If you’re warm and sitting comfortably, here’s a glacier film
ILEARNED an important new word at the Mountains on Stage film festival in Dublin this week. Zabardast means wonderful. It’s also the name of a brilliant new ski movie by Jerome Tanon, shot during a five week expedition to the heart of Pakistan’s Karakoram mountain range last April.
Featuring professional freeride and freestyle snowboarder Thomas Delfino, the film follows a group of skiers and snowboarders as they drag heavy sleds (with everything from tents and food to solar panels) across huge glaciers.
They cover a 150km loop of this remote region, moving through the Skam La Pass, all the time keeping an eye on the imposing Biacherahi Towers, home to the virgin ski terrain they seek to explore.
The idea for the expedition came from Grenoble-based Del- phino who saw a photograph of a ‘crazy peak’ in an old library book.
The group’s goal is to conquer terrain that has never been skied before; we see them climbing vertical icy rock faces and skiing 50 degree slopes – all at almost 6,000 metres altitude.
There are moments that make your palms sweat as a skier is forced to sidestep in a no-fall zone using only an ice axe and his nerve.
There’s tension, the growth of friendship, the deflation of failure, the elation of success and outright fear as Delphino questions wheth-
er an overhanging cornice will col- lapse as he climbs.
As you watch, you think; if anything goes seriously wrong, there’s no way out...
Even as recreational skiers, we need to be reminded of our goals, dreams and the challenges that we face reaching them.
We need inspiration and motivation, and that’s exactly what Zabardast delivers.
Tanon, whose previous film The Eternal Beauty of Snowboarding’ kickstarted his film-making career, moves away from the kind of high octane, music-fuelled extreme ski movies that we’ve become more than used to seeing.
‘I had the war movie Thin Red Line and the voices of soldiers, in my mind’ he told me following the film’s screening.
‘I wanted to create an intimate travel diary in which each expedition member’s voice would be heard.
‘It feels more like a feature film than a documentary and whereas most ski films ramp up the music for ski scenes, I cut it completely”.
While the expedition was Delfino’s baby, it was he who turned around on a dangerous ascent, teaching ski mountaineers and the rest of us a very important lesson.
Sometimes – in the mountains and in everyday life – success is about trusting your limits and living to fight another day.
The film will be available to view for free on Youtube from December 20.
Prepare to be wowed and if you see me on a slope this winter, expect to hear me roaring ‘Zabardast’ as I go by because really and truly, skiing and the mountains are wonderful ....
Visit www.mountainsonstage. com.