Photo: Dave Garrow, Mt. Logan © Cory Richards

The 2009 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festivals are not to be missed!

Visit our website for a detailed list of events.

Join us for the opening weekend of the festivals on October 31 and November 1. Fill your weekend with feature-length films from around the world and the Mountain Art and Craft Sale. Get your Christmas shopping done early this year – artwork, pottery, weavings, handbags, and more!

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, November 3 and Wednesday, November 4 for Radical Reels and The Snow Show…As us about the NEW Epic Sampler Ticket package for these two great events.

Take 2 days off work! Join us on Thursday, November 5 and Friday, November 6 and immerse yourself in the world’s best mountain and adventure travel stories. Join us for literary lunches with Steve House, author and one of the world’s best high-altitude climbers  and Royal Robbins – climber, entrepreneur, and author. Guest speakers include the King of sport climbing, Chris Sharma, Conservationist Mike Fay, National Geographic Photographer Steve Winter, and more!

On Friday evening, November 6, choose from two evening programs featuring guest speakers: Swiss alpinist Ueli Steck OR accomplished BASE jumper and extreme Skier Karina Hollekim. Both speakers will be followed by films entered into the competition. On Saturday evening, November 7, Dean Karnazes, known as the Ultramarathon Man, joins us on stage. Of course, your days will be occupied with the Daytime Film Screenings.  Purchase a full day ticket for just $45…and this gives you open access to see all films screened in a particular theatre during the day.

Consider purchasing the Cascade Book Festival Pack, the Rundle Film Weekend Pack, or one of our other ticket packages if you’re planning on attending multiple events!

Contact The Banff Centre Box Office at 1.403.762.6301 or visit our website for more information on tickets, packages, and events.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

When this year’s Banff Mountain Photography Competition winners were just about to be announced and festivals coordinator for Mountain Culture & Environment, Christine Thél, was busy sending out congratulations to the seven award winners (from four different countries) and nine photographers (from five different countries) who received special mentions. But that’s easy work compared to the avalanche of images received that had to be uploaded to The Banff Centre’s  FTP site, saved to an external hard drive, entered into a database, and then finally perused by a select jury.

Christine has been working with the Banff Mountain Photography Competition for the past four years and 2009 marked a special development for the program. Previously, photographers have submitted hard copies of images for the jury, but in the past several years Christine noticed a decline in entries and concluded “we needed to go digital”.

Was she ever right! In 2009, the number of images doubled from the previous year to over 4,200, with more than 600 photographers competing from 41 countries. Of the total submissions, 95 per cent were submitted digitally. With assistance from The Centre’s Information Technology Department,  Christine set up a special page on The Banff Centre’s FTP site to receive the images and she then downloaded them to an external hard drive for viewing later with the jury.

Not only is the online system more effective in generating and storing more image submissions, Christine also believes the images were of better quality. “Several of the semi-professional and professional artists that hadn’t submitted recently returned to us because of the digital uploading system,” says Christine. And as if that’s not enough, there’s an important “green” component to the whole competition now. There was less waste because very few images had to be printed and we reduced emissions since no postage or return postage of the entries was needed.

This year’s jury consisted of three Canadian members, Alec Pytlowany and Andrew Querner (both photographers and past award winners), and Kristy Davison, the photo editor for Highline Magazine. The jury selected Nathalie Daoust’s artistic and ephemeral image of a young woman in a misty mountain landscape as the grand prize winner; a bit of a departure from the traditional mountain sports or landscape image that we’ve seen in the past. But festivals director Shannon O’Donoghue is happy with their selection as it aligns perfectly with the inspiring creativity mandate of The Banff Centre.

All the winning images are now displayed online and will be in the Sally Borden Building by late October. The images will be featured as part of the Film Festival intermission video, and will also travel to various locations throughout Canada and the United States to be enjoyed by those who aren’t able to make it to Banff.

Credit: The winning photo for the 2009 Banff Mountain Photography Competition. A stunning image by photographer Nathalie Daoust.

“Our mandate now speaks to programming that fosters the development of creative solutions to global environmental and sustainability concerns”, says Cox. “Our programs promote an understanding and appreciation of the natural world through creative expression of mountain experiences and by creating opportunities for dialogue and leadership on environmental and sustainability issues. We utilize the arts, such as, writing, film, and photography to explore mankind’s relationship with the world’s mountain places.”

 ”I’m very excited about what we’ve done over the past two years in the expansion of our core programming to include more environmental initiatives while also keeping focused on our flagship events.” Flagship events include the annual Banff Mountain Book Festival and the Banff Mountain Film Festival and World Tour which reaches over 200,000 mountain enthusiasts in more than 30 countries.

Over the past two years, new programming has included an expansion in focus for the Mountain Culture and Environment Speakers’ Series – featuring adventurers, authors, scientists, as well as leading innovators and thinkers covering a broader range of issues. Speakers in 2008 and 2009 have included Canada’s premier arctic traveller Jerry Kobalenko, bestselling author of Sid Marty speaking about his recent book The Black Grizzly of Whisky Creek, and wildlife photographer Stephen Kazlowski presenting tales and images from The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World. The series has also included thought-provoking presentations by Alan Weisman author of A World Without Us, a New York Times best-seller, Doug Fine who tells his tales of trying to live green in Farewell, My Subaru, and David Hughes, a leading expert on energy and the environment, and contributing author to Carbon Shift: How the Twin Crises of Oil Depletion and Climate Change will Define the Future.

In 2008, Mountain Culture and Environment  invited 3E, an association of climate change stakeholders (Energy, Environment, and Economy) from across Canada to hold their meetings at The Banff Centre. They used a process which focuses on “dialogue”, which works well for addressing particularly complex issues “It’s similar to a conference but with fewer people, deeper dialogue, and more relationship building,” says Cox. “The facilitators at 3E were so impressed with the resources and vision at The Banff Centre, they are partnering with us on our new core environmental dialogue programming.”

Based on his background in law and Aboriginal affairs, Cox is developing the topic of Aboriginal consultation in environmental and resource decision-making as the first environmental dialogue program. Cox is working closely with the Centre’s Leadership Development and Aboriginal Leadership departments, leveraging their experience in facilitating deep reflection and developing and delivering training programs. “Most environmental decisions are actually about the impacts of development – and better consultations with Aboriginal people will lead to more equitable environmental decisions – mountains or otherwise,” says Cox.

Another new project currently underway is a pilot program which will be the first in a series of edited interviews for use by the Canada School of Public Service. “The nature of exploration and its impact on leadership is a key theme running through many of the seminars, films, and books presented at the Banff Mountain Festivals,” says Cox. Every year approximately half-a-dozen Festival speakers are interviewed in the intimate setting of the Rice Television studio at The Banff Centre. The resulting video footage is of exceptional quality, and these in-depth and thought-provoking interviews will now be edited and produced into final mastered interview programs.

Looking forward, Mountain Culture and Environment will produce a balance of informed and inspirational programming. “Through collaborating in creative ways, across The Banff Centre and globally, we will continue to incorporate best-in-class mountain culture and environmental programming which will spark debates and discussions,” says Cox. “By continuing to move forward in creating unique opportunities for creativity and innovation by leading experts in their fields – whether they be filmmakers, authors, or environmental experts – Mountain Culture and Environment is looking forward to increasing the depth and reach of our activities.”

Credit: From the film The Unbearable Lightness of Skiing. Photo by Greg Hill

Greg Hill is used to moving up in the world.

Renowned for his backcountry skiing, one of his biggest achievements was gaining one million feet of vertical in a single season, a feat that included 40,000-feet in a single day, 40 separate peaks, 37 days of 10,000 or more feet, and 145 days in the backcountry. Greg’s accomplishment involved no helicopters or lift lines, only skins on his skis for traction and an immeasurable amount of will power.

An experience with a new medium now has his adventures travelling around the world.

The resident of Revelstoke, B.C.’s first submission to the 2008 Banff Mountain Film Festival was not only chosen as a finalist, but also as an integral part of the World Tour – not bad for a “basement” film producer.

“I climb mountains to be in these amazing places, so I thought I might as well try to communicate it with other people and inspire them to get out there and enjoy,” explains Greg. “I made a couple of YouTube videos before, but this was my first real attempt at a film. There’s still quit a few [film editing] buttons that I’m intimidated by. I don’t know what they do and I don’t ever want to touch them,” he adds jokingly.

For years, Greg has been publishing an internet blog in order to chronicle his escapades. “I started to feel that video had the capability of making people feel like they are right there beside the person. You can hear the wind or how hard they are breathing.”

Greg’s movie, The Unbearable Lightness of Skiing, follows three of his exploits and includes the best footage from the season. “I try to not let it interfere with what we are doing. We don’t set things up. I’m always trying to let things happen as they happen and be quick enough to catch it. If you’ve ever skied or done anything with photographers they are really annoying and you never get anything done,” he says with a laugh. “I’ve got a lot of energy so if I see I can get a good angle by hiking in the distance as my friends go forward, I’ll do that.”

Lots of energy is a modest statement. Greg put in over 100 days in the backcountry this winter. In his most recent adventure, he completed a 30-kilometre, 5-day traverse which boasted some “ups and downs,” including a blown knee at 10 000-feet leading to a heli-evacuation, a wicked descent of Purity Mountain and an avalanche on Pristine Mountain in British Columbia. To have Greg sum it up in one word, “epic.”

This season also included a tour that he had been looking at for 10 years.

“There are a lot of things that I haven’t done that I’m slowly waiting for the perfect day to do, or the day that’s right for me to go and do. Safety is always first. You want to come back and tell your stories,” he says, explaining the journey in detail, including a 150-foot waterfall repel.

An assistant ski guide for the past five seasons, Greg took part in a week-long full ski guide exam at the end of this winter. The eventual goal is to use his local experience in Revelstoke and Rogers Pass and provide people with “great experiences.”

When he’s not guiding, he plans to continue crossing adventures off his list and creating videos to share his journeys. One can only hope he will reappear at the Banff Mountain Film Festival and World Tour to showcase his local adventures on the world stage. “It’s an inspirational night,” Greg says. “People from all over the world are going on these amazing adventures and we get to see them do what they do.”

Majka Burhardt
Photo Credit: Gabe Rogel

Climbing is what sparked Majka Burhardt’s interest in Ethiopia but it’s the coffee that’s bringing her back.

A writer, climber, and guide, Burhardt first travelled to Ethiopia to research the country’s coffee industry, where she discovered instead a climber’s paradise. This mission resulted in her first book, Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa which was entered into the Banff Mountain Book Festival competition – and subsequently led to her coming to Banff as a guest speaker for the 2008 Banff Mountain Book Festival.  She also participated in the 2008 Banff Mountain Writing Program, held during the festival.

Burhardt’s non-fiction writing combines her background in anthropology with her passion for adventure – she’s been published in Patagonia, Women’s Adventure, The Explorers’s Journal, and Climbing magazines. A certified climbing guide since 1998, Burhardt was the fourth woman in the United States to become certified by the American Mountain Guides Association.  She now specializes in guiding multi-pitch rock climbing and technical ice climbing, and has guided expeditions in Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico, Nepal, and Alaska.

Prior to entering her book and speaking at the festival, Burhardt was not familiar with the Banff Mountain Grant program. Festivals Director, Shannon O’Donoghue mentioned the grants program, which prompted her to apply. Burhardt’s grant-winning project, entitled The Damara Sequence, will create a film and a series of articles about Namibia’s Himba tribe and the mountainous landscape they inhabit in the Damaraland region, as explored by climbers and anthropologists.

“I like to say that climbers, at their essence, like to get dirty. They get close. They connect with the land and commit to landscape in a way that is understood by people who have to do the same to create a life,” says Burhardt, of her upcoming climbing trip to Africa. “Namibia is one of the only countries in the world to have conservation mandated as part of its constitution. It also has some of the best roads in Africa, one of its most stable governments, and a geographic pre-disposition to granite. Add in the Himba-seen as the last great southern African Pastoral tribe, and you have The Damara Sequence.”

Burhardt will be departing on May 1, 2009 for the five-week expedition. About her trip, she says, “the photographer Gabe Rogel, and videographer Chris Alstrin (who happens to be a 2006 Banff Mountain Grant winner and past film festival entrant) are ecstatic about the recent heavy rains which will allow them to film some of the greenest terrain the desert country has had in over fifty years.”

Leveraging grant dollars with other sources of funding is often how recipients are able to be involved with larger projects.  “The Banff grant was the first funding support we received for our project and thus it signaled, to us, a commitment and interest from the industry, and to other potential funding groups it provided the gateway to support”, says Burhardt.” I was able to use the commitment from Banff as reason to fully pursue this project.” Other sources of funding for The Damara Sequence project include a Polartec Challenge Grant, as well as in-kind support from Patagonia, Osprey, Outdoor Research, Clif Bar, Scarpa, and Petzl.

Burhardt is not sure if The Damara Sequence will be ready in time to enter the film into the 2009 Banff Mountain Film Festival, but audiences should definitely be looking out for it in 2010.

And what’s next for Burhardt? Along with the film, she is simultaneously working on her next book Coffee: Authentic Ethiopia, a visual and narrative tale of opportunity, resources, education, and  heritage. “For me, it brings my experience in Ethiopia full circle as the first time I went to Ethiopia it was to search for a rare coffee bean-that time I ended up climbing, this time, I’m focusing on the coffee.”

For up-to-date information on Majka Burhardt’s trip to Namibia, visit her blog site:

http://www.majkaburhardt.com/liminal-line-blog/

]]> http://www.banffcentre.info/peakinside/2009/04/banff-mountain-grants-the-damara-sequence/feed/ 0 http://www.banffcentre.info/peakinside/2009/04/from-chamonix-to-banff/ http://www.banffcentre.info/peakinside/2009/04/from-chamonix-to-banff/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:28:28 +0000 Joanna Croston http://www.banffcentre.info/peakinside/?p=40

Karin Stubenvoll

In fall 2008, Mountain Culture and Environment welcomed the return of Karin Stubenvoll to the World Tour team. Karin had worked briefly in the Mountain Culture office in 2006 as a World Tour Program Coordinator for the Banff Mountain Film Festival. However, her history with Mountain Culture and the Banff Mountain Film Festival is much deeper and broader than it might appear.

Stubenvoll’s first connection to the World Tour began in France in the late 1990s when she worked as the European tour coordinator with one of the World Tour film projection partners in Europe at the time, Chris McGeough. Apart from assisting with the local presentation of the Banff films in Chamonix, Stubenvoll organized the logistics for all the film screenings in Europe from an office there. The screenings, although smaller in number when compared with the European tour today, had a broad reach from the Ice Hotel in Kiruna, Sweden in the north, to Livigno, Italy in the south, and all the way to Budapest, Hungary in the east.

Back in those days, the films were in NTSC Beta-cam format which caused complications in Europe where projection equipment worked in another format. As a result, all the films were projected on North American equipment that had to be brought and set up at each individual venue. Stubenvoll remembers a particularly frantic screening in Denmark which happened two days after the Film Festival in Banff where tapes were duplicated overnight by Banff Centre producer Woody MacPhail, then flown to Copenhagen with Chris McGeough, where she met him with the projection equipment van ready for a show that night.

Since her return to Mountain Culture in Banff in 2008, Stubenvoll has been working on the World Tour as usual but has been extensively involved with the expansion of the film screenings in Germany. The German tour has grown exponentially from two shows in the late 1990’s to more than 30 Banff Mountain Film Festival and Radical Reels screenings in Germany and Switzerland this year, with more in the works for 2010 and 2011. Part of this success is likely due to Stubenvoll’s long history with Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre and her fluency in three languages, including her native tongue German.

World tour manager Jim Baker says “We’re thrilled to have (her) working with us again. Her in-depth knowledge and world-wide connections are taking the international tour to a new level.”

Patsy Murphy (2nd from right) and Amélie Peck (far right) at the 2008 Banff Mountain Festivals

Despite the musical distractions at the Calgary Folk Festival, Mountain Culture staff member Amélie Peck took note of stations with volunteers sorting recyclables and biodegradable waste to be composted. Fellow staff member Patsy Murphy encountered the same situation at the Canmore Folk Fest. Their keen eyes and interest led to the launch of the Towards Zero Waste program at the 2008 Banff Mountain Festivals, which diverted a total of 622 kilograms from the landfill – 93 per cent of what was collected.

“We let everyone involved know that this is what we want to do. Everybody got on board and really helped out,” says Peck. “The bar has been set for next year.”

The Banff Mountain Festivals is the latest in a series of special events in the Bow Valley that have committed to keeping at least 80 per cent of their waste from going to landfill disposal. To do so, a total of four Resource Recovery Centre stations were set-up around campus. “The idea was that people had to think about what they had to do with their waste. They had an item and they had to figure out which bin to place it in,”adds Peck.

The most recycled item throughout the nine day event was returnable beverage containers, weighing approximately 240 kilograms (almost 40 per cent of what was collected). Organics and compostable items, mixed paper, and cardboard each accounted for 15 to 20 per cent of the materials.

To manage the program, more volunteers than normal were needed to ensure that streams weren’t contaminated, and that bins were emptied and weighed. Along with Festival volunteers, Mountain Culture partnered with Banff Community High School’s Green Team. The Banff Centre custodial and food and beverage staff also played key roles. “It was a huge educational tool for everyone and we had a really good response,” says Murphy.

The program was organized through Peter Duck, regional Towards Zero Waste coordinator with the Bow Valley Waste Management Commission who was on hand to clear up any misconceptions. He said the most commonly misunderstood item was corn-based compostable food ware because it looks like plastic. “When people start talking about waste diversion at a high profile event like the Banff Mountain Festivals it creates a huge profile in the community,” says Duck. “The message gets out that this isn’t garbage anymore, there is a huge amount that you can capture and significant results can be achieved.”

• There will be approximately 530 screenings of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour this year.
• Of the 530 screenings, over 300 are held in North America, 190 internationally, and approximately 35 are Radical Reels screenings.
• The international tour includes approximately 70 screenings throughout Europe, 35 in Africa (all located in South Africa), 32 in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), 25 in Latin America, 22 in Asia, and 2 in Antarctica.
• Yes, that’s right, Antarctica! For the past few years we’ve had screenings at McMurdo Station and at The South Pole!
• And, who attends the South Pole Screening? Mostly scientists and researchers who are members of the United States Antarctic Program.
• So…that makes Antarctica the host of the most southerly screenings while Reykjavik, Iceland hosts the most northerly screenings.
• Our largest international World Tour audience is 1000 people in Dunedin, New Zealand, followed by 730 people in Goteborg, Sweden.
• Our first Radical Reels tour screening internationally will be in Germany later this year.

For details about the tour dates and locations, visit www.banffmountainfestivals.ca

Splah! A learning journey in mountain freshwater.

Mountain Culture recently released Splash! a learning journey in mountain freshwater on its Bow Valley Mountain Forum website. The website is dedicated to publicizing community events, activities and information for residents of the Bow Valley. Splash!, created for children, is an animated tour of the relationship between mountains and freshwater and explains how mountains store water and help create precipitation, how lowlands depend on mountains to store and release moisture at appropriate times, and how climate change is impacting this critical relationship. Finally, interactive features quiz site visitors about freshwater use in Alberta industries, share tips on how to conserve water, and provide information about the state of mountain freshwater worldwide.

Splash! was written by environmental writer, Rachel Delaney. Web development was provided by Adam Kirk with Lycosidea Inc. Graphic design, and animation was completed by the Digital Film and Media Production (formerly Creative Electronic Environment) at The Banff Centre. Splash! was produced by Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre and made possible by an important donation from Parks Canada.

Mountain Culture and National Geographic are thrilled that The North Face will join National Geographic as a co-presenting partner of the Banff Mountain Film Festival and North American Tour. Mountain Culture has worked with The North Face on several initiatives, including partnership of the European touring exhibition of Portraits from the Summit, scholarship support for the Banff Adventure Filmmaker Workshop, and featuring many of The North Face athletes on the Festival stages. The North Face has remained supportive of the Festival’s values, methods and high quality of work over the past decade. Mountain Culture values The North Face’s commitment to their athletes, the environment, mountain culture, and their consumers.

The timing and conditions couldn’t have been better when the Festivals approached The North Face with an invitation to partner along side National Geographic as co-presenting sponsor. Aaron Carpenter, vice president, marketing for The North Face says, “The North Face is proud to be a co-presenting sponsor of the Banff Mountain Film Festival.  Exploration and adventure have been at the heart of The North Face brand for more than 40 years. Our alliance with the Banff Mountain Film Festival — and their support for the documentation of outdoor expeditions through film, photography, and the written word — is a natural fit. We look forward to connecting with the festival fans at Banff and the communities around the globe who will be experiencing this tour and its compelling content.”

Central Asia Institute and Three Cups of Tea will join Mountain Culture as a major partner of the 2009/10 Banff Mountain Festival and North American Tour. Central Asia Institute is excited about the opportunity to promote peace with books, and successfully bring education and hope to remote communities in central Asia. Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea author and founder of the Central Asia Institute, was a guest speaker at the 2007 Banff Mountain Book Festival, receiving a standing ovation for his inspiring presentation. Affiliate organization Pennies for Peace, along with Mortenson’s daughter Amira presented at the Banff Elementary School. Banff school children have been forever touched by the message they heard that day.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time was published in 1996 and is a New York Times best selling book. Through Greg Mortenson’s dedication and indefatigable efforts he has established approximately 79 schools, many for girls, throughout Pakistan and Central Asia.

Redwood Creek Wines joins us in 2009 as the official wine of the Banff Mountain Festival and as co-presenting sponsor of the Banff Mountain Book Festival. Redwood Creek shares the Festival’s passion for enjoying and preserving the outdoors, and sharing stories of mountain and adventure, while being recognized for producing award-winning wines.

We are extremely excited to collaborate with The North Face, Central Asia Institute/Three Cups of Tea, and Redwood Creek to strengthen our programs and to share our messages and stories with Festival and tour audiences

The 2009 Banff Mountain Festival is presented by National Geographic, The North Face, and Redwood Creek Wines; sponsored by Deuter, OR, Polartec, and Central Asia Institute/Three Cups of Tea; with support from MSR, Fernie Alpine Resort, Petzl, World Expeditions, Mountain Hardwear, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Alpine Club of Canada, Big Rock Brewery, Café Books, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Calgary Herald, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.