Cultures collided for better and for worse at 樱桃视频Mountain Festival presentations by Micah Dash and Majka Burhardt at the Eagle Eye Theatre on Saturday (July 19).Coloradan Dash told the story of rushing up the first ascent of Shafat Fortress in Kashmir, India ahead of an angry party of Italian climbers; Burhardt told the story of climbing the unexplored sandstone spires in a country misunderstood by the rest of the world.Originally in Ethiopia as a journalist, Burhardt was struck by the landscape's climbing potential and organized a team of four women to take on its northern towers. The trip strengthened her belief that Ethiopia should not be defined by drought, famine and war."I always tell people that you can ask a six-year-old girl or a 65-year-old person who's the minister of tourism in Ethiopia and they will all tell you the same thing: no one understands their country outside of Ethiopia. All they do is give it a bad wrap," she said.Burhardt said she was blown away by the generosity of the people and the lush landscape. The vast amount of unexplored territory enticed her to take in Africa's untapped playground and write a book about the adventure entitled Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa. "The thing is people don't normally think about climbing in Ethiopia," said Burhardt. "When we think about climbing we think about coming here to Squamish, you think about Yosemite, you think about Patagonia, you think about going to India. "But Ethiopia has been off the map in the climbing world. It doesn't mean it's the best climbing in the world but there is by far more rock than I've ever seen. And if you're talking about adventure, it's pretty hard to find a place that has that much unexplored territory."On the other hand, Dash and climbing partner Jonny Copp were faced with the problem of too many hearts being set on the first ascent of Shafat Fortress in Kashmir, India. Things were going well at first. The pair spent a number of nights at camp and set up a Tyrolian traverse across a large river near the base of the mountain.But then seven Italian climbers "in matching jackets" came into camp intent on climbing the same peak. And they were not happy to find the area already occupied."They were not very friendly," said Dash, adding that they didn't believe the pair had the right permits for the climb (they did) and insisted they would go to jail if they attempted. "Literally the day they showed up we packed up our backpacks and started hiking up the base of the wall. We were out of there because they were going to shut us down completely." After a grueling three-day climb, Dash and Copp made it to the top of the unclimbed 6,000-metre peak - a first for Dash. After completing the epic adventure, they named the line the Colorado Route.
