Brad Washburn was the greatest aerial mountain photographer of all time.

Seventy-five years after Washburn first shot Alaska’s Denali Mountain from the open door of an airplane, climbing buddies Renan Ozturk, Freddie Wilkinson, and Zack Smith look at some of his mountain photographs and have this crazy idea. Rather than go up, their dream is to go sideways — across the range’s most foreboding peaks, the Moose’s Tooth massif. It’s a decidedly new-school way to explore the same landscape Washburn first discovered.

As the group endures open bivies, disintegrating ropes, and constant rockfall, their desire to be the first to complete the audacious line grows into an obsession. But friendships begin to fray when Renan suffers a near fatal brain injury, forcing all three partners to decide what’s most important to them.

Artfully edited to capture the changes and continuities in exploration over the last century, the two narratives combine to reveal a rich vision of human endeavor. Filmed over a period of seven years, THE SANCTITY OF SPACE brings together visual elements of the highest order – from Washburn and Adams’s stunning large format black and white photographs to state-of-the-art helicopter-mounted Cineflex cinematography to space photography. It’s both a white-knuckle adventure tale and an unforgettable celebration of the spirit of exploration