When the snow melts and the hills of Appenzell are dotted with green and white, buckets of water slowly make their way up and down the slope. After a time, the gentle movement turns into violent swaying. Shots ring through the air, the buckets are punctured. Slowly the water begins to flow. This is the high point of a ritual that begins deep within the bowels of the mountain. Then trails of water spurt through the air to the thawing slopes and the water begins to gush, nearly causing the well in the valley to overflow.
When the snow melts and the hills of Appenzell are dotted with green and white, buckets of water slowly make their way up and down the slope. After a time, the gentle movement turns into violent swaying. Shots ring through the air, the buckets are punctured. Slowly the water begins to flow. This is the high point of a ritual that begins deep within the bowels of the mountain. Then trails of water spurt through the air to the thawing slopes and the water begins to gush, nearly causing the well in the valley to overflow.
1987-09-07
0
6.8In summer 2003, when the heatwave hit in Europe, in Switzerland, the glacier below the Schnidejoch pass, released a mysterious object: a piece of a Neolithic quiver.
7.0Secret territories still exist in France today. This film is a personal quest, the story of a crazy gamble taken by a passionate dreamer, an anti-hero capable of breaking all barriers to achieve his goal: to meet wild wolves in their natural habitat. After three years in the field, bivouacking in the wilderness in all weathers, the director managed to track down the wolves. Little by little, he observes, gets closer and ends up being accepted by the pack. Against all odds, the magnificent predators offer a little of their intimacy to this strange character. But the film also raises the question of the limits of this intimacy.
6.8In 1966, John Harlin II died while attempting Europe's most difficult climb, the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. 40 years later, his son John Harlin III, an expert mountaineer and the editor of the American Alpine Journal, returns to attempt the same climb.
8.3The Alps – wild mountains, extreme lives, but also a magical world. This majestic mountain range connects eight countries and reaches heights of up to 4,000 metres above sea level. At a length of 1,200 kilometres, the Alps form both a connecting bridge between western and eastern Europe and a high barrier between southern and central Europe. The mountains act as a mighty water reservoir and continental watershed, feeding innumerable rivers that flow into three different oceans. Their highest peak, Mont Blanc, is surrounded by long, soaring mountains with ice-covered slopes. These great summits are just one reason the so-called “Roof of Europe” continues to fascinate – across the continent and around the world. The incredible diversity of landscapes, flora and fauna makes the Alps a unique natural treasure at the heart of Europe.
8.0Nasim is a free climber, the only woman able to open new routes in Iran. She’s facing a double mountain to climb, both physical and cultural, as her passion collides with the strict policies concerning women freedom in her country. And she has a dream: open a new route in the Alps.
10.0He climbed solo, without a rope, the north face of the Eigers in 2h47. Below him the rock wall steigen über 1000 Meter ab. Mehr Ueli Steck, the lone wolf, does not lose his temper. For a year, Steck has meticulously prepared this record of less than three hours. The portrait of an extraordinary man who takes us on a journey to the most beautiful and challenging peaks in the world.
10.0Six big north faces of the Alps. The film consists of six films: "Die Wand der Wände" (Eger by Robert Jasper, Roger Schäli), "Das letzte Wort hat der Berg" (Matterhorn by Michael Lerjen, Jorge Ackermann), "Selig, wer in Träumen stirbt" (Grandes Jorasses by Felix Berg, Robert Steiner), "Licht und Schatten" (Piz badile by Hansjörg Auer), "Grenzen der Felskletterei" (Drei Zinnen by Alexander Huber) and "Der zerfallene Berg" (Petit Dru by Steve House, Andy Parkin).
Sepp Holzer explains some of the innovative, labour-saving agricultural techniques he applies at his farm in the Eastern Alps of Salzburg, Austria.
0.0The filmmaker travels to the mysterious land of the “poor souls.” He visits eyewitnesses in rural areas of Central Switzerland. They offer their account of mystifying experiences in connection with the afterlife, of evil deeds by people who passed away long ago in need of atonement. The film investigates the hidden signs of mountain magic and reminds us of our own myths, ghosts and primal images. It also looks for paths to self-awareness that could be revealed to us within and under layers of centuries-old Catholic cultural sediment.
7.5Catherine Destivelle is an ambassador for the French Alps and is well known in France and abroad. In Beyond the Summits, viewers will feel like they are climbing up the mountain with her. The film shows three classic Chamonix routes with three different climbing partners. Each partner was chosen because they had a profound impact on her life. The camera captures the magnificent scenery, as well as frank and intimate moments during the ascents ...
10.0A man walks in more or less familiar places, walks there as if crossing unknown lands, never encountered before. At each step, he observes the world before his eyes, forcing him to fix it and freeze it in an “other” space and time, on the celluloid of his old camera. This man is Kurt Diemberger, climber and filmmaker of high peaks and distant lands. He is 82 years old, but he lives in the "now" rather than the past, continually exploring the land beneath his feet, in places dear to him in Austria, Italy and the Dolomites, as if he continued his research through the eye of the camera he uses for the observer.
7.2Surrounded by the mountains and people who are his inspiration, in ‘Path to Everest’, the mountain athlete Kilian Jornet reveals his most intimate fears, contradictions and passions. Summits of My Life is the personal project of Kilian Jornet, in which for five years he has traveled to some of the most important peaks of the planet to try to establish FKT (fastest known time) of ascent and descent of some of the most emblematic mountains of the world. The project is closely linked to values and a way of understanding the purist and minimalist mountain. The experiences lived in each challenge have been captured in different films.
0.0Climb aboard the illustrious Bernina Express for a festive ride through spectacular Alpine landscapes, taking in snow-covered peaks, architectural wonders, and majestic glaciers.
10.0In southern Germany, winter can still be admired in all its glory every year. With its white coat of snow and icicles and myriads of small crystals that look like geometric works of art. In the valleys and on the slopes the snow is still so thick every year that the alpine huts are snowed in up to the windows. Cows and dairymen are safe in their farms at lower altitudes. But not the wild creatures of the mountains! They need strategies to survive the cold season and to defy snow masses, cold and ice. And some seem to do it so easily that they even raise their young in the middle of winter. But how do animals, plants and fungi cope with the annually recurring ice age, which from our perspective is a time of need? The many adaptations in nature prove that winter is an integral part of the natural cycle of the year and the living environment of species. They are adapted to cold and frost. That is why the animals and plants at the edge of the Alps suffer particularly from climate change!
10.0Silbergeier is a long pitch route (8b+ max) built by Pietro del Pra in 1993 and organized by Beat Kammerlander. In this film, Nina Caprez achieves the first female ascent with her then partner Cédric Lachat. A beautiful production by Vladimir Cellier, carried by essential music.
10.0In 1961 the southern face of the Central Pillar of Mont Blanc was still unclimbed. Two roped parties of climbers decided to come together to attempt to open a new route. Four days of violent storms caught the climbers just 80 metres from the summit. Of the seven climbers, only three returned home. One of the most intense and dramatic events in the history of climbing relives on the big screen, thanks to accounts and images of the feat.