Marcel Kurz

German film about a Himalayan expedition and the search for a mountain spirit, who guarded, according to the tradition of the locals, the peaks of high mountains. The long-lost and recently rediscovered and restored film is now a unique cinematic document because it is the first feature film that was shot directly in the Himalayas (up to 6400 m altitude). Hans Ertl even turned his Bell & Howell to the main summit of Sia Kangri, 7422m. Likewise, the film contains footage from India and Tibet, from a time long before the emergence of mass tourism. Some of the footage was later recycled in ‘Lost horizon’ (1937) by Frank Capra and in ‘Storm over Tibet’ (1952).

Record of the international expedition to climb Kangchenjunga in 1930. The German-Austrian-British expedition, led by Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth, had come from the Nepalese side and tried to reach the North Ridge via its NW face after failing in the north face, where the sherpa Chettan was killed in an avalanche. The attempt failed but the team made the first ascents of Rathong (6678m) and Jongsong Peak (7483m), and also climbed the Southwest peak of Nepal Peak.