Celebrating the 2017 Banff Mountain Film Festival
Editor's Note: The Alpine Club of Canada is a long-time, proud sponsor of the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. The 2017 festival was no exception and our crew was there in full force all week handing out film and book awards, happy hour drinks, prizes and big smiles. We'd like to say congratulations to all of this year's winners and especially those artists and applicants we sponsored directly, featured below. Now that's $10,000 well spent. Cheers to another great year and we'll see you in 2018!
Best Film on Climbing: Psycho Vertical
Banff Centre, Mountain Film and Book Festival, 2017, Best Climbing Film Psycho Vertical, Alpine Club of Canada Sponsor, Jen Randall.
Award: $2000
- Director and Producer: Jen Randall
- Production Company: Light Shed Pictures
From the Banff Film and Book Festival's website: "Follow Britain’s unlikeliest hero-mountaineer and funny-man, Andy Kirkpatrick on an 18 day solo ascent of El Capitan, Yosemite. Psycho Vertical is a raw and intimate portrait of one of climbing’s most interesting figures. Inspired by the best-selling autobiography of the same name, the film explores themes of identity, fatherhood, and how our pasts shape us."
Watch the trailer:
Grand Prize for Best Book of the Festival: The Climbers
Grand Prize Winner Jim Herrington with the ACC's Keith Haberl: Book Awards, Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival.
Award: $4000
- Author and photographer: Jim Herrington
- Published by: Mountaineers Books
This book also won the Mountain Image category of the Book Competition.
"Stunning and beautifully laid out images which flow seamlessly into each other, taking the reader on a journey through the different aspects of winter...from quite untouched beauty, to quirky, humorous ice formations. A work of art which has already found a permanent place on my coffee table!"
- Mayan Smith-Gobat, 2017 Book Competition Jury
Best Mountaineering Article: Threshhold Shift
Book Awards, Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, 2017, Banff Centre.
Award: $2000
- Author: Nick Bullock
- Published by: Alpinist Magazine (February 2017)
"A threshold shift is the ear's defense against loud noise; Nick Bullock's years of experience defend his mind from registering the mortal hazard he and his compatriots face, and all too commonly perish from, in the mountains...Elevating moments from a first ascent in Nepal contrast with the difficult final journey Nick makes with his aging widower father. In spite of a life spent in search of 'something better' through climbing he realizes he shares traits with the old men he swore he would never become. Not a lighthearted tale, it addresses mortality with on honesty which must be admired. Breathtakingly written, Threshold Shift is on a different frequency from what passes as climbing writing in today's social media feed."
- Ian Welsted, 2017 Book Competition Jury
Happy Hour outside the Eric Harvie Theatre
ACC Ambassador Gord McArthur on the mic at Happy Hour, Saturday night of the festival.
We'd also like to say congrats to the winners of our Wicked Wearable Weekend prize draw that happened at Happy Hour on November 5th, which includes:
- Two nights for two people at an ACC hut
- An ACC Throwback Merino T-shirt
- An ACC custom Abbot Pass BUFF
And are winners are:
Richard Baker of Liberty, Utah and Jayme Moye of Nelson, BC who won this year's VIP prize.
Thank you to everyone who entered this year's draw at the festival and we look forward to seeing you again next year!