Travel and documentary photographer and adventure travel writer Ahtushi grew up in the very urban capital city of Delhi. Family vacations in the mountains were affairs keenly looked forward to, and watching her hobbyist father developing film in the family bathtub a childhood past time. Somewhere the love for mountains came together when she undertook her first trek at the age of twenty and found herself hooked to incline -- it's been two decades, and two treks a year have been the one constant since. In 2003 she made the switch from television to print taking her other hobby of photography into the professional realm of travel magazines and documentary work. She has been published by Outlook traveller, Geo and Marie Claire magazines, and has authored several trekking and rafting photo features for the group as well. She has held a solo exhibition of photographs from select Himalayan treks, at India Habitat Centre, Delhi in 2006 entitled '.... therefore I climb'.
Ladakh has been a favored destination with several visits under her belt but 2011-12 is notable when she visited Ladakh four times, having been stung by the Petroglyph bug.
The better part of the past year has gone into photographing petroglyphs in Ladakh, and is her latest and most obsessive project to date, which she is sharing with us at the mountain festival. She is also working on a project on high altitude lakes and offbeat treks of Uttrakhand.
Source: http://www.mussooriewriters.com
"Mussoorie Writers' EXPERIENCE THE HIMALAYA: A MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL (Nov. 1-4, 2012) celebrated exploration, natural history and mountain culture. Events ranged from a photographic exhibition to a just-released film, The Old Breed, about Steve Swenson's recent ascent of the highest unclimbed summit in the world - Saser Kangri II. Swenson himself, one of America's toughest climbers, spoke about the adventure of this expedition, along with the values and philosophy that drives him to reach extreme heights. A large audience of students, teachers and visitors enjoyed the mountain poetry of Gulzar, accompanied by Pavan Varma and Sukrita Paul Kumar.
Woodstock's Parker Hall was filled with the lyrical folk songs of Nagaland, performed by the Tetseo Sisters. Italian alpinists, Manolo and Herve Bermasse spoke of the challenges they overcome on the mountains and showed films about their perpendicular exploits, while Rekha Bhardwaj sang mountain lyrics together with Bollywood hits. Dr. Charles Clarke, one of Britain's most eminent mountaineers, discussed mountain literature as well as the important traditions of Tibetan medicine. Controversy, politics and intrigue are all a part of Himalayan history and Capt. M. S. Kohli, who led India's first successful ascent of Everest, revealed first-hand details about the joint CIA and Indian Intelligence operation on Nanda Devi during the 1960's.
As part of the same panel, Prof. Shekhar Pathak discussed the legacy of Pandit Nain Singh Rawat, one of Uttarakhand's heroic surveyors, who mapped Tibet in the 19th Century. While an international gathering of climbers spoke of pushing themselves to the limits of endurance on vertical surfaces of ice and rock, Viraf Mehta unveiled prehistoric narratives and images etched on the stones of Ladakh, ancient petroglyphs of snow leopards and ibex. The festival brought together scholars, scientists, authors, artists and mountaineers, including chief guest Loveraj Singh Dharmshaktu, who has climbed Everest four times, as well as many other major Himalayan peaks. Rupin Dang spoke to local idiocyncratic Landour wildlife and "Wilderness Wanderings" while conservation and responsible use of mountain environments was another theme, explored by eco-activist Ishita Khanna and wildlife biologists Pankaj Chandan and Rajarshi Chakraborty of WWF.
On Sunday, Nov. 4, as part of the festival, more than 200 runners competed in the first Mussoorie Half-Marathon, along Mussoorie's Mall Road to a turnaround point at Everest House and a finish line at Woodstock School. Over the four days of the Mountain Festival, participants and audience members drew inspiration from a variety of presentations and performances, all of which emphasized the educational significance and opportunities of our Himalayan heritage."
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