180º South
180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless, or simply 180° South, is a 2010 documentary directed by Chris Malloy that covers the journey of Jeff Johnson as he travels from Ventura, California to Patagonia, Chile. He retraces the 1968 trip that Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins took in their Ford E-Series Econoline Van with the end goal of climbing Fitz Roy, one of the more difficult climbs in the Andes.[1] After finding footage of the 1968 expedition, Johnson decided to make climbing the Corcovado Volcano in Patagonia his own goal and, after speaking to Chouinard and Tompkins, planned his own journey.
The subtitle of the film comes from Lionel Terray‘s mountaineering autobiography, Les Conquérants de l’inutile or Conquistadors of the Useless (1961). Terray was the first to summit Fitz Roy, in 1952, and his book was influential with Chouinard and Tompkins.
Watch the full movie: