High level mountaineering meetings at TrentoFilmFestival

The strongest representatives of the mountaineering world will be present at this year’s TrentoFilmfestival. The climbers, Nico Favresse, Tamotsu Nakamura, Nives Meroi, Kurt Diemberger, Ang Tshering Sherpa, Krzystof Wielicky, Erhard Loretan and Hans Peter Eisendle will attend the meetings and the three mountaineering evenings of the TrentoFilmfestival presented by Francesca Mazzalai.

Tamotsu Nakamura: East of the Himalaya-Alps of Tibet – 5 May at 5 pm
Sala Conferenze della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto Via Garibaldi 33
Tamotsu Nakamura, the Japanese mountaineer and explorer, in the last 18 years has made 30 expeditions in the mountains of western China, where he discovered, recorded and mapped an indefinite number of unclimbed peaks. Tamotsu Nakamura will talk about his expedition in autumn 2009 when he travelled far and wide in a mountainous region of 4,800 sq. km in eastern Tibet, full of mountain chains never seen before and an incredible number of unclimbed peaks never attempted by mountaineers. Now, thanks to Nakamura’s explorations, these wonderful peaks will present new challenges for generations of mountaineers seeking new adventures, even though access is strictly limited by the Chinese government.
    
Nicolas (Nico) Favresse - 5 May at 9 pm
Auditorium S. Chiara, Via Santa Croce, 67
Nico Favresse was born in Belgium in 1980. However, despite the fact that Belgium is virtually flat, Nicolas began climbing when he was 15 and within a year he became one of the top Belgian rock climbers and at the age of 18 he was already known in the circuits of world climbing. At the age of 23, after completing his marketing studies, Nicolas spent the whole time on his climbing projects and became a full time professional climber. In 2004 the repetition of Estado Critico in Spain, graded 9th on the scale of difficulty, placed him among the few climbers in the world who have succeeded in overcoming this grade. In the same year the trip to Yosemite Valley became an opportunity to discover another aspect of climbing, the ascent of the big walls in traditional style. This discovery led to Nico Favresse’s more recent achievements: from Patagonia to Yosemite, from the walls in the Charakusa Valley in Pakistan to the expedition in the Baffin Island mountains to climb Mount Asgard. For this climb, the American magazine ‘Climbing’ gave him the “Golden Piton Award” for the best big wall ascent of the year. Asgard Jamming is the film of this expedition competing in the 58th TrentoFilmfestival. The evening will be presented by Francesca Mazzalai.


Himalayas, yesterday and today - 6 May at 9 pm
Auditorium S. Chiara, Via Santa Croce, 67     
Himalayan mountaineering is a story out of the ordinary but, on the whole, little known by the alpinists themselves, probably due to the vast size of the play ground and also because there is nothing comparable to the Karakorum-Himalayan mountain system in the whole of the planet. For centuries a more imaginary than real world, the Asiatic region finally became the stage of explorations throughout the nineteenth century. After the British attempts on Everest in the period between the two world wars, it wasn’t until the 1950s the climbers managed to reach the highest summits. From 1950 to 1964 all the fourteen 8000 metre peaks were climbed and afterwards more and more difficult and challenging routes were traced. Apart from the so-called “race” to the highest summits, ascents were made without oxygen bottles, in alpine style and even in solo. The 1980s saw the start of the difficult season of winter climbs that has still not been completed. Then, surprisingly, women began to climb in the Himalayas, determined to collect all the 8000 metre peaks. And that’s not the end of the story, because, in the third millennium, there are still vast terrains to be explored and an endless number of walls to climb on the northern side of the huge chain.
The journalist and historian of alpinism Roberto Mantovani, together with Francesca Mazzalai, will talk to some of the great personalities of this story. Nives Meroi who, with her husband Romano Benet, has climbed without oxygen bottles eleven of the fourteen 8000 metre peaks on earth; Kurt Diemberger the only living alpinist to have two first ascents of peaks over 8000 metres to his credit and who will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first climb of Dhaulagiri; Krzysztof Wielicki the first to climb Everest, Lhotse and Kangchenjunga in the winter season and the first to climb and descend an 8000 in less than 24 hours; lastly Ang Tshering Sherpa, the founder of Asian Trekking and president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, who was the coordinator of the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Nepal at Base Camp on the Everest/Kalapathar Plateau (5542 metres) on 4 December 2009 and also the coordinator of the international mountaineering meeting to safeguard the Himalayas, in Copenhagen on 11 December 2009, during the international day of mountains.


Mountain guides and clients on the great classics – Friday 7 May at 9 pm
Auditorium S. Chiara, Via Santa Croce 67
The literary and cinema myth of the mountain guides originates from the comparison between the virtues of the “mountain man”, the wise custodian of mountain knowledge, and the inadequacy of the city client, whose ambition is to reach the prized summit. In reality, in the history of alpinism, the guides have at times climbed with clients stronger than themselves, but always inferior with regard intuition and knowledge of the territory.
In the final decades of the twentieth century the differences between the mountain guides and the city clients dwindled and the profession evolved towards specialisation, mobility and journeys outside Europe. The technical level of the guides and some clients increased, enabling the best to repeat the most difficult routes in the Alps, or attempt climbs in the Himalayas and Patagonia, from Gasherbrum to Fitz Roy. When the forefront of alpinism and the forefront of the profession coincide, it is the golden moment of truth for all the mountain guides. The journalist Enrico Camanni, together with Francesca Mazzalai, will discuss this topic with the Swiss mountain guides Erhard Loretan, one of the greatest alpinists of all times, Hans Peter Eisendle, Marco Furlani and Marcello Cominetti.