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"Mountains are beyond good and evil"
Freidrich Nietzsche
The unprecedented feats in the highest mountains would sometimes claim the lives of the expedition members. Many outstanding mountaineers remained in the mountains forever - unfortunately the list of souls asking for prayer is not limited to Wanda Rutkiewicz and Jerzy Kukuczka. It includes climbers less known to the general public, but no less talented, such as Wojciech Wr騜 and Andrzej Czok. There are also those who were just beginning to knock on fame's door or who came to the mountains for slightly different reasons, for instance Staszek Lata這, an excellent camera operator and documentary director, who died making a film about one of the Polish expeditions. The first four volumes of "The Polish Himalayas" present an overview of the mountaineering ventures. In the fifth volume Janusz "Jano" Kurczab touches upon the most difficult aspect of climbing - death in the mountains. Death, which often strips climbing of all its romanticism. Death, which sometimes is a result of heroism, but can often be caused by simple mistakes, lack of professionalism of the climber or expedition leader, or just bad luck, which can be deadly in the highest mountains.
Apart from the accounts of the greatest Himalayan tragedies the author describes the expeditions that came back with fewer members than they set out with. This concise and therefore all the more moving story will no doubt cause us to ask ourselves once again why people climb mountains. The film included in the package is even more moving, on account of the force of the image. Neither the book nor the film, however, provide us with an answer why climbers set out into the mountains, often only to encounter death. No climber has given the answer so far, though many have tried. Each of us is left alone with the question, to which the answer is the decision whether to go up or stay down.
Wojciech Fusek
(book in Polish, film in Polish with English subtitles)
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Film running time 66' 19'' |
