Where common peoples marking with their steps and baptizing of their names mountains summits, Philippe overflew it without arrogance and with the healthy and simple desire of pondering. Because the obvious fact knocks in the reading of this book. On more than a read page I said to myself " but so why the climbers do not think of stealing, at least to spot their objectives closer and avoid the traps ?! " This book is a real call to the passion, to the freedom, to the beauty.

Mariette Nodet pleases us to speak to us about this exceptional book.

[Blankonthemap] Mariette, can you tell us about your book?
[Mariette Nodet] " My " book? I worked four years on this project and I have not been able to put my name on the cover ! Just because it's not my book, but the Philippes book dreamed of writing. I am committed to not add anything to the material he had left behind him books flights kid , travel books , articles and interviews. The task was to select , assemble, truncate if necessary, to highlight or echo, to be a book that you would not want to leave .
4 years to make it sure looks long, actually I worked in fits and starts , in addition to my work, my travels and my daily survival . There has been long periods of latency , and other periods of intense work. The hardest part is to work alone, and at the same time this is what I needed. Finally, the initial project was to collect the writings of his father, Lou, this has resulted in a real book on the flight camp that may be of interest as the mountain , the traveler as impassionate by Himalayas and more . That's what was important to me : I wanted anything but a memory book tearful , but a hymn to live fully ! In this sense , it is "his" book !

[BOTM] Why this book? I insist
[MN] The realization of this book was a necessity even if I did not know what form it would lead. Initially, books discovered in the business of Philippe have plunged me into his world, the bivouac flight. I was in the hands of far more valuable than just writing stories or thoughts because they revealed deeper quest that has always animated Philippe: freedom, commitment, nature related to a search for spirituality. They echoed, but more raw and real, all the articles that had been written before. So I decided to use these writings to form a testimony.
This realization was to me justified by the fact that Philip had planned to write a book on the bivouac flight . At the time of his accident, he was currently working on the foundations of a book with a publishing house . So even though Wings beautiful has nothing to do with the book allegedly written by Philip, I have also in me this deep joy to have realized this project close to his heart.

[BOTM] I quote the chapter naturally captivated me, the chapter "the geographer Happiness": "For me, three kinds of roaming complement the bivouac flight. One aesthetic, ideal road connecting the summits. The other imaginary from my readings. And a last upper air. My tools? Approximate maps, Google earth. I track my routes, taking into account above all the laws of the upper air, and stress relief. But, especially for the Karakoram, they also faithfully follow the thread of my imagination fed stories Wilfried Thesiger, Eric Shipton, Bill Tilman, spies Great Game, to climbers Mummery, Herman Buhl or Messner. " Thanks to the bivouacs flight,
Philippe was it one of the last true explorers in this over and disenchanted world?
[MN] I don't think we can say it was one of the last true explorers, it would not be presumptuous? Because exploration is always reinventing and luckily he is constantly inflamed to delight us again. But it is true that he had a major asset, like all those who practice flight bivouac, one can use an absolutely extraordinary exploration tool: paragliding. Its lightness and simplicity allowed can address very remote areas, without being too shift towards local populations. The glider also implies a state of openness, acceptance, it allows for experiences that we could not live in moving otherwise. Philip had more donation to marry his love of reading, geography and flight.

[BOTM] Presumptuous ? I can not help but think of the great explorers by reading this passage: " The view is literally stunning. We are exactly at the vertical confluence of the most fantastic three mountain ranges in the world, Karakoram , Hindu Kush and Pamir . And while I wind thermals closer to sailing Julien , suddenly I measure my situation to the exact culmination of my passion for adventure. We just live in the most beautiful flight of our lives.
After the last full vertical Khoz Sar (6800m) , we switch to a Tolkien world, a giant ice castle with a multitude of breathtaking walls , completely frozen. The transition is carefree, and now we 're off for a long session slide in vertical glacier Yacund with already in sight of the mountains red blood Valley Chapursan . We managed to cross the Batura ! The emotion is the extent of the landscape , fatigue too, and I do not see that my speed / ground speeds frankly me closer to the bottom of the valley. A strong katabatic wind rushes into effect of this huge ice mass. ". Shipton Tillman Thesiger and others have never seen this part of the world as Phillipe , I think the north side of Khoz Sar in particular, totally unknown as too far away from view. In the Karakoram , besides the fact that many areas of mass remain to be discovered , we would probably do some amazing discoveries like these curious aerological corridors including Philippe speaks, winds style jet streams or ancestries of staggering 150m upspeeds/ minute only this range can offer. Philip was one of the first pioneer of this exploration there, isn't it?
[MN] In fact, the exploration livings him completely. I remember the entire evening immersed in the old stories of pionners, those hours on the Internet to connect past and future... and especially the time he spent endless then to share my discoveries and enthusiasm for the next voyage of discovery ! It was tiring, that he was often so excited he could not help but walk by talking , but fortunately our room was tiny and it was soon the turn! In short, a hyperactive illuminated at times ! This enthusiasm is finally easy to understand when you know that he traveled areas are geographically still very little known. And there's something incredible to say the twenty-first century conceals a multitude of mysteries to break something . It is true that in any case there weather in Karakoram and the Himalayas in general, is unknown. I really wish someone takes this exploration !

[BOTM] Philippe explored the remote Asia to the mountains with his paraglider, I think by the daring voyage he made the Hindu Raj range in the south steeper slope. He could baptize by his name as wind corridor, or as we call heat as a top or a high pass, with the difference that it is probably easiest to set a name on a mountain on which it made its mark on an element invisible and unpredictable isn't it?
[MN] You're right, what's more ephemeral than the elements of the thin air! And basically, I think that Philippe gave these elements perfectly: he would never have imagined baptize any place if he was unknown, it was not his state of mind. The only thing that mattered was the pleasure, joy to excel and learn. I really believe that he had nothing to prove to anyone, or only things to himself, so intimate that I never shared them (so intimate that they were probably unconscious).

Philippe, Himalayas in background

[BOTM] Mariette, and you? You mention in the book projects to follow the Philip footsteps in the Northern Pakistan. What's up?
[MN] I do not say it is in the footsteps of Philippe I plan this trip north Pakistan. I hope to be honest when I say I do not go in his footsteps, even if it is obvious that I would not set foot in this place without him. Philippe had fallen so in love with this region and its people, he shared so much enthusiasm that we are bound to feel gradually "from there", beyond the fears of the unknown (including related what the media describe the political or religious as a country on the spot) . In 2010, we went with Lou in Afghanistan. You can call me crazy, but I would say it was an amazing trip, one that I certainly stronger in my short history of traveler. The target area was the Wakhan corridor, mythical and beautiful across the country, and we were accompanied by Dario January Alam, the Pakistani friend of Philippe, very well connected to Wakhis and Kyrgyz language that inhabit this mountain land . Despite your determination, you go with the ball in the stomach must admit (especially with respect to Lou , who was 6 years old ) , and then you let yourself be transformed by everything that happens to you, the beauty and simplicity of things especially . It is only in this kind of country you can experience things like this, where you can really let you shape. Then go north Pakistan, just across the corridor, it's a bit the same logic to this approach : it is continue to allow feeding by the improbable. It is also found Alam Jan , the landscape of the Karakoram, not exploit, just short long as this is the only way to fully experience this kind of experience. I just need the energy to do it , and people who believe in me to get there... I know it will happen soon!

Par Philippe et Mariette Nodet.
160 pages with pictures.
15 euros + 4 euros for post stamps.

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There are news that give a bad taste in the mouth. From memory, this is the first time we attacked the tourists in the area. 11 climbers killed by a bullet in the head, it's serious.

After all the events that Pakistan has relied in recent years, I thought the region would be destabilized earlier, in 2007, for example, after the Red Mosque assault, when the Taliban were trying to led Sharia laws in the Swat valley and landed in Islamabad doors. The Swat Valley is just near to the Indus, or the valley remained neutral. We also know that this is where Pakistani commandos join the line of Indo-Pakistani front where it heats occasionally.

it is therefore spent on the CB of Nanga Parbat, west side (Diamir), I have personal memories of a bad trip with armed pakis that control the access road and did not hesitate to play with their toys ... I'm sure it's just a creepy story of a misunderstanding, non-payment of a bakchich. All tourists like guns shops in the Kohistan villages as Chilas. Recall that bin Laden himself was hiding in Abbotabbad, a town on the KKH with probable bodyguards organized and dissuasive. The situation is also part of a worrying escalationas the murder of 20 innocent people in a bus on the side of Babusar pass last year. Of course, nothing to do with what happens further north in Hunza for example, but I remember a Canadian couple on their way to Kunjerab arrested between Passu Karimabad and in their personal and threatened by a dead car group had finally fled without reason.

The cause is claimed to have achieved an international echo, see if it will be fun.... Personally I am not optimistic for the future. The season is probably already fucking and perhaps for years. The scope of the drama will be probably immeasurable, first for local people.

Thinking of all those we love in this marvelous part of the world.