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Great films, Banff Mountain Festival

Great films, kindred souls dominate agenda at Banff Mountain Festival Banff was abuzz again last week with various events from The Banff Summit, to the Banff Mountain Book Festival and the Banff Mountain Film Festival, all spearheaded by the prestigi

Great films, kindred souls dominate agenda at Banff Mountain Festival

Banff was abuzz again last week with various events from The Banff Summit, to the Banff Mountain Book Festival and the Banff Mountain Film Festival, all spearheaded by the prestigious Centre For Mountain Culture.

Something made me realize, though, that perhaps the most valuable experience was not really the films, as I had seen a great deal at Banff over the years, but the quality of the people and kindred souls who attend Banff, making it a vortex of outdoor-related filmmakers and mountaineering enthusiasts from around the globe. This year was even more important than usual as the United Nations has declared 2002 the "Year of the Mountains."

I drove out to Banff with Ivan Hughes and his "Fringette" or lady producer friend (still wishing to be the mystery or anonymous producer). Ivan is directing an incredible film called In the Shadow of The Chief, which he has laboured on for the last several years. I immediately felt a kindred spirit, as my own Goldenrush film is now crawling through its third year in post-production.

Ivan has gathered about 50 hours of footage for his film, which examines the May 1961 first successful ascent of the Squamish Chief by Jim Baldwin and Ed Cooper. The climb dumfounded the public, including the 12,000 people who gathered at the base of the granite monolith to watch the seemingly un-climbable face yield to man. The film will be a clever combination of re-enacted drama, coupled with quirky interviews, some of which were to be taken at the Mountain Fest in Banff this year.

The drive went quickly as we excitedly gabbed, comparing notes, contacts and hardships which our under funded productions have endured along the way. The Cinematographer for Hughes’ project is none other than award winning Colorado native, recently turned Vancouver resident, Dan Mannix, a great cameraman as well as incredible rock and ice climber himself. For more info on this film contact fringefilmworks@shaw.ca

After a 10-hour drive we arrived rather zombie-like at the Mountain Culture press room in Banff. I immediately ran into more interesting people. Sitting at the computer next to mine was Chris J. McGeough. Some time last year a good friend, Troy Jungen, mentioned in passing something about Canadians doing avalanche control in Afghanistan for the UN convoys on the high passes. I actually dismissed the seemingly ludicrous idea of ski touring around a war zone doing avy work, but how wrong I was.

It turns out that Chamonix-based McGeough, who heads Mountain Air Production Ltd. and commands the Banff Mountain Film tour of Europe, happens to be the lad who was called on by a French comrade to do just that – head an avalanche control ski touring program for the UN. His work in Afghanistan is co-funded by CIDA. Is heli skiing in Tora Bora next?

Anyhow, McGeough recounted many stories of working with local "strong like bull" Mujahedeen, who preferred straight ascents in their snowshoes. McGeough and friends managed to ski 11 major peaks, all first descents, during the course of their duties. What made his stories even more interesting were the details of using recycled explosives for the avy work from so many of the discarded land mines and other goodies strewn around the embattled mountainsides of Afghanistan.

It was great to spend time with dual Banff/Whistler resident Scott Fullmer, with whom I have shared so many great film projects, from flying into Mt Waddington with Sylvain Saudan to pioneering so many first heli ski descents in the early ’90s with the likes of Doug Coombs, John Griber and Stephen Koch in Valdez, Alaska and the pristine Chugach Mountains. That was before they fell to the wrath of over-commercialization, as have so many of our old ski/stompin grounds, including the king of them all, Whistler. Scotty was pitching a fine film project of his own along the theme of "Parks are for people too."

Stephen Koch was also at Banff. Stephen has been working hard on his Snowboarding Of The Seven Summits projects, whittling them away over the years. He has only Everest left on his list, which he hopes to summit and board next summer.

Barry Blanchard won the highly acclaimed Summit of Excellence award this year. Steve House MC’d the hilarious slideshow for his buddy, which included the unveiling of the bumper sticker "Honk if you are the son of Barry Blanchard."

Oh, and there were the great films of course. Out of pure nostalgia perhaps, one of my favourites was Cannibals and Crampons, which had the audience relive a truly arduous seven-week approach march into the mountains of New Guinea. The film is directed by Bruce Parry with Mark Anstice. I still find it hard to believe what these guys actually had to endure, from infected feet to wearing "penis gourds" to fit in with the locals en route. They finally sumitted their elusive peaks in the culmination of it all.

The Essence of Adolescence was a great little flick created by someone very special, 15-year-old filmmaker Daniel Kingsbury, a native of the Sunshine Coast. Here, he and his many friends practice all sorts of airtime routines and stunts. Daniel has crafted a nice piece to his favourite tunes and has more elaborate plans for the future.

My favourite presentation by far was by Greg Mortenson, who gave the most humane talk I have ever heard in Banff. It was about his dreams of building schools for the needy children of Pakistan. What started as just a glimmer of hope through contributed pennies by American school kids resulted in Greg building a network of 85 schools across the Karakoram of Pakistan’s enchanted valleys.

And now Greg is moving his dream projects towards the needs of neighboring Afghanistan, so ravaged by the atrocities of war.

Check out

www.banffmountainfestivals.ca for all the details on the festival.