This article contains big time spoilers, if you don’t want to know what happens in the film The Alpinist then do not read it.
‘I don't want to sound grim or fatalistic’, Marc-André Leclerc is standing in a hostel kitchen in El Chalten, Argentinian Patagonia, ‘but it is undeniable that every time you go to the mountains, it could be your last time.’ He is answering the question of what he eats for his final meal before a big climb. ‘So all these things that you love, you have to appreciate. Whatever dinner you would want to possibly be your last dinner, you have to eat it … because you are going to the mountains.'
For me, this is the most memorable piece of dialogue in the film. Marc is not dramatic or overly sentimental, he has a sweet smile and comes across as calm and matter-of-fact. When it’s being asked, the question sounds like it is a sports question, not a philosophical one, as if the person wants to know about carbs and protein and kilojoules. The answer that Marc gives is not about fuel at all, it is about living and dying. In conveying that you need to enjoy yourself, because you might not come back, Marc comes across more as an aesthete than an athlete.
He does come
