To be honest, I'm far from familiar with all the names of the interviewees, but I'm also not someone who knows these contemporaries from A-Z. I'd rather go to the mountains myself than deal with those who do or think they have done heroic deeds. But for a fraction of the day, it is very interesting even for me to read what moves and inspires the protagonists and what their opinion of the mountains is. The photographer Christoph Jorda has put a lot of effort and thought into the individual portraits. The images of the mountain people are really very profound, carefully considered and planned. Partly works of art, partly I can't see the story in the picture. But that doesn't matter, because art is individual and that's a good thing. In any case, the pictures are very special, enriching, inspiring and eye-catching.
Michael Ruhland (Mountaineering Editor-in-Chief) met 30 mountain people and spoke to them about their history, past/future, their mountain ideas, fears/worries, family, getting older and/or much more. What I find particularly exciting and interesting is that the questions are not zero eight fifteen, but very individual, challenging, profound, questioning and funny. If I thought about meeting Beat Kammerlander in the Silbergeier (dreaming on my part and simply not realistic), I would want to ask him these questions too. Or let's put it this way, at least some of them, then others around the campfire with a can of beer. There are also interviews with such veterans as Reinhold Messner, actor Rufus Beck and Ladin musicians Elisabeth and Marlene Schuen. A great mix of mountain people with the most diverse ideas and approaches to self-realization in the mountains.
