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By Chris Honoré for Revels September 03. 2015 12:01AM 'Meru' is a gorgeous, harrowing adventure Meru Meru ; documentary; 87 min.; Rated R   In northern India, rising above the sacred Ganges River, stands the Himalayan mountain of Meru, elevation 21,850 feet. It beckons, a crooked spire of snow and ice and rock. The last 1,500 feet, called the Shark’s Fin, is a sheer wall of wedged massive blocks of stone, balanced precariously, one on top of the other, like a giant game of Jenga. Until recently, Meru had never been climbed, though world-class alpine climbers had tried. It was considered unconquerable, any ascent requiring long, dangerous pitches of “big wall climbing” and reserves of infinite skill. Meru is also considered, in the words of Jon Krakauer, “the anti-Everest.” Any attempt to summit requires the expedition to carry, sans Sherpas, all its gear, food, and a hanging portaledge tent, which is a cone of weatherproof fabric, not anchored to a grounded footing but to a vertical wall where it will offer protection for the climbers from nighttime temperatures (often dropping to a minus 20 degrees) and assaulting snow and wind. Consider the attempt to summit Meru as extreme climbing. The documentary “Meru” chronicles, with a sustained, breathtaking tension, mixed with backstory, an attempt by renowned alpinists Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk. Chin and Ozturk are the expedition’s photographers who document what proves to be not only an ordeal, but an experience that pushes the three men beyond the edge of their endurance, both physically and psychologically. “Meru” chronicles two attempts by the trio. The first takes place in 2008, a climb that took them to just under 100 meters from the top of Meru. As they looked up, it loomed above them, impassive, a crooked thumb of rock, and they realized that if they pressed on they would be trapped on the mountain without protective gear, absent sleeping bags and tent and would surely die. Hence, with a silent, wrenching regret, they turned back and descended to base camp. But still, though Chin promised himself that he would never return, Meru haunts the three men. And despite having to overcome serious interim challenges — both Oztruk and Chin are almost killed while in the mountains, Chin in an avalanche and Oztruk in a skiing accident — they plan a second climb for 2011, knowing what they must confront that last harrowing pitch of the Shark’s Fin and power through if they are to prevail. In the words of Krakauer, the last 4,000 feet represents some of the “gnarliest climbing” imaginable, high risk/high gain pitches, up snow-covered rock, the danger of being “flossed” off the mountain ever present. Krakauer refers to this climb as a kind of dialectic, almost metaphysical in its effort. One mistake, one fragment of rock coming loose, a single lapse in judgment will mean certain death for all of them. And yet they ascend, pushing upward, laden with gear and rope, moving incrementally ever higher. “Meru” is a breathtaking film, the essence of the question: why? Ultimately, there is no real answer. Anker says simply that it is “the culmination of all I’ve done, all I’ve ever wanted to do.” Chin and Ozturk echo those sentiments. And so the mountain slips into metaphor and defines each of the men in its own way. “Meru" is a synthesis of spectacular photography — the images of the mountain as the sun rises and dwells briefly on its shadowed slopes and craggy, illuminated peak are stunning — combined with unguarded, personal commentary as the three sit in their suspended tent while warming couscous over a small stove. The film is gorgeous and harrowing and mundane and beautiful to watch. It is also testimony to the power of documentary film. How else would those in the audience spend even a moment looking out at the snow-capped peaks and splendor of the Himalayas, the infinite horizon captured against an expanse of startling blue sky? Or become intimately enmeshed in an effort that defies understanding and defines courage. A footnote: Conrad Anker, along with two other climbers, on a separate expedition on Everest, found the body of the iconic Brit mountaineer George Mallory all but intact, his back bleached an alabaster white, his boots still on his feet, his body pointed toward the summit. The year he was last seen was 1924. Whether he reached the top of Everest is unknown.   “Meru” will be screened Friday, Sept. 4, at the Varsity Theatre as a benefit for the Ashland Independent Film Festival. There will be showings at 6:40 and  9 p.m. http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20150903/NEWS/150909992 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->