Excelsior
Record of the international expedition to climb Kangchenjunga in 1930. The German-Austrian-British expedition, led by Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth, had come from the Nepalese side and tried to reach the North Ridge via its NW face after failing in the north face, where the sherpa Chettan was killed in an avalanche. The attempt failed but the team made the first ascents of Rathong (6678m) and Jongsong Peak (7483m), and also climbed the Southwest peak of Nepal Peak.
The Mountain Guide of Zakopane
The peak of the sun is in the High Tatras. The mountain guide Carlo tried to climb it several times without success. When he finally gets it, he thinks that nobody else has to raise it and develops a special feeling with the mountain. When the Americans MacAllan, his daughter, and the engineer Harry West arrive at Zakopane with the project to build a cable car on the mountain, Carlo rejects it, because he considers the mountain of his property, a kind of sanctuary. Finally, he lives an experience that can make him change his mind. There is another version of the film titled Burza nad Zakopane, shot the same year in Polish.
The Burning Mountains
Shortly before the First World War, an Italian and an Austrian mountain guides take part in a mountaineering expedition together. Not long afterwards they find themselves fighting on different sides in the same area in the Dolomites, fighting to conquer the same high pass (Col Alto). When the war is over, they meet again. Their friendship has survived the war. There are two other versions of the film. The original was shot in German the same year (Berge in Flammen). The other, shot in English the year after, was produced by the American Universal Pictures (The Doomed Battalion). Both uses scenes from the original German version.
Mountains on Fire
Two of Germany's best and busiest directors collaborated on Berge in Flammen (Mountain in Flames). The storyline should be of interest to pro-ecologists, inasmuch as the directors take to task the warmongers of the world for despoiling the natural beauties of the European mountain ranges with their shell-fire. The final outrage occurs during a battle between the Austrians and the Italians in the Dolomites, culminating with the destruction of an entire mountain (hence the film's title). The harrowing images on screen were complemented perfectly by the musical score of Giuseppe Beece. Also known as The Doomed Batallion, Berge in Flammen was filmed in three different languages -- German, English, French -- for a total cost of $150,000.
Kamet Conquered
Following in the footsteps of Captain John Noel and his immensely popular documentaries taken on the Mount Everest expeditions of the 1920s ("Climbing Mount Everest"/"The Epic of Everest"), Frank Smythe hoped to help finance his 1931 attempt on Kamet, another Himalayan peak, by bringing back film footage of a successful ascent including summit shots which were at that time the highest ever taken in the world.
New Skyscrapers for Old
Mountain climbing with all its thrills near Lake O'Hara in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. The film begins on a busy street in Toronto with cars and a Yonge Street streetcar contending with traffic, and pedestrians during rush hour. It then cuts to a mountain in the Rockies and Lake O'Hara and with four men with pack-sacks boarding train. They later climb past the Seven Sisters waterfalls. Coming to an alpine lake, they begin the ascent to the summit, using ropes and picks and traversing some tricky rock faces. Near the top they reach the 'Devil's Window' and, finally, the summit. The film was produced by the National Parks of Canada to promote tourism travel to the Canadian Rockies.
In the Realm of the Goldenhorn
A student, a railway worker and a peasant go on a trip to the Julian Alps and meet people on their way.