring all disciplines of climbing, this is your chance to witness the swagger behind each players' style and explore the lifestyles they are pioneering all across the globe.
Chris Sharma In professional climbing, where talent burns hot and fast, a decade is a long time. Ankles snap. Shoulders pop from sockets. Fingers calcify. And those rare talents that don't succumb to nagging injuries often falter beneath the mental pressure.
Picking projects at your physical and mental limits means constant exposure to the reality of failure. The struggle crushes many, weeding out the strong-fingered charlatans from the lifers. Above it all reigns Chris Sharma, 26, an athlete endowed with unparalleled physical strength and mental tenacity, dominating world sport climbing and bouldering for the last dozen years.
Last July, six years after his historic ascent of Realization the first confirmed 5.15a in the world Sharma returned to Ceüse to tick another monster, Three Degrees of Separation, redpointed on July 23. This 5.14d follows desperate climbing up tufas and micro crimps to series of three spectacular, all points off dynos, a hyper dynamic line one French climber deemed "c'est moderne." For someone who's spent the last decade on the road, the Ceüse trip was a coming home of sorts. Close friend David Graham, who became the first American to repeat Realization, on July 30, was there, as well as climber Ethan Pringle (who became the third American to repeat Realization).
