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By MYSTERY RANCH Brand Ambassador, Max Lowe
Watching someone who has never climbed before do it with bright eyes and gritted teeth is one of the greatest joys. It is a physical manifestation of pushing our limits in real-time, and watching young kids and adults, all of whom shared a similar hurdle that they were simultaneously navigating to the rockface, was emotionally fettered. These families had all lived through a year and a half of war as Russia waged a war of terror and attrition against their home country of Ukraine, and yet here they were, choosing to continue living and pushing the edge of what it meant to do so in the face of unimaginable pain and suffering.
I think I grew up somewhat skeptical of the age-old adage that in the world’s wildest places we can find healing as human beings. My whole reality and understanding of the world were shattered when, at the age of 10, my father, Alex Lowe, was killed in an avalanche on the remote border of Tibet and Nepal. I grew up outdoors, and through my father’s passion for climbing, I saw through him the unique beauty and perspective you can gain spending a life in the mountains. But on the other hand, when he was killed, I could also see that, in some ways, the pursuit of that edge we feel while climbing high peaks is selfish, self-destructive, and, in the end, sometimes fatal.
As I grew from a boy into a man, I began to walk my own trails back into wild places, using my camera to guide the way. As a storyteller, the inherent risks that come with backcountry skiing, alpine mountaineering, and any adventure travel seemed somewhat more acceptable because I was there to share that experience instead of just holding it selfishly. For a long time, that excuse stood largely just as that, a way to justify chasing experiences that, like my father before me, brought me closer to the edge of understanding the sharp lines that define a more vivid form of living.
In 2015 I sat down with good friend Stacy Bare, a US Veteran of the war in Iraq, and talked about a new kind of adventure. Together, we schemed up the idea of going back to Iraq with Stacy and two of his close friends to climb and ski in the country where they were all three deployed during wartime and make a film. The project would go on to become an eye-opening first step towards coming to terms with the power that exists in the mountains for healing. Documenting Stacy and his team stepping back into this place that held such deep-rooted trauma for them, and not only coming face to face with those emotions but also creating bright new beautiful memories of a place that before was rooted in such personal darkness.
As I approached the idea of what would become “Torn” after the surprise discovery of my father’s remains, and our family’s trip to Tibet to face our pivotal shared trauma, I got a firsthand experience of the mountains that drew my dad away, and in the end proved his demise. I was shocked to find as we walked the yawning valleys of the Tibetan Himalayas en route to the last resting place of my father that instead of anger and resentment, I felt at peace and in awe of the cold but profoundly striking beauty of those mountains. Although that trip was just the beginning of my own journey to the heart of my greatest trauma in the world, my trip to the flanks of Shishapangma was a moment of peace at the eye of the storm that would lead me to create “Torn.”
Almost on cue as we let “Torn” go its own way into the world after a very emotional film tour, I was contacted by a small NGO newly founded by an American couple and their close Ukrainian colleagues after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Mountain Seed Foundation. They had set out to found a summer camp for those impacted and displaced from their lives by the war, using the mountains as a place to find peace and push people to face the things within that would take immense courage to reconcile. They asked me if I would be willing to share about my journeys as a storyteller exploring trauma and using the mountains as a place to heal, and I returned with a request that perhaps together we could tell a story about that very concept rooted in this concept I had once balked.
The ensuing work resulted in a short documentary called “Camp Courage,” which follows a young girl, Milana, and her grandmother Olga, through the first year’s camp. Together, the two faced their fears and looked for small opportunities to live outside of the harsh reality of the hand they had been dealt by the war. The film would go on to be released by Netflix and shortlisted for the 95th academy awards, by far my greatest external achievement as a filmmaker. But what I held onto most from the experience of working with Mountain Seed was a reinvigorated belief in the power of the mountains to shape and reshape us; acting as an anvil on which we can break ourselves and recreate our own understanding of what is broken and what is stronger by the cracks within ourselves.
Watch the “Camp Courage” trailer here.
I am very proud to now be a board member for Mountain Seed Foundation, and to watch as this year had them complete 3 separate 2 session camps bringing families and Veterans of the war in Ukraine into the mountains of Austria and Slovenia where healing through courage was pervasive. Our world can seem a dark place unless we create and believe in the light we hope to see, and in the work of those who chose to use the mountains as a place to heal I have found a new credence and understanding of the world around me.
Learn more about Max here.