Keep it Burning: Making History on the Trango Towers follows Edu Marin as, along with his father and brother, he attempts a second free ascent of Pakistan’s Nameless Tower. He’s after the great Eternal Flame line, created by Wolfgang Gullich and Kurt Albert in 1989.
After failing the previous year, Edu Marin has returned to Eternal Flame with what he calls his dream team. That includes his 70-year-old father, Francisco “Novato” Marin, as well as his brother Alex. Neither has much experience with big-wall climbing or high altitude. However, as Edu explains, “I knew that they would stay until the end.”
It’s a strategy that paid off for the first people to complete a free ascent of Eternal Flame. Two decades after Gullich and Albert created the route, brothers Alex and Thomas Huber free climbed it. Both return for this film, sharing their experience from the first climb.
The three Marin climbers. Photo: Screenshot
On the wall
They get to base camp at 4,200m and begin acclimatizing and preparing the logistical side of the climb. Managing the weather, the altitude, and the 1,200m of rope to fix adds another layer of difficulty. Then, when the team has settled in to begin the climb, an avalanche hits in the middle of the night.
Everyone emerges unharmed, though shaken. Novato recalls his fear that the avalanche would bury his sons, as they survey their dismantled camp. Everything needs to be dug up, but everything essential is still there, so the trio goes ahead and begins the climb.
Photo: Screenshot
They are making steady progress. But at the 6,000m Snow Ledge, they learn that a week of bad weather is heading right for them. While Alex and Novato head down to rest and wait out the storm from below, Edu sits tight.
“If you descend from the wall,” he argues, “you have to climb all the pitches again from the bottom.”
So instead he will sit on this 6,000m ledge, at below-freezing temperatures, for eight days. There’s a weather window that far out, and he plans to take it. This, Thomas Huber says, may be the hardest part of the project.
The sun comes out after 10 days of waiting. Reunited with his family, Edu leads the final ascent.
Edu on a technical pitch. Photo: Screenshot
The weather holds, and, encouraging each other as they ascend the last few meters, all three climbers reach the summit, with Edu completing the second-ever free climb. We see them on top, laughing and embracing, while final cutaway interviews with Novato and Edu discuss what it meant to complete the climb as a family.
“It’s a pleasure to share this sport, and to share it with my sons— there’s nothing better!” Novato says, smiling. “As long as my body allows me, I’ll keep going.”
