Just before Christmas, ’03, the pride of the Redbull Airforce, Will Gadd, Chris Santacroce, and Othar Lawrence set out to make paragliding history. Their objective:  to fly across the Andes from Santiago, Chile, and finish by sinking their teeth into a big steak in Mendosa, Argentina.

After nearly three weeks spent waiting out the incessant Andean wind, Will and Chris made the first crossing of the spine of the cordillera by parapente. They launched from the scenic Portillo ski resort in Chile, and flew some 40 kms to land in the valley below South America’s highest peak, Mt Aconcagua, in Argentina. They got great air-to-air footage of this two hour long high altitude flight, reaching 4500m while soaring amongst peaks up to 7000m.

Combined with Pat’s extensive coverage of the entire expedition from the ground, this will come together in a film to be edited by Will.
 

Filming at Portillo, Chile © David Owen

Our driver/guide/translator, David Owen (Skiing South America) got us where we wanted to go, in style. He’s from the States, but is now based in Pucon, a lovely resort town in southern Chile.

Women of Laya dance during archery festival, Bhutan  
 © Baiba Morrow

Goephu-la (at 5400 m, it’s higher than Everest base camp) was a particularly challenging because we had barely acclimatized to the high altitude. Luckily, the clouds parted and our headaches were assuaged by spectacular views of 7239 m Mt Gangkar Puensum, the highest unclimbed peak in the world.

After 28 days, 450-km and endless mountain vistas, we finished the trek near Mt Jhomolhari, one of dozens of lovely, big snowpeaks in the country. Apart from the friendliness of the people, what really endeared us to Bhutan was the size and extent of the old-growth forests. It gave us a glimpse at what the ecosystems of other Himalayan regions like Nepal must have looked like before being decimated by the hungry multitudes.

Hiking up to Goephu La, with Mt. Gangar Phuensum in background  © Baiba Morrow

Temples of Myanmar - Oct. 2003

Leaving Bhutan on the way back to Bangkok, our Drukair flight stopped  in Yangon, so we hopped off and spent 2 weeks travelling from Buddhist historic site to site. There are pagodas/stupas everywhere, sticking up out of the landscape like golden mushrooms. The most amazing to us were the 2000+ stone/brick temples in Pagan, and the floating tomato gardens and villages on Lake Inle.

Our friendly, highly skilled driver turned out to be the key to a great, informed holiday. Contact: Mr. Tint Lwin: mrtint-aung@mail4u.com.mm

Right: Buddhist temple in Pagan

© Pat Morrow

In winter, 2002, two local friends, Will Gadd and Ben Firth, established the world’s most difficult mixed rock and ice climb here in the Rockies. They named it “Musashi”.

Will (seen above) and Ben (bottom photo) advanced the Samurai’s “fighting” technique by a factor of two by introducing heel spurs to their crampons, thus giving them a quadra-ped improvement over the “two sword technique”.

Pat teamed up with some other friends, Brad Wrobleski and Glen Crawford to shoot a 13-minute film, which we predictably named “Musashi”. Editor Jason Macleod laced the footage together with music and soundtrack provided by Beau Shiminsky and Ando Leuchter (the composer for my film “Spirit Dancer", about ice climber Barry Blanchard in 1991).

“Musashi” was a finalist at the 2002 Banff Mountain Film Festival and was selected for the World Tour.

Details on the climb: It  begins at the back of a cave at Panther Falls, and arcs horizontally for about 20 meters out to the cave mouth, where a merely vertical ice spike leads to an easy angled ice flow above. It’s one of the most amazing pieces of acrobatic climbing I’ve ever seen. In our film, Will and Ben spend most of their time hanging like fruit bats off their arms, and take some of the strain off their bodies by throwing a leg over an arm in a figure 4 position in 

between dyno moves from pick placement to pick placement in the shattered limestone ceiling of the cave. Quick edit cuts, unusual camera angles (we had 3 roving camera positions) and a lipstick cam mounted on Will’s knee, help to move the story along – Will and Ben’s on-camera narrative about the phenomenon of mixed climbing keep it both informative and entertaining.

If you are looking for beta on climbing in our area, check out Will’s website at www.gravsports.com for tall tales, current conditions, and photos from the leading edge of Canadian climbing.