An American Ascent

George Potter and Andrew Adkins (2014, U.S., 66 min.) + post-film discussion

Co-Sponsored by the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management and Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center

Wallace Stegner famously said: “National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” As noble as this ideal is, there is actually a hidden “Adventure Gap” as to who uses our national parks and who is allowed to participate in the outdoors. Structural and overt racism affecting everything from the safety of people of color driving through unknown towns to reach parks to the availability of vacation time in certain jobs has created a legacy in which too many Americans have been excluded from or made unwelcome in the great outdoors.

In An American Ascent, we are offered an inspiring look at a small effort to start to address this legacy of exclusion by putting together the first all-African American team to try to summit Mt. Denali in Alaska. With the support of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), this team of both experienced and brand new climbers bonds together to conquer the mountains and to build a sense of belonging and community. Will they conquer the mountain? In the end, reaching the summit may be less important than being able to make the journey.

Preceding the film we screened the short film The Way Home: Returning to the National Parks (dir. Amy Marquis, 2011, 10 min.), which profiles an effort to address the low rates of attendance at National Parks by BIPOC communities.