It’s difficult to give Masters of Stone 4 a fair review.  The fourth installment of a series is never known to be the best, and is usually evidence of a once-proud franchise being subjected to necromancy for a cash grab.

But that predisposition isn’t why its hard to be objective.  No, its because we’ve finally caught up to the part of the timeline where the reviewers heroes, the names he actually recognizes as contemporary to his formative years, begin to appear.  Sure, the regular Stonemaster cast persists with Ron Kauk, Dan Osman, and John Bachar, but we’re treated to a whimsical insight to early Chris Sharma – in his middle teens and sending the country’s hardest offerings, and waffling on how much he wants to dedicate himself to the sport (HA!). Along with Chris, we meet both Katie Brown and even a teenaged Tommy Caldwell talking about the impermanence of the upper limit 5.14. Alexander Huber also has a guest appearance to throw a lap on a little known route known as La Rambla.

Even with the injection of new blood foreshadowing the changing face of the sport, the old hats put to film some of the most famous clips, including the pinkpoint FA of Magic Line by Ron, John soloing well into the 5.12s, and Dan Osman’s famous speed-solo of Lovers Leap, dyno and all (and a summer waterfall “dry”-tooling free solo, of course). 

Into the intangibles, this film is finally starting to resemble the golden age of climbing films – vignettes of the world’s best, across a smattering of locations, on the hardest stuff.  More importantly, gone are the cutaways to wrestlers, CGI Lizards, and NASA launches.  Likewise, the awful (sorry not sorry) voiceovers are mercifully reduced to only the opening.  The music swings from rock to punk to more reggae inspired grooves and I enjoyed it more than a lot of other films. Perhaps the only detractor from this as a climbing film is the amount of footage dedicated to rope jump and sky diving, including a harrowing late deploy.

Verdict:  BUY IT – A first of the accolade for the Masters of Stone series, but admittedly is driven by the biases of yours truly.

The Who: Dan Osman, Ron Kauk, Chris Sharma, Alexander Huber, John Bachar, Katie Brown, Tommy Caldwell, Steve Petro, Carlos Brasco, Will Oxx, Lisa Gnade, JB Tribout, Toni Arbones, Andy West, Dave Barlia, George Hery Jr., John Oxx, Marty Tilley, Steve Gerberting

The What:
Mickey’s Beach, CA
– Surf Safari

Rifle, CO
7PM TV Show
Monestary, CO
-Third Millenium

Red River Gorge, KY
-White Man’s Overbite

Fremont Canyon, WY
Fiddler on the Roof

Castle Rocks, CA
– Boulders

Pinnacles, CA
– Ubermensch

Lovers Leap, CA

Indian Creek, UT
Ruby’s Cafe

Red Rocks, NV
– The Gift (Solo)

Yosemite\Tuolumne, CA
-Magic Line (FA)
-Peace
-Reticent Wall

Siurana France
Bisect les Biceps
Mr. Cheky
La Rambla
Broadway
Escalante Canyon