More than 100 people gathered at the Jasper Activity Centre last week to listen to Chic Scott, a Rockies’ climbing legend, recount his experience working on the 1975 cult classic, The Eiger Sanction, starring Clint Eastwood.
The talk was part of the Thinking Mountains 2015 Interdisciplinary Mountain Studies Conference, held in Jasper.
As a mountaineer and prolific author, Scott shared his experience working for one of Hollywood’s most famous directors and actors, as well as his personal struggle between Hollywood’s fantasy world and the real life dangers posed by mountain climbing.
“Before the summer of 1974, I barely knew who Clint Eastwood was and had never seen one of his films. My heroes were climbers, the men and women who actually went out and faced hardship and danger on the side of a mountain,” said Scott.
Based on a 1972 thriller novel, the film was shot on location in Switzerland on an infamous mountain called Eiger—a mountain that has claimed dozens of lives.
During his presentation, Scott spent 20 minutes going through a slideshow that showed the lengths he and the crew went to to get some of the shots in the film.
“Although many people assume that working on The Eiger Sanction must have been one of the most wonderful experiences of my career, it really wasn’t. It was, however, one of the most unique and interesting experiences and does, I think, make for a good story.”
The film stars Eastwood as an American art history professor and mountain climber who doubles as a professional assassin for an American spy organization. Eastwood’s character is coerced out of retirement to avenge the murder of an old friend while climbing the north face of Eiger.
Scott for his part spent the entire summer of 1974 in Switzerland, working for Universal Studios doing a variety of jobs, from teaching actors how to climb, to scouting locations and preparing the terrain by rigging ropes.
“Clint was excellent to work with,” said Scott. “And he performed all of this own stunts, some of which were very bold and dangerous.”
During the production of the film, the crew often had to deal with adverse weather conditions and, as Scott explained, the death of Dave Knowles, a Scottish photographer and double who was working on the film.
“Mountain climbing is one of the most real activities on the planet. By this I mean the wind, the rain, and the cold weather are real. The falling rocks are real and if you slip on the mountain side there can be real consequences,” said Scott.
“Hollywood, on the other hand, is totally unreal. It’s a fantasy world where all the dead guys get up off the floor when the cameras stop rolling and wipe the ketchup off.”
During a scene that involved replicating a rockfall, Scott asked to be excused. A short time later, a real rockfall occurred instantly killing Knowles.
“I can’t say I had a premonition. I just felt really frightened and didn’t want to be there.”
After getting a helicopter ride to the bottom, Scott had barely touched down before a call came cracking across the radio that there had been an accident on the mountain.
“We flew up to that same location and there was the scene that we had been faking for two days. Dave Knowles hanging dead on the end of the rope.”
After Knowles’ death, Scott said production stopped for a few days before resuming again, but not before everyone took out a $100,000 life insurance policy.
“It was unbelievable, fantasy and reality come head on. The Eiger is a real mountain and Hollywood is fantasy.”
Paul Clarke
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