Silent Climb

For Ramiro, a deaf college student looking for an adventure before settling into a job, deafness is merely a nuisance. Armed with a laptop connected to the Internet, Ramiro seeks a snowy campout and mountain climb guided by professionals who luckily seem to have an ASL interpreter on staff. Tucking his cellular fax under his new downy sleeping roll and pack, he is guided through the hazardous conditions and taught to climb up a frozen waterfall. It is gripping, yet tedious filmmaking, watching him inch up the ice to his eventual, inevitable success. And the moral is sent home with the weight of an avalanche: the human spirit can overcome any obstacle, including deafness. An optional purchase. (E. Druda)