Throughout the festival, we are delighted to host Ulysse Lefebvre’s exhibition at PlanB, created during his ascent of Nanga Parbat in 2023. This exhibition is presented with the support of Alpine Mag.
The inauguration is on Tuesday, June 10th at 5pm at PlanB, with Ulysse Lefebvre giving a guided tour of the exhibition.
Often mentioned, rarely represented. At best relegated to supporting roles in Himalayan expeditions, including those in the Karakoram range, Nepalese and Pakistani mountaineers remain largely forgotten figures in the high-altitude narrative, with a few exceptions.
This is the story behind the exhibition ‘The Other Side of Nanga Parbat: Men in the Shadows at 8,000m,’ Whether drivers, porters, muleteers, cooks, camp assistants, or high-altitude porters, all are essential to the success of expeditions sponsored for the world’s highest mountains.
Between shots filmed on the slopes of the Karakoram giant for the film ‘Le Dernier Sommet’ directed by François Damilano, I had the opportunity to spend time with the different teams involved in the expedition, from the very bottom, on the banks of the Indus River, to the summit at 8,126 m.
While the situation isn’t as busy as on Everest, Nanga Parbat base camp is experiencing record numbers this summer of 2023. The rise of ‘commercial Himalayan mountaineering’ is increasingly impacting this peak, which until now had been relatively untouched due to its geographical isolation and its reputation as a ‘killer mountain.’ This reputation is consistently confirmed by statistics that place Nanga Parbat at the top of the list of the deadliest 8,000-meter peaks. Yet, European, American, and increasingly Asian clients are flocking to the summit in greater numbers than ever before.
In addition to its documentary approach, presented in a reportage format, the aim of this work is to move beyond the normal view. The stance of uncritically praising the Sherpas seems to me, to say the least, naive in the current climate of the booming expedition industry, with all the market-grabbing maneuvers and cost-cutting tactics that entails, which aren’t always commendable. And what about the highly controversial Nirmal Purja, who inadvertently reminds us that the Sherpas are not without fault? We still hear far too many pronouncements that, to varying degrees, echo the “noble savage” doctrine. But Rousseau’s theory is outdated.
Conversely, throwing out all so-called commercial (or simply guided) expeditions along with the Himalayan bathwater still strikes me as rather petty. From what I’ve seen, not from afar but at 8,000 meters on the mountain, a Sherpa at high altitude is no longer just a porter. He’s a guide. Without medals, certainly, and sometimes far from Western or UIAGM standards (a rope team connected by two slings is a classic up there), but with genuine expertise in guiding clients.
To deny these skills acquired in the field stems, in my opinion, from either ignorance or contempt. Sometimes both. Is a guide worth more in Chamonix than in Skardu or Namche Bazaar? As for the mountain guiding business, is it only acceptable in the Alps?
Accustomed to reporting on Himalayan expeditions from the perspective of Western mountaineers, whether they are clients of the 14 x 8000-meter peaks or elite athletes, I wanted to tell a different story, the one about what goes on behind the scenes of an expedition. A story that most often unfolds in a kitchen tent or in the line of porters, far from the leading group. The story of the unsung heroes of the Himalayas*.
