1. GASHERBRUM, THE LUMINOUS MOUNTAINCopy !req
2. In June 1984, the mountaineer
Reinhold Messner organized...Copy !req
3. an expedition in
the mountains of the Karakorum.Copy !req
4. Hans Kammerlander, on the right
of the picture, was with him.Copy !req
5. Their objective: Two summits
in the chain of the GasherbrumsCopy !req
6. all two at few more of
8000 meters of altitude.Copy !req
7. Here is the Gasherbrum 1.Copy !req
8. Gasherbrum means
"THE LUMINOUS MOUNTAIN."Copy !req
9. Their idea was to climb
the two mountains,Copy !req
10. one after the other, without
stopping, without stationary campCopy !req
11. and without oxygen, without
anything other than a backpack.Copy !req
12. Messner already
climbed them separately.Copy !req
13. Here is the Gasherbrum 2.Copy !req
14. I don't have a true profession.
I didn't learn anything particular.Copy !req
15. I made a lot of things
who take the liberty to live.Copy !req
16. It is everything I need.Copy !req
17. I finance my expeditions
thanks to mountaineering equipment.Copy !req
18. I don't need anything else.Copy !req
19. I am very happy
not to have a profession.Copy !req
20. I think that otherwise one renounces
to all creative activity.Copy !req
21. I grew up on a farm
in mountain in the South Tyrol.Copy !req
22. I helped my father
on our small farm.Copy !req
23. My mother died when I was
very young.Copy !req
24. My father was not
of good health.Copy !req
25. Then I worked as a
bricklayer for 5 yearsCopy !req
26. I also had to
take care of housework.Copy !req
27. What was the housework?Copy !req
28. The usual works of a
farm, I took care of everything.Copy !req
29. I continue again when me
follow homeCopy !req
30. Now, I work
as mountain guide in the summerCopy !req
31. and as a skiing
professor in the winter.Copy !req
32. And I have a lot of time
in the spring and the fallCopy !req
33. to climb
and to participate in expeditions.Copy !req
34. Our idea was not to
to achieve a movie on mountaineeringCopy !req
35. What we wanted to discover
it was what happens...Copy !req
36. in the head of the mountaineers
when they rush in...Copy !req
37. of the enterprises as extreme.Copy !req
38. What fascination drives them
to these summits.Copy !req
39. These mountains and these summits
do they not exist at the bottom,Copy !req
40. in the soul of each
of us?Copy !req
41. Here we are in Skardu in
the north of PakistanCopy !req
42. the last accessible city
by car or by plane.Copy !req
43. We buy some supplies with
Rozi Ali, carrier and cookCopy !req
44. a friend of Reinhold Messner for
numerous expeditions.Copy !req
45. The selection of the carriers
takes place the following morning.Copy !req
46. Many have participated in the
previous ascensions of Messner.Copy !req
47. Most are the Baltises, of the
mountains of north Pakistan.Copy !req
48. Just after Skardu,
the road stops.Copy !req
49. The provisions are brought
by Jeep until Dasso.Copy !req
50. From there until the base camp
there are 150 kilometers on foot.Copy !req
51. The last 60 kilometers
take place on a glacier.Copy !req
52. The camp is going to be set up at
an altitude of about 5000 m.Copy !req
53. After 5 days we
find a place to stop.Copy !req
54. It is a source of water
hot sulfurous,Copy !req
55. the last real bath
for a long time.Copy !req
56. That doesn't look worse
that our other expeditions.Copy !req
57. Of course we don't know
if we will have the strengthCopy !req
58. the staying and even the nerves
that we will need.Copy !req
59. Since it has never been attempted,
we lack reference.Copy !req
60. I climbed the 8000 before,Copy !req
61. but two 8000 have never
been climbed at one timeCopy !req
62. We are some sorts
of guinea pigs. We leave...Copy !req
63. without knowing if we
won't be exhausted.Copy !req
64. We may become mad
not holding more standing.Copy !req
65. In this case we would be
obligated to come down.Copy !req
66. Maybe the fact we
have climbed the first summit,Copy !req
67. the desire to win our bet,
will give usCopy !req
68. enough strength and power
to climb the second summit.Copy !req
69. If we have a lot of luck
and if we are in shape,Copy !req
70. if the conditions of
are ideal,Copy !req
71. if we are in shape
physically and emotionally,Copy !req
72. we can succeed.Copy !req
73. For soccer players,
the friendship forgets itself on the field.Copy !req
74. You train a team
as the other.Copy !req
75. Is it necessary
to be friends?Copy !req
76. Could speak yourselves
to this aspect?Copy !req
77. How long have you
known each other?Copy !req
78. 5 or 6 years,Copy !req
79. since I worked
as a mountain guideCopy !req
80. in his mountaineering schoolCopy !req
81. We've went on expeditions
together for 3 years.Copy !req
82. Are you close friends?Copy !req
83. I would not say it,
we know each other very wellCopy !req
84. and I chose Hans
for this expeditionCopy !req
85. among all the mountaineers
that I know personally.Copy !req
86. Hans is one of the only ones
I think that is capable of it.Copy !req
87. I've participated in about
30 expeditionsCopy !req
88. and I still choose my partners
in the same way.Copy !req
89. Without being necessarily friends,
I always have 100% confidenceCopy !req
90. in the cleverness of the climbers,Copy !req
91. their intuitive knowledge
of the atmospheric conditions,Copy !req
92. and of the strengths of nature like
the avalanches, the storms.Copy !req
93. I know that they have as much
of that trust in me.Copy !req
94. Otherwise sooner or later
we would have failed.Copy !req
95. One of us would be responsible
for the death of the other.Copy !req
96. Each of us assumes one
personal responsibility.Copy !req
97. There is not an alternative.Copy !req
98. I cannot bring myself
to ask someone...Copy !req
99. to join me without being
sure thathet has it in head.Copy !req
100. We join the glacier to one
altitude of about 4000 m.Copy !req
101. The carriers have already collected...Copy !req
102. the last pieces
of wood for fire.Copy !req
103. All have fear of
what is going to arrive.Copy !req
104. After 10 days of walking
through the throats and the glacier,Copy !req
105. the massages like
this one makes are good.Copy !req
106. Ibrahim is a carrier workerCopy !req
107. and although most of the
others have already left us,Copy !req
108. he wanted to remain with me
a while longer.Copy !req
109. He massaged each of us
during the walk of approachCopy !req
110. and now then before we
go begin the ascension,Copy !req
111. he takes it very seriously.Copy !req
112. Now he pulls
my fingers one by one.Copy !req
113. If I understood right, he
uses his father's technique.Copy !req
114. We are relatively
secure here to the base camp.Copy !req
115. Yes, we are secure.
It is a real pleasure.Copy !req
116. But higher, the dangers
are numerous.Copy !req
117. Just to the over the base camp...Copy !req
118. there are the hundreds of crevasses.Copy !req
119. A few has one farther
stiff enough partitionCopy !req
120. and then, naturally,
there are the storms close to the summit.Copy !req
121. At the time of my lone ascension
in the Nanga Parbat, in 1978,Copy !req
122. I had an incredible luck.Copy !req
123. Now he pulls my
the ears.Copy !req
124. I climbed all day,
relatively quicklyCopy !req
125. and I bivouaced
on a sérac...Copy !req
126. to an altitude of about 6500 m
in a well sheltered place.Copy !req
127. The following morning at 5 o'clock,
I folded the camp,Copy !req
128. there was a light tremor.
I immediately noticed it.Copy !req
129. That instant an incredible
avalanche fell.Copy !req
130. Just below,
an enormous block of sérac...Copy !req
131. of the size of one
pâté of houses...Copy !req
132. detached itself and flew
down into the valley.Copy !req
133. My base camp that I saw...Copy !req
134. yesterday as one red point,Copy !req
135. was covered with snow.Copy !req
136. Then the friends at the base
camp told to me that snow...Copy !req
137. had fallen for one half-hour.Copy !req
138. I had luck
to be awake.Copy !req
139. If it had arrived the eveCopy !req
140. I would have flown off with the avalanche.Copy !req
141. A "classic expedition"
that would like to climb these mountainsCopy !req
142. would have to resort to carriers
to transport 1 or 2 tonsCopy !req
143. of material and provisions.Copy !req
144. They would have numerous people
with camps at different altitudes.Copy !req
145. The climbers would make
of the displacementsCopy !req
146. of a tent to the other,
of a camp to the other, like a pyramid.Copy !req
147. The strongest being able to
then to reach the summit.Copy !req
148. We practice, on the contrary,
an alpine style...Copy !req
149. We have a small tent
and only these clothes.Copy !req
150. If we are too hot, we put
them in our bagsCopy !req
151. A fine rope, two picks,Copy !req
152. a special pick
that can stretch out,Copy !req
153. and a pick made of titanium
very light.Copy !req
154. And this strange rope?Copy !req
155. It is not a real rope.Copy !req
156. We use it in duplicate
when we insure.Copy !req
157. But we won't use it much.Copy !req
158. Each of us is
responsible for himself.Copy !req
159. For the essential us
let's climb without cording.Copy !req
160. Can we see the camera
what you carry with you up high?Copy !req
161. We carry a camera with
us, a small Bell & HowellCopy !req
162. in order to shoot the summit and
as testimony of the expedition.Copy !req
163. How many toes
have you lost, Hans?Copy !req
164. I have all mine
thanks to God.Copy !req
165. Me n' lost some again
none because of the frost.Copy !req
166. I have four on one foot,
I lost the other.Copy !req
167. Will be you in radio
contact with the camp?Copy !req
168. No, not a radio,
it would be too heavyCopy !req
169. anyway no one here
could not come to rescue us.Copy !req
170. It is our risk and if
one doesn't arrive there, it is like that.Copy !req
171. There remains only two
carriers in the camp.Copy !req
172. Rozi Ali, the cook prepares
of the chapati from the flat breads.Copy !req
173. On my 1st expédition
himalayenne in 1970 in the Nanga Parbat.Copy !req
174. Of the four participants,
I am the only one still alive.Copy !req
175. A German, Peter Scholz
and Felix Krün, an Austrian,Copy !req
176. perished several years after.Copy !req
177. My brother died during
the expedition in the Nanga Parbat.Copy !req
178. Later, in 1972,
I was in the Manaslu, to Nepal...Copy !req
179. a member of the expedition died
of cold weather just under the summitCopy !req
180. and another became mad
and also perished.Copy !req
181. During all these years,
I met some mountaineers,Copy !req
182. I learned two or three years
later than they had diedCopy !req
183. in big expeditions.Copy !req
184. I think that the fact we want
to climb mountains...Copy !req
185. is a sign of
cerebral degeneration.Copy !req
186. So many people that must
to work hard to live,Copy !req
187. to cultivate small fields
as mountain people,Copy !req
188. they don't think about climbing
on mountains.Copy !req
189. They are afraid of the mountains,
of the avalanches, of the storms,Copy !req
190. and especially of the torrents
that destroy all.Copy !req
191. My neighbors, in Villnöss,
continue to tell me that I am mad,Copy !req
192. that it doesn't make sense
to climb the mountains,Copy !req
193. that I could use my
energy for something elseCopy !req
194. and they don't have it
completely wrong.Copy !req
195. And you, what do you think?Copy !req
196. You think that you are not
quite sound of mind?Copy !req
197. I think that all artists,
the creative people, are mad,Copy !req
198. even the art and the creativeness
are shapes of degeneration.Copy !req
199. The fascination animated me
for so long.Copy !req
200. The fascination for the altitude.Copy !req
201. In the beginning, it
was only curiosity.Copy !req
202. To what that resembles when the zone
is some death higher?Copy !req
203. That one feels before
a partition of 5000 meters?Copy !req
204. But I cannot answer
the question to know...Copy !req
205. why I make itCopy !req
206. not more that to the one of
to know why I liveCopy !req
207. and I never asked
the question when I climbed.Copy !req
208. The question doesn't exist because
my whole being is the answer.Copy !req
209. When I am lengthened in
my tent I sometimes thinkCopy !req
210. Reason is that that
do I make it?Copy !req
211. Reason is that that I don't
remain here, below?Copy !req
212. My ambition is already
relatively satisfied.Copy !req
213. But in spite of it all, two
or three times per year...Copy !req
214. I need to measure myself.Copy !req
215. If I climb a 3000 m mountain
in the AlpsCopy !req
216. I don't have the opportunity for it.Copy !req
217. I don't know how
go turn this expeditionCopy !req
218. toward the two Gasherbrums,Copy !req
219. what will be my inferior
relation with her.Copy !req
220. The very solitude
if we are two...Copy !req
221. pass the one that one can
to feel in an empty pieceCopy !req
222. or in anonymity
of a big city.Copy !req
223. You achieve to what point
you are small, vulnerable.Copy !req
224. Sometimes I think that
I don't have anymore need for itCopy !req
225. but after several months,
the desire comes backCopy !req
226. like one who's hooked and
cannot stop.Copy !req
227. Maybe the climbing is
a morbid obsession.Copy !req
228. Is what it means and
it is a sensitive question,Copy !req
229. that this type of climbing understands
also a research of the death?Copy !req
230. I believe that one interprets
as a research of the deathCopy !req
231. for a lot of activities
that go to the limits.Copy !req
232. I never wanted
to kill myself while climbing.Copy !req
233. If it has ever happened to me
to have similar thoughts,Copy !req
234. it is in completely
different situationsCopy !req
235. but never while climbing
a mountain.Copy !req
236. I am persuaded that someone
who is on a mountain...Copy !req
237. cannot think of death
while he climbs it.Copy !req
238. Two Spanish of an expedition
toward the Gasherbrum 2 appear.Copy !req
239. After weeks of struggle and
of snow stormsCopy !req
240. they should have quit right
below the summit.Copy !req
241. They were exhausted and cautioned
us of deep snowCopy !req
242. and of the avalanches that
raged higher up.Copy !req
243. You think that because of your
closeness with your brother,Copy !req
244. this one could be
dead to your place?Copy !req
245. You would have an attitude
different before his death?Copy !req
246. I had a different attitude
before the death in generalCopy !req
247. because I am mountaineer
and maybe because of his deathCopy !req
248. even though I sometimes have the
impression is is alive again.Copy !req
249. When I see the mountains
that we climbed together.Copy !req
250. I made the most difficult climbings
with him.Copy !req
251. on the Heiligkreuzkofel
in the Dolomites,Copy !req
252. we lived through some extreme
situations for both of us.Copy !req
253. Each was was responsible
in the event the other tombCopy !req
254. and this relation was
so intenseCopy !req
255. that we would not be able to
to have separated again.Copy !req
256. When I see these
partitions today,Copy !req
257. I are not able to more climb them
without my toesCopy !req
258. I have the impression of him
always in life.Copy !req
259. I don't have the feeling
that he died to my placeCopy !req
260. I have the impression that it is
myself that diedCopy !req
261. during the expedition.Copy !req
262. During the whole coming down,
I told myself:Copy !req
263. "All is finished, we are not able to
not to go farther."Copy !req
264. Before abrupt partitions,
we didn't have a rope.Copy !req
265. What was necessary to make?Copy !req
266. II had there of the dozens of moments
in the coming down...Copy !req
267. where I was sure that
all was finished.Copy !req
268. And back in the valley
after his disappearanceCopy !req
269. after having looked for him
all night longCopy !req
270. and to have waited in vain
until the following dayCopy !req
271. I didn't worry anymore
whether I was going to die.Copy !req
272. During the rest of the journey,
I didn't think anymoreCopy !req
273. I didn't feel the pain.Copy !req
274. I was barefoot.Copy !req
275. My swollen feet didn't go back
in my shoes.Copy !req
276. Then I fainted and
when I awakened laterCopy !req
277. I was stunned to see
that I was living.Copy !req
278. And, on the return back home,Copy !req
279. I had the feeling that my life had
toppled with this tragedy.Copy !req
280. How did you announce
the news to your mother?Copy !req
281. My mother understood it better
that anyoneCopy !req
282. and yet it was very hard.Copy !req
283. We are going to leave now
and if the weather improvesCopy !req
284. as the weather report announced it
with one monsoon in the southeastCopy !req
285. we should be back
in about one weekCopy !req
286. so all happens well.Copy !req
287. If we don't appear
at the end of 10 daysCopy !req
288. you will be able to make come
the carriers and to leave.Copy !req
289. You have money for the carriers
Rozi Ali knows everything of them.Copy !req
290. Money for the journey is to
Rawalpindi to the Miss Davis Hotel.Copy !req
291. You will find money for the case
of a mission by helicopter.Copy !req
292. All is organized and arranged
so that from the moment...Copy !req
293. where you will take
the responsibility of the expedition...Copy !req
294. you can receive
the government's money.Copy !req
295. If we don't come back from here
two weeks, it will meanCopy !req
296. that we finished under an
avalanche or are dead of weariness.Copy !req
297. Don't search for us,
no one will ever find us.Copy !req
298. Hans, what should we do
with your personal belongingsCopy !req
299. in the tent?
The photos and...Copy !req
300. There is not much
to say some,Copy !req
301. the best thing would be to throw
it all in a crevasse.Copy !req
302. The morning, according to them, they
were 6 kilometers from usCopy !req
303. or one thousand meters over the camp.Copy !req
304. They arrived to the summit
of the Gasherbrum 2Copy !req
305. two and a half days later.Copy !req
306. Then the weather changed.Copy !req
307. The summit disappeared
in a storm of snow.Copy !req
308. They arrive to the summit of the Gasherbrum 1.Copy !req
309. After 7 and a half days of waiting
anxiously, they emerged from the glacier.Copy !req
310. Rozi Ali had spent the last
foru nights praying.Copy !req
311. Reinhold, how did
it happen?Copy !req
312. The last two days were...
We succeeded!Copy !req
313. Could you remove your glasses?Copy !req
314. That is himself he passes
these last two days?Copy !req
315. We reached the summit
yesterday, in spite of the storm.Copy !req
316. We found it in the
middle of the storm.Copy !req
317. It was the hardest part.Copy !req
318. We underwent winds of
80 to 100 km/h all dayCopy !req
319. and we hurt
to recover the tent.Copy !req
320. The only reason for which
we came down again yesterdayCopy !req
321. it is because we wanted
to descend by a precise bone.Copy !req
322. Yesterday, midway,
it was rotted...Copy !req
323. and today also
because it was too hot.Copy !req
324. We had indeed
the worst conditions...Copy !req
325. meteorologically conceivable.Copy !req
326. If we had not had
as much luck in the beginning,Copy !req
327. we would never have succeeded.Copy !req
328. Hans, how was that for you?Copy !req
329. I think that if you do that
kind of thing often enough,Copy !req
330. the best thing to make,
it is to write your will.Copy !req
331. We really had
a lot of luckCopy !req
332. these last two days,
it was the madness...Copy !req
333. I think that no one will
repeat it in this decade.Copy !req
334. A hole of water in the glacier
of hundred meter thick.Copy !req
335. The temperature is close to the frost.Copy !req
336. The risk is that the water that springs
disappears in ice.Copy !req
337. If one slips, they would be
irreparably lost.Copy !req
338. Reinhold, whereas you sit down
naked and vulnerable before us.Copy !req
339. I would like to ask
a simple question:Copy !req
340. What was the goal of it all?Copy !req
341. I don't know. I never wounder
why I do it.Copy !req
342. It is thus for the other
madness that I committed.Copy !req
343. I would not like
to know the answer.Copy !req
344. I have the feeling that I can
write on these enormous partitionsCopy !req
345. of 3000 or 4000 meter high,Copy !req
346. as a professor writes on
a blackboard with a chalk.Copy !req
347. But I don't only make
that to write these linesCopy !req
348. of the imaginary lines,
I live these lines.Copy !req
349. I also have the impression that after,
these lines remain thereCopy !req
350. even though I am the only one that can
feel them, see themCopy !req
351. that I live them and nobody else
will ever be able to see themCopy !req
352. but they are there and them
will remain forever there.Copy !req
353. You can think
of more to climb?Copy !req
354. To make quite
something else?Copy !req
355. Sometimes, I want to stop
the mountain climbing.Copy !req
356. and I imagine that I walk...
for yearsCopy !req
357. Maybe forever, with
the yaks, some carriersCopy !req
358. from a Himalayan valley
to another.Copy !req
359. To deserts, the forests,
without going nowhereCopy !req
360. without watching behind,
without watching aheadCopy !req
361. while continuing to walk
until the tip of the world.Copy !req
362. It is strange, I have precisely
the same dream.Copy !req
363. I would like to have a dog,
a husky with two leather bagsCopy !req
364. and just to walk until
I went everywhere.Copy !req
365. Yes, it is passionateCopy !req
366. and I imagine that, more and more
in the next yearsCopy !req
367. sooner or later in my life,
I won't look behind.Copy !req
368. And I won't go anywhere
in particular, without destination.Copy !req
369. I will walk
until the tip of the world.Copy !req
370. I don't know
if it is round or flatCopy !req
371. for me the world
never finishesCopy !req
372. to a certain moment,
him... stop.Copy !req
373. It is then, probably,
when my life will stop,Copy !req
374. the world will make in the same way.Copy !req
375. We would be able to each follow
the traces of the other.Copy !req
376. I am delighted with advance.Copy !req
377. The climbing of the mountains
is not anymore important for me.Copy !req
378. Especially the climbing.Copy !req
379. The important thing is to walk,
to walk, to walk...Copy !req