Golden Hour: First Mt. Everest Mountain Bike Rally

Sandakphu, India, 1993

Golden Hour

The first Mt. Everest Mountain Bike Rally, ridden in the last light of the Himalayas.

Prayer flags, thin air and a ridge with four of the world’s five highest peaks on the horizon. Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze rode in the very first mountain bike rally in the shadow of Everest.

National Geographic cinematographer Marco Eveslage filmed the climbs, the descents and the villages along the way. Patty’s poetic narration carries the film. Remastered with AI, the 21‑minute film won a National Gold Aurora Award.

Directed by
Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze
Filmed by
Marco Eveslage
Narration
Patty Mooney
Running time
21 minutes
Released
2022, remastered with AI

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About the film

Golden Hour takes you to the highlands of the Himalayas, where wind moves through prayer flags and the air feels charged. Mountain bikers Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze join an unprecedented cycling rally in the shadow of Mount Everest. They climb steep ridgelines, pass through remote villages and meet the raw beauty of the land.

Marco Eveslage, a National Geographic cinematographer, filmed the hard climbs and fast descents. He also caught the quiet hour when low golden light falls across the peaks.

Patty’s poetic narration follows the inner journey of endurance and wonder that runs alongside the ride. Remastered and enhanced with AI, the film now has new clarity.

It is a record of a historic event and a meditation on resilience, spiritual connection and the joy of going far beyond the familiar. Cyclists, adventurers and anyone who looks for beauty will find something here.

At the rally

Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze outside their tent at Sandakphu, India, during the first Mt. Everest Mountain Bike Rally
Patty and Mark at their tent at Sandakphu, 1993.
Riders at the first Mt. Everest Mountain Bike Rally in India, 1993
At the mountain bike rally, India, 1993.

Read Patty’s account of the trip: the first mountain bikers in Sikkim, India.

Darjeeling and Sikkim, 1993

On the same trip, Patty and Mark rode the trails of the tea country and spent time in the towns and temples of the hills.

Two riders in blue speed along a narrow trail across a green hillside
Patty and Mark ride the trails near the Darjeeling tea fields.
Patty Mooney laughs while sitting on one pan of a large rope market scale, weights on the other pan
Patty gets weighed on a market scale in Darjeeling.
A smiling young monk in maroon robes stands before a brightly painted altar and a framed portrait of the Gyalwang Drukchen
A young monk in a temple in Sikkim, below a portrait of the Gyalwang Drukchen.
Mark Schulze holds up a camera lens as a young monk looks through it
Mark shows a young monk the world through a lens.
A crowd gathers in a dirt square between tin-roofed market stalls, hills behind
Market day in Darjeeling.
Mark Schulze and Patty Mooney stand beside a bust of Mahatma Gandhi surrounded by potted chrysanthemums
Mark and Patty at the statue of Gandhi, Darjeeling.
Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze point and laugh at an elephant painted on a white wall
Patty and Mark meet a painted elephant, Darjeeling.
Patty Mooney with painted elephants in India, 1993
Patty and the painted elephants.

Awards

Watch the full film

21 minutes in the Himalayas, from first light to golden hour.

Watch Golden Hour