Q. In your recent expedition to Mt. Kangchenjunga,
you trailed the youngest mountaineer in the world to
climb mountains of 8000 meters, Arjun Vajpai. What
were the highs and lows that you had to experience?
A: Surely, climbing a high mountain more than 8,000m
is not a simple walk or something that you decide to to
do because you’re bored. It’s a very, very long process.
Preparation and training, both physical and mental, begins
a few months earlier. From your home paths, that you get
used to running in less time and with more concentration
to gradually making it to the base camp. Sitting here, you
might think that it’s relatively easy to stay 45 days at an
altitude of 5500m. But it’s not, especially for those of us
who are not born in those places. It’s something new every
day, something you have to dedicate yourself to and slow-
ly learn to know without ever demanding too much from
yourself. Otherwise, you pay for it yourself.
If I have to remember the most difficult moment, it was
when my camera stopped working right in the face of the
most beautiful sunrise at 8500 meters, just 280 m before
summit. At that altitude, with hands almost frozen, and
less than 300 meters from the summit, on one of the most
beautiful moments of my life, I felt smaller than a mosqui-
to. Completely vulnerable. Helpless. Slowly, I thought I
could find a solution at all costs, and luckily, I did. I put my
camera in my suit, in contact with the skin, which warmed
it up a lot, releasing it, but again creating a lot of conden-
sation which, when pulled out again after 20 minutes, had
been re-directed directly onto the sensor. So, I did not
have much left to do, I removed the lens, using my fingers
and nails, slowly, I scratched away the thin layer of ice that
had formed on the sensor, and on the lens, finally I tried to
turn it back on. I was moved when the camera went again
in REC.
Q. Besides being a talented photographer, you are also
an award-winning filmmaker. Which one
between the two entices you more and why?
A.When I have a camera in my hand, the feeling is to grasp
something that will never happen again. If it’s a photo
or a film, my approach to the reality that I face does not
change much. In making documentaries, I think it’s more
difficult to be faithful to that reality and to be able to share
that emotion that at the same time, from behind the cam-
era, you’re trying.
Q. Climbing high mountains is a feat in itself. One can
only imagine the hardships you face while filming the
journey. How do you overcome these challenges?
A. As I said before, climbing these mountains leads you to
have a consciousness of yourself that exceeds any oth-
er type of activity, or at least, so it was for me until now.
Even if sometimes you just have to walk without too many
technical difficulties you always feel like you have a 30 kg
backpack on your back, and instead you only have half
of it. So, yes, obviously filming and climbing requires a
double effort. But even here, it’s very mental and about
your personal organisation. Be sure to have the batteries
charged at the right time, and with cold temperature is not
easy! Do not film everything but film only what is worth.
Flying above 6,200m over Kunzum pass
GoPro HERO5 3mm F/2.8 1/4000 ISO100
However, it’s difficult without knowing things beforehand
and without having too much even planned, because up
there, you never know what can happen until you’re there
to live the adventure. You must be convinced from the tip
of your feet to your mind of what you are doing. Do not
waste time. Be essential but effective. And even here, as
Bresson said, especially before filming or photographing,
you have to open your heart, then your eyes, then use your
head and click!
Q. As an environmentalist, what message do you want
to give the climbers and photographers
who visit the mountains?
A. Being in Amazon to film and record the sounds of
endangered ecosystems, for the project “Fragments of
extinction” on which I made “Dusk Chorus documentary”
made me more conscious of how lucky I am to do what I
like most as a professional job but, of course, it is also a
great responsibility.
The art of photography and films is able to change society
and the way of life of people. Never forget how lucky you
are to visit, to climb those places that are sacred. They are
unique, and of a fairytale beauty. Even as small an action
as simply cleaning up the base-camp from the cigarettes
thrown by others, or any small action can set a very impor-
tant example and help those places to be cleaner as they
were before man came and dirtied it. This is a great para-
dox, which made me suffer so much. See, so many “moun-
tain enthusiasts”, hunting for 8000m do not have the least
bit of respect for that place. This hurts. It hurts ourselves
at first, but also to others who will go after us. But above
all, it hurts our planet, and those giant mountains that we
like to imagine as always shining and immaculate, clean
as when a snowfall erases all traces, always there, still and
imposing to observe what happens to our beloved planet.
We should think about it more, every single moment.
Shivantee Bhattacharya
[email protected]
22 FEATURE
Sitting with a cup of hot coffee and a good book, Shivantee finds her
solace in books and words. Trying to reach the world through literature
and metaphors, she feels that the fictional world is the best place to live
in and thus, connects every real-life situation to the fictional world.