The Boardman Tasker Prize Long List for 2015

The Boardman Tasker prize is given every year to one outstanding book on mountain literature. This is one of the most prestigious awards a mountain  book can get and this year the list of books are awesome. It would be a very difficult job for the jury to pick a winner from the list below. In the meantime while the jury deliberates and decides,  try to read as many of these great books as you can.

My personal recommendations are :

Alpine Warriors

Bernadette McDonald

ISBN 978-1-771601-09-2

The Ghosts of K2: The epic saga of the first ascent ISBN 978-1-78074-595-4

Mick Conefrey

Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan journeys in search of the sacred and the sublime ISBN 978-1-62872-510-0

Stephen Alter

Everest Revealed: the Private Diaries and sketches of Edward Norton 1922-24 ISBN 978-0-7509-5585-0

Christopher Norton

The long list for 2015 is below: Entries
Village of Secrets Defying the Nazis in Vichy France ISBN 978-0-701-18641-8	Caroline Moorhead	Chatto & Windus
After the Wind 1996 Everest Tragedy One Survivor's Story ISBN 978-1-9940877-00-6	Lou Kasischke	Good Hart Publishing LC
Denali's Howl ISBN 978-0-593-07445-9	Andy Hall	Transworld
The Scent of Juniper:Poems of the Himalayas ISBN 978-0692328941	Dr Mikel Vause	Kelsay Books
Make or Break: Don't Let climbing Injuries Dictate Your Success ISBN 9780956428134	David MacLeod	Rare Breed Productions
Statement: The Ben Moon Story ISBN 978-1-906148-98-0	Ed Douglas	Vertebrate Publishing
The Great mountain Crags of Scotland ISBN 978-1-906148-89-8	Guy Robertson & Adrian Crofton	Vertebrate Publishing
One Day as a Tiger ISBN 978-1-910240-08-3	John Porter	Vertebrate Publishing
Beyond Limits ISBN 978-1-910240-19-9	Steve McClure	Vertebrate Publishing
Mount Hood: Adventures of the Wy'East Climbers, 1930-1942 ISBN 978-0-9887339-2-3	Ric Conrad	Kahuna Books
Wilderness Weekends ISBN 978-1-84162-9124	Phoebe Smith	Bradt Travel Guides
Steps ISBN 978-1-906175-24-5	Mark Goodwin	Longbarrow Press
Snowblind: Tales of Alpine Obsession ISBN 978-1-61902-453-3	Daniel Arnold	Counterpoint
The Blind Man of Hoy ISBN 978-1-910124-22-2	Red Szell	Sandstone Press
Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan journeys in search of the sacred and the sublime ISBN 978-1-62872-510-0	Stephen Alter	Arcade Publishing, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing
The Calling: A Life Rocked ISBN 978-1-938340-31-4	Barry Blanchard	Patagonia
The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing & Controversy on Cerro Torre ISBN 978-1-938340-33-8	Kelly Cordes	Patagonia
Everest Revealed: the Private Diaries and sketches of Edward Norton 1922-24 ISBN 978-0-7509-5585-0	Christopher Norton	The History Press
The Adventure Game: A Cameraman's Tales from Films at the Edge ISBN 978-1-910124-31-4	Keith Partridge	Sandstone Press
Wild Nights ISBN 978-1-84953-699-8	Phoebe Smith	Summersdale
The Sunlit Night ISBN 978-1-4088-6303-9	Rebecca Dinerstein	Bloomsbury Publishing
Rise ISBN 978-1-4088-5792-2	Karen Campbell	Bloomsbury Press
In Some Lost Place ISBN 9781-1910240-37-3	Sandy Allen	Vertebrate Publishing
Between the Sunset and the Sea ISBN 978-0-00-754540	Simon Ingram	William Collins, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
Going Up is Easy ISBN 978-0-14-357323-4	Lydia Bradley	Penguin NZ
The Ghosts of K2: The epic saga of the first ascent ISBN 978-1-78074-595-4	Mick Conefrey	OneWorld Publications
Too Close To God ISBN 978-0-9918076-5-9	Jeff Long	Imaginary Mountain Surveyors
Abode of the Gods ISBN 978-1-85284-771-5	Kev Reynolds	Cicerone Press Ltd
A Life on the Edge: Eric Jones ISBN 978-1-84527-549-5	Greg Lewis	Gwasg Carreg Gwalch
Extreme Eiger ISBN 978-1-47113-460-9	Peter Gillman & Leni Gillman	Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
Alpine Warriors ISBN 978-1-771601-09-2	Bernadette McDonald	Rocky Mountain Books
Cold Feet, Stories of a Middling Climber ISBN 978-0692305560	David Pagel	Self published
The Naked Mountaineer, Misadventures of an Alpine Traveler ISBN 978-0-8032-4879-3	Steve Sieberson	University of Nebraska Press
Mountains: Oblique Angles ISBN 978-0-9933659-0-4	Alison Ireland	Hour of Writes Ltd
Run or Die ISBN 978-0-241-00485-2	Kilian Jornet	Viking, Penguin Random House
Apprentice to the Masters of the Golden Age	Pat Ament	e-book

For more details on the prize and winning books of earlier years  do visit www.boardmantasker.com

Galen Rowell

August 23rd 2015

Galen Rowell would have been 75 years old today. A cruel twist of fate took him away on August 11, 2002 in a plane crash. A multi faceted personality he was a photographer, a mountain climber as well as a writer

Though Rowell was primarily a landscape photographer, he was not averse to other forms of photography as well. He spent long hours waiting for the right light for his photos. Living in California, the nationals parks like Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon were his back yard  including Owens Valley in the Sierra Nevada and  it is here that he did some of his most splendid work.

A Rowell photo has a distinctive stamp on it and if you are familiar with his work you would probably recognise the photographs.

He pioneered a photo technique using a filter called the split neutral density filter in varying strengths to lift the shadow detail in a high contrast landscape shot. Rowell was so successful at this that the boutique filter company called Singh-Ray developed split  ND filters based on what Rowell had pioneered!

One of his most famous images is the rainbow over the Potala Palace in Tibet. The story goes that when the rainbow appeared in the sky Rowell was no where near the Potala. He ran to the Palace and positioned himself in such a location that the rainbow seemed to emanate from the roof of the Potala an amazing shot which has become a signature Rowell print as well.

Some of his great photographs are reproduced below and have been an inspiration to photographers all over the world!

“Galen Rowell was a man who went into the mountains, into the desert, to the edge of the sea, to the last great wild places in the world to be absorbed by their grace and grandeur. That is what he did for himself. For the rest of us, he shared his vision with—click—the release of a shutter, creating photographs as timeless, as stunning, and as powerful as nature itself.”
–Tom Brokaw, from the foreword of Galen Rowell: A Retrospective

For details of Galen's work and the gallery he established in Bishop,  do visit www.mountainlight.com  and for an essay from the Sierra Club archives do visit  http://vault.sierraclub.org/books/photos/rowell/ 

Markha Valley Trek | Photos

Night skies and stars at the Markha campsite

The summer months are the season for Ladakh and the most popular trek is the Markha Valley. I have watched the Markha trek graduate from a camping only trek to a home stay trek and now there are multiple home stays in each village.  Meals are also available at the homestays so a small group of trekkers could do the  Markha trek  without camping support during season time.

This year  Markha has been in the news - there was a report in the newspapers last week that due to flash floods and rising rivers many foreign trekkers had to be evacuated from the valley by helicopter.

Hopefully the weather has now settled and the rivers will go down gradually allowing trekking to resume.

I last did the Markha in September 2013 and here are some photographs from that trek which should be of interest to all Ladakh visitors.

Crossing the river at Chilling

Tea tent in the season at Skiu

Looking east below the monastery of Markha

Typical Markha valley landscape on the trail to Hankar

Hankar village 

One of our group snoozing with Kang Yatse peak in the back ground

On the trail to Nimaling

The pass of Kongmaru la looking back at Kangyatse peak

Homestay kitchen at Chokdo the last day of our trek

My outfit South Col Expeditions runs trek to Ladakh and different parts of the Himalaya. For more details do visit www.southcol.com.

For more photographs and articles on the Markha Valley please visit the following  links

http://www.sujoyrdas.blogspot.in/2014/02/the-markha-valley-trek-part-i.html

http://sujoyrdas.blogspot.in/2014/03/the-markha-valley-trek-part-ii.html

http://www.sujoydas.com/Ladakh-and-Zanskar/The-Markha-Valley-Trek-Ladakh/

http://www.sujoydas.com/SujoyDas/Outlook-Traveller-The-Markha/i-w9JL6Fs/A

Nikon | New Lenses for Full Frame D-SLRs

Nikon has introduced another three new lenses for full frame D-SLRs. These lenses can also be used on DX bodies taking into account the 1.5 crop factor. I am particularly excited about the fast prime 24 f1.8 mm and the extremely competitively priced 200-500 tele zoom suitable for wildlife and sports  without breaking the bank!

Nikon 24 F1.8G  Weight 335 gms; List Price $749
The 24 F1/8G lens is a typically fast wide angle prime which is useful in a host of situations. This is the sixth 1.8 prime which Nikon has added  - the others were the 20mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm. Hence, Nikon shooters now looking for prime lenses to supplement their zooms are spoiled for choice. The  lens is both fast and light weight and competes favourably with the professional 1.4 lens which costs twice as much and is also heavy. Photographers needing a fast wide angle to shoot in low light conditions and in cramped interiors need look no further!

Nikon 200-500 F5.6E VR Weight : 2300 gms List Price $1399
Nikon has a professional model 200-400 F4 lens which sells at around  $7000 so this lens is an attractive proposition for wild life and sports shooters. It gives up one stop as compared to the pro lens but is much lighter and costs a great deal less. The competition in this range comes from Tamron and Sigma both of whom have lenses going upto 600 mm with a 6.3 aperture and are a shade lighter. We need to see the test results from this lens, but I suspect that the image quality will be good at this price point. On a DX body the lens becomes a super tele going upto 750mm without a tele convertor. Photographers considering this lens should also look at the combination of the new 300 F4 E VR with TC 1.4 which would be excellent for mammals but a little short for birds.

Nikon 24-70 ED VR AF-S f2.8 Weight: 1070 gms; List Price: $2399
The 24-70 is a professional grade zoom lens from Nikon which gets the added advantage of VR which was missing in the earlier model. The lens also gains in weight as well as in cost. The old lens without VR was excellent optically and those of you who have the earlier lens may not be inclined to upgrade to this new model. First time buyers looking for a professional grade normal zoom should consider this newer model along with the 24-120 F4 VR which is also an excellent lens but gives up one stop!

For more information on these new offerings from Nikon do visit:

http://www.popphoto.com/three-new-nikon-lenses-24-70mm-f-28-vr-200-500mm-f-56-fx-and-24mm-f-18

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/24mm-f18.htm#rex

http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/nikon-new-pro-lenses/

South Col Expeditions | New Updated Web Site

We have just uploaded the new and updated web site for South Col Expeditions www.southcol.com.

The site is better structured and has a lot of information on our treks and information on acclimatisation, altitude sickness, routes and a lot more.

Some of the  screen shots of the updated web site is given below:

Do visit the new site. We welcome your feedback and suggestions!