Crossing the Ditch, a film about James Castrission and Justin Jones paddling across the Tasman Sea, won best film on exploration and adventure at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Photo courtesy of the Banff Center.
The annual Banff Mountain Film Festival, held last week in beautiful Banff, Canada, featured several categories for outdoor adventure films. Here are five award winners worth a look:
Best Film on Exploration and Adventure: Crossing the Ditch
The film documents the attempt by young adventurers James Castrission and Justin Jones to cross the 1367-mile Tasman Sea by kayak.
Best Film on Climbing: The Asgard Project
Alpinists Leo Houlding, Sean Leary and Carlos Suarez make an ambitious attempt on the first free ascent of Mount Asgard in Baffin Island, an epic expedition on one of the toughest big walls in the world.
Best Film on Mountain Culture: A Life Ascending
Ruedi Beglinger, is a backcountry ski guide who has spent almost three decades living and working out of a hand-built cabin high in the Selkirk Mountains north of Revelstoke, British Columbia. The film explores how Beglinger’s life in the mountains was affected by a deadly avalanche that swept through one of his ski groups in 2003.
Best Film on Mountain Sport: Eastern Rises
Professional fly fisher Frank Smethurst goes off the grid on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia, one of the last truly wild landscapes left in the world.
Special Jury Award: Cross Country Snowboarding
Deadpan humor by Adam Brodie and Geoff McLean. This one’s been out for a while…and it’s a classic. Why did it take so long for someone to pick this low hanging fruit?
