The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Wednesday April 8th — —

“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Wednesday April 8th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Wednesday April 8th — —

Sidetracked Magazine — Tyndýk

We’ve been following the inspirational United Kingdom-based travel platform Sidetracked Magazine for quite a while now – being a consistent source of incredible photography-driven, heart-felt travel stories from beautiful offbeat locales since it was founded in 2011 by John Summerton. One of the Sidetracked travel stories we are particularly drawn to was released in October of last year, taking us to the mountains of Central-Asian country Kyrgyzstan, named ‘Tyndýk’ – referring to the name of the opening in the roof of a traditional yurt where the smoke from the fire escapes, which is a highly regarded Kyrgyz symbol for nomandism. In the inspirational, slow-paced, highly aesthetic film – against the current trends in online video productions, German filmmaker Franz Walter follows mountaineer Ines Papert, who after a failed attempt in 2010 returns to Mount Kyzyl Asker for another attempt to ascent the southeast face one year later, joined by her 11-year-old son Emanuel, who went as far as base-camp. The result is a stunning film of a tremendous journey.

I hope that the audience will relate to what it means to Ines and Manu to take a trip, and how vital it sometimes is – especially as a child – to break out of the known into the unknown to discover new things.

Franz Walter on his motivations for creating his beautiful film in the peaceful slow pace (which we love), instead of what the current digital preconditions seem to ask for – boiling online video down to its essence and therefore losing a lot of potential integrity:

It was all about telling a story that has more substance than a short clip about the expedition. I wanted to counter today’s fast-paced Facebook and Twitter world with something a bit calmer, unhurried. Today, professional alpinists are already posting a quick picture from base-camp, they’re tweeting about their summit success from the peak. In my opinion so much depth is lost in that process. Tyndýk is a story that will captivate with its quiet nuances, not with its fast-pace and thrills.

Franz Walter is a creative nomad. Born 1980 in Nuremberg, Germany, he studied Media Technology at the Technical University of Ilmenau, where he began his search for a way to combine tech and nature, thinking and doing throughout his life. Shortly after graduation he founded nanuuq, a tiny creative consultancy for athletes and emerging brands. As a photographer and filmmaker he explores the relationships of landscape and human activity. He also is the creator of madebynomads, a small group of future-friendly storytellers and indie publishers which he founded with Frank Kretschmann in 2013. The outdoors have always been an important part of his life, being introduced early on to canoeing. He quickly added kayaking and traveling, which took him to such remote places as the Tatshenshini and Colorado rivers. Nowadays he is an all-rounder, with journeys taking him from the Guyanese jungle to the Kyrgyz mountains.

After working in web design for over 12 years, John Summerton’s goal for Sidetracked Magazine was clear and simple; to capture the emotion and experience of adventures and expeditions throughout the world. Which he and his growing team have been doing since the very beginning. After starting solely as an online magazine, as soon as the possibility arose John made the decision – inspired by his love for print – to create a printed edition of Sidetracked Magazine. A trend one sees more and more in recent years – empowering our strong belief in a sustainable future for community-driven printed press. Nevertheless the online core of Sidetracked continues to allow John to share his exquisite on-going digital curation of travel stories in different forms, including films like Walter’s, making the complete Sidetracked project one of our favorites – and a prime example how to successfully (and gracefully) integrate a platform across different media.

For the full ‘Tyndýk’ story see here.

Follow all endeauvors by the ever-inspirational Sidetracked Magazine here.