“The High Route: Director’s Cut,” a film by The Ginger Runner aka Ethan Newberry, in association with The North Face, follows the 2022 epic adventure of athletes Kaytlyn Gerbin and Jenny Abegg as they traverse a complex, remote, and rugged line through the North Cascades mountains of Washington state.
Their planned route links up four existing North Cascades traverses: the Redoubt-Whatcom High Route, the Northern and Southern Pickets Traverse, the Isolation Traverse, and the Ptarmigan Traverse. It takes them from the Canadian border to the village of Stehekin, covering some 124 miles with 59,000 feet of elevation gain. The vast majority of their route will be off-trail, involving scrambling, glacier travel, and roped climbs, and it is just as much a mountaineering challenge as a running one.
It’s with this in mind that Gerbin, who first conspired to complete the route, sought out Abegg as her partner, for her strong climbing background and all-round ability to move fast in the mountains. In this director’s cut — which expands on the original film “The High Route” that iRunFar covered in 2023, with greater background on the athletes and their preparation for the challenge, as well as more footage of the most rugged sections of the route — we hear a little more from Abegg’s perspective. She introduces herself by saying, “My friends who run say I’m a climber, and my friends who climb say I’m a runner.” She coins the term “ultraneer,” for the kind of hybrid athlete one needs to be to complete this challenge.
Jenny Abegg (left) and Kaytlyn Gerbin (right) atop a summit in “The High Route: Director’s Cut.” All photos are screenshots from “The High Route: Director’s Cut.”
Gerbin and Abegg’s route is frontloaded in terms of difficulty, with the most challenging and least runnable terrain in the first half. As Gerbin says: “Because this is one of our first times working together as partners, we really wanted to experience the entire first half, which is the most high-consequence terrain of the entire route, with just the two of us, not having any additional support.”
And so, it is straight into the deep end. On day one, they dive into a 12-hour bushwhacking section, trying to finish it before a forecasted storm. On day two, they start at 5 a.m. — coffee in hand — finishing the bushwhack three hours ahead of schedule. The highlight of day two was crossing a frozen lake, which helped them avoid a difficult and rocky traverse around it — a whiteout adding to the eerie remoteness.
Throughout the challenges, there is a real sense of fun, as the two women — who had not met until Gerbin sought out Abegg as a potential partner for the route during the planning stages — bounce so well off one other, and don’t let any amount of fog or ice dampen their spirits.
Eventually the fog lifts, revealing breathtaking scenes, and as Abegg later shared, “There was something so special about being the only two people out there, like these two dots moving across this most wild landscape.”
A deer spotted on the route once the fog cleared.
A few days later, they finally reach a trail, and friends join them from the Sourdough Mountain Trailhead. Although the journey is not even close to over, there is a real sense of celebration at having made it through the toughest part with no additional support.
It’s not long before the team faces further challenges in trying to move around a natural obstacle called a bergschrund, or a large gap of snow and ice. Together they problem solve and manage to find away around it, a great example of their teamwork.
On the final day, Abegg laments: “There’s a certain sadness about something like this being over. [It was] hands down the coolest adventure of my life, and it’s sad not to not to be able to keep being out there together.”
The film showcases the extraordinary beauty of the North Cascades, as well as the power of nature, as the athletes move at the mercy of the natural environment amidst ever-changing conditions. But just as much, it is a film about teamwork, friendship, and the power of positivity.
Some of the terrain navigated by Abegg and Gerbin during their crossing of the North Cascades.
Call for Comments
- Have you watched this director’s cut or its original version?
- Are you into adventures that combine running with other sports, such as mountaineering in this case?
