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In 1954 and 1955, my great-uncle Pierre Bordet, a geologist and cartographer, was selected to join the first French mountaineering expeditions to Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world, located in the Nepalese Himalayas. As the French mountaineers successfully reached the summit on May 15, 1955, my great-uncle was mapping the geological strata of a region that had never been studied. His two trips to Makalu were the first in a career of geological research and mapping expeditions across Nepal and Afghanistan that would span more than 20 years. His journal Mémoires de mon marteau (Memoirs of My Hammer) and hundreds of photographs are part of my family legacy. These archival treasures, as well as my own trip to Makalu base camp in April 2019, inspired this graphic novel.

 

The first part of the story (Makalu: The Journey to Nepal, Tin Cabin Publishing, 2024) explained the historical context of the 1954 and 1955 French expeditions to the Himalayas, and followed the progress of the mountaineers from Europe to Nepal, in the fall of 1954. 

 

In this book, the base camp of Makalu, located in the Barun valley, is a magnetic and timeless place at 5,000 m elevation, around which all the protagonists gravitate. Among them, the French mountaineers and geologists, hundreds of Sherpas and porters, and a few trekkers meet, weaving their stories between 1954-1955 and 2019.

 

Makalu - Part Two: Thin-Air Memories © Tin Cabin Publishing, 2024. 120 p.

Makalu - Part Two: Thin-Air Memories

C$35.00Price
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    Copyright Esther Bordet Painting 2024
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