Mountaineering
We
have been climbing and trekking in the Indian Himalaya
since high school, over twenty years ago. Over the past
five or six years we have opportunities to accompany and
film a number of Indian Army expeditions. We present our
mountaineering films to date.
A
Trail to Remember (1998)
Partial Support:The Indian Army
Duration:
24 minutes
In
1998 mountaineers from the Army Corps of Engineers combined
with scientists from various organizations across the
country to explore the Dharma Valley and the magnificent
Panchchuli peaks that lie at the head of this valley in
eastern Kumaon. Scientific exploration took the form of
documenting the flora and fauna of the region. The engineers
adopted a multi-disciplinary approach to exploring the
physical environment of the region, including skiing,
para-gliding and rafting down the Kaliganga river. A key
objective of the expedition was the climbing of the still
unclimbed Panchchuli peaks. The team was partially successful
in meeting this objective, when 4 members reached the
summit on Panchchuli 1 in 1998. A serious accident during
the decent to base camp, however, forced the remaining
attempts on the Panchchuli massif to be called off.
The Elusive Mountain Gya (1997)
Partial Support:The Indian Army
Duration: 25 mts
In
1997, in celebration of India’s fiftieth year of independence,
climbers from a variety of South Asian countries, set
out to climb Mt. Gya, on the Indo-Tibet border. At 22,400
feet, Gya was still unclimbed, despite several earlier
attempts to climb it. The Elusive Mountain - Gya documents
this historic climb.
The
film follows the team as it moves through the desolate,
desert-like landscape of Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, crossing
a series of high altitude passes on its way to the base
of the mountain. It is a little known part of the country,
the high mountains of the Great Himalayan Range forming
an effective barrier to the causal visitor. The team followed
the old trade route between Tibet and the north Indian
plains, a trade that is now much reduced, but as the film
shows, still continuing. The folk dances of the region
are a revellation, the brilliant colors standing in stark
contrast to the barren and harsh countryside. Equally
surprising in these seemingly lifeless mountains is the
wildlife, including the rare Tibetan Wild Ass and Blue
sheep, reportedly half goat and half sheep.
The
second half of the film follows the climbers on their
way up the sacred mountain – staying with them through
four days of incessant snowfall, before a route is found
over rocks never touched by humans. Filming the summit
at about 22,000 feet, the film represents a landmark in
Indian mountaineering films.
Above 10,000 feet
A
large part of the Indian Himalaya lies above 10,000 feet.
The region is home to some of the most spectacular mountain
scenery anywhere in the world, with a series of mountain
ranges that have served to discourage the casual visitor
from visiting this frontier that separates India from
Central Asia. Not surprisingly, the region has remained
largely unknown outside a small community of Himalayan
enthusiasts. But because the region lies at the heart
of the cultural and biological cross-roads of Central
Asia, it is home to a great diversity of cultural traditions,
and biological representation. A trade network that formerly
linked Beijing with Hoshiarpur and Kabul with Lhasa, may
no longer be active, yet its influences are omnipresent
in the sites of Hindu worship, in the extensive network
of Buddhist monasteries, and in the variations in lifestyles
that range from nomadic pastoralism to terraced cultivation.
Simultaneously, its flora and fauna draw upon assemblages
ranging from Central Asia to peninsular India, most critically
evidenced by the spectacular community of wild ungulates
of the Great Himalaya. We hope to make a ten-part film
series that will explore this culture and wilderness at
high altitude.
