thrutch (v.) To climb desperately, with a pit-bull reliance on brawn over technique.
   The Climbing Dictionary – Matt Samet

Thrutch is a rarely seen flick by relative unknown JBone Productions. Fair warning – there’s not much to write here – throughout its less than 60 minute runtime, Thrutch packs in a new boulder every 3 minutes.  Edit: I had to search high and low for a DVD copy, but now you all can watch it on YouTube for free!

Hueco is the mecca of US bouldering, pure and simple.  Its where the now ubiquitous V-grades originated, and its been the focus of both film segments (Sessions, others), and multiple feature length films like Free Hueco and Best of the West. I’ve been, just once, and it was really just that good.  Familiar Hueco faces like Jason Kehl, Ana Burgos, and GP Salvo make appearances, along side crushers like Ethan Pringle and Natasha Barnes, and a slew of weekend warriors.

There’s no plot, there’s no theme, the number of complete sentences heard could probably be counted on two hands.  Its climbing porn, pure and simple, and its a damn fine example of the genre at that.  Just because its simple in content doesn’t mean its low quality – most problems are shot from two to three unique camera angles, giving a much better sense of the boulders than your average YouTube amateur highlight reel. Music is largely classic latin guitars in the first half , slow when they should be slow, ramping to frenzied when required.  You wouldn’t think it would work but it totally does.  Some select segments are backed by punchy female-vocaled rock performed by Rasputina.  The only other notable audio is the shouts of spotters, and the piercing power scream that only Jason Kehl can generate.

No grades are shown with the names, but I counted at least a span of V2 to V13, and that’s really the story of Hueco.  If you look at the list of climbs, a lot are going to sound familiar, and not just the double digit ones that make the news – the V4s and 5s shown are frequent inclusions on “Top 25 Boulder Problem” lists.

What else is there to say?  This is just straight sending on iconic boulders with a bumping soundtrack and no fluff.  Elegant in its simplicity, as all bouldering should be.

Verdict:  Borrow It……if you’re a hardcore boulder geek getting psyched for Hueco, and you can find it. Traddies, sport climbers, alpinists, and anyone interested in storylines can safely skip it.  (This just in, JBone put in on the YouTube for FREE)