Presenting a Redefinition: The North Face, Lhotse, and the 28,000 foot climax

You wouldn’t know Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson are field-testing a prototype of The North Face’s revolutionary Futurelight fabric as you watch them tackle their month-long ascent of the fourth-highest peak on the planet. Revolutionary or not, the eye-popping apparel does little to catch the attention in the throne room of Everest. Not once is new technology mentioned. Rather, the North Face seeks in its “Presents” docuseries to redefine itself as more than your average gear manufacturer. The company is acutely aware that today’s consumers make purchases with identity in mind; material objects have become an extension of the individual and his or her values, and a way to express the self to the outside world, as well as to answer that age-old riddle of life: who am I? And why am I here? A tall order for a backpack, a pair of boots, or a waterproof jacket, yet it is one that The North Face strives to fulfill, by highlighting not the products they sell but the people who use them, in the places for which they were made. Utilizing classic storytelling techniques, jaw-dropping footage, and the humanity of its characters, “The North Face Presents: Lhotse” sets aside the product pitch in favor of empowering its audience to embrace their full potential.

Call an image of the conventional story arc out of the recesses of Google and you’ll find it presents a lot like Lhotse, literally and contextually. You have your rising action, smattered with crises--the ice fall, the Sherpa’s turnaround, the Nuptse avalanche, the death zone--building slowly, yet steadily. Then comes the exhilarating, 28,000 foot climax and and close behind, the historic descent, and its satisfying conclusion. The opening shot of two brilliantly hued bipeds utterly dwarfed by the grandeur of the Himalayas hooks our precious attention and the subsequent narrative holds it for a solid twenty-two minutes before leaving us to nurse a sudden, compulsive need to immediately scramble up the highest nearby hill and/or join our local climbing gym. (I did both.) This is adventure porn with a purpose, and it’s effective. Pieced together with chronological footage, interactive graphics, and athlete interviews, the film invites us to follow Nelson and Morrison as they defy danger, history, and good sense, climbing Lhotse in the off-season to make a first-descent attempt of its ski line. Other interviewees, Jimmy Chin and Jeremy Jones, seem to have no direct connection to the venture, and instead help us to understand the stakes, flesh out our heroes and their mountainous adversary, and build tension. Jones, in particular, serves as the story’s foil with comments such as, “I’m not willing to take that risk.”

For Nelson and Morrison, the risk is a welcome part of the expedition. As sponsored athletes, they are not so much billboards hired to model a logo as rich, passionate embodiments of the brand’s (which is named for the coldest, most unforgiving side of the mountain) mission “to inspire a global movement of exploration.” They’re classifiable extremists, but they’re also parents, partners, curious, courageous people gripped by doubts, identity struggles, unshakeable aspirations, and strong opinions on how to be human. Their exploration is a path of discovery of both the external and internal worlds. Nelson isn’t just talking about climbing Lhotse when she tells us, “You have to take risks if you want to learn anything about yourself...that’s how we move forward, how we create things, how we have ideas, by taking risks and being a little different and being passionate.” 

The North Face understands that today’s consumers choose brands with values that mirror their own, preferring those who are loud and clear in their stance. For a brand to remain relevant, it is vital that they meticulously articulate their purpose and values, so that we may, in turn, speak ours when we emblazon our chests with their name. According to Cone Communications’ CSR study published in 2017, “87% of consumers will purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about,” while “76% will refuse to purchase a company’s products or services upon learning it supported an issue contrary to their beliefs.” In 2019, the agency published findings on consumer preference for purpose-driven companies focused on positivity and unification. 

In a saturated marketplace, The North Face strives to build consumer support by taking its products beyond advertising, into the world of exhibition. Their documentaries are inclusive, bringing women to the forefront of a largely male world, as well as emphasizing the roles of indigenous peoples and people of color. As The North Face’s Brand Experience Manager, Marco Mombelli says, “Nowadays, being a brand is more than a logo on a T-Shirt. Being a brand is a representation of a culture with rituals and with values. It is about having a strong identity. When you walk around with a The North Face T-Shirt, you are communicating what kind of person you are.”

So what kind of person is that? Rather than tell us, The North Face presents. Their athletes become connective touchpoints, faces and stories we can engage and identify with, intended to help us determine our opinions of the brand, what kind of images and emotions to associate it with, as well as our own willingness to commit. Hilaree, a mother, a mountaineer, hopelessly driven by her passion to take risks and live intensely. Jim, resilient and brave enough to carry on after the loss of his wife and children, to try again. They could be you; they could be me. They are exceptional not only because they summit the highest peaks on earth and then ski back down them, but because they push the limits of what any of us think is possible. Against the odds, against fear, against the opinion of their contemporaries (looking at you, Jeremy Jones), they endure in order to learn, and to teach, what secrets this journey we call life has to reveal to us about our own humanity.