My best of Banff

• Posted on November 10, 2009 at 11:25 AM
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Well, I was intending to blog daily while I was at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festivals, but I just seemed to get too busy. So now that the event has wrapped up for another year, here's a look back at 10 of my favourite festival moments, in chronological order.

1) Meeting Sharon Wood

As many of you know, Sharon Wood was the first North American woman to reach the summit of Everest back in 1986. Her climb was the first Sherpa-unassisted ascent of a new route on Everest by a woman. Over the years, I've met quite a few Canadians who summitted Everest back in the pre-guiding days, when it was still a very significant accomplishment. But I'd never met Sharon until this year's festival.

2) Re: Session

The latest ski flick from the Teton Gravity Research team featured the usual awe-inspiring Alaskan descents, but it was actually a wipeout that stood out as the highlight of the film (for me at least). A skier was ripping a very steep line when he began ragdolling down the mountain. Over and over he went, until he finally came to a stop—in a small circular crevasse. As the film said, it looked exactly like a hole in one. (The skier was okay afterwards—though a little stunned.)

3) Chris Sharma

It was about 16 years ago that the American climbing Wunderkind first started pushing hard routes, and now—in his late twenties—he’s still at the forefront of the rock-climbing world. Chris showed films of some of his more infamous routes, but I was also impressed that when he was standing on stage watching his films, he himself didn’t seem too impressed.

5) Steve Winter

When National Geographic photographer Steve Winter set out for Ladakh’s Hemis High Altitude National Park, he thought his chances of photographing the rare snow leopard were almost zero. But during the 10 months he spent there, Winter ended up with some amazing images of the elusive cat, which he shared during his book-festival presentation.

6) Barry Blanchard and Kevin Doyle

During a discussion moderated by explore contributing editor Geoff Powter, Barry Blanchard and Kevin Doyle—who made up one of Canada’s top alpine climbing teams during the 1970s and 1980s—talked about their partnership. It was particularly interesting to hear Doyle, who essentially quit climbing while still at the top of his game, and who has been out of the spotlight ever since.

7) Ueli Steck

Swiss climber Ueli Steck is one of those alpinists who seems to operate at a whole different level. During his presentation, he talked about how he achieved his goal of establishing a new solo speed record on the Eiger. After extensive training and a few preliminary climbs, Steck climbed the North Face in an amazing two hours and 47 minutes. As his film showed, he literally ran up the thing.

8) Solo

This is a very powerful film about one man’s attempt to kayak by himself from Australia to New Zealand, across the raging Tasman Sea. I don’t want to say too much about the film here, but I will say that I was not the only person who cried while watching it. (The film won as the Best Film on Mountain Sports.)

9) Take a Seat

A couple of years ago, Englishman Dominic Gill came up with an interesting idea. He wanted to ride his bike 32,000 kilometres from Alaska to the tip of South America. What made his idea even more interesting was that he planned to ride a tandem bike. And so began a most unusual adventure, in which Gill picked up strangers along the way to help him pedal. This entertaining film received a Special Jury Award.

10) Finding Farley

Okay, I have to admit I didn’t actually watch the film while I was in Banff—I’d seen a DVD a little while ago. (See my previous blog.) But I was thrilled to discover that the film by Leanne Allison and Kartsen Heuer won both the festival’s Grand Prize and the People’s Choice Award.