A date for your diaries: the Dundee Mountain Film Festival follows hard on the heels of the Kendal festival this year, taking place from Wednesday 21st to Saturday 24th of November.
Highlights
Films from the Banff world tour will be on the menu, along with a line-up of talks from the likes of alpinist Andy Cave and Alpine Club President Stephen Venables. Both will be signing their books, 'Learning to Breathe' - which covers Andy's ascent from the mines where his parents worked to Alpine peaks and beyond - and 'Higher than the Eagle Soars', the chronicle of the first British ascent of Everest without oxygen.
That's not all. The festival includes a display of mountain art and photography, and also some gear stalls, so you can get your fix of stunning views or discounted kit as needs - and means - dictate.
The films
The range of films looks interesting too. Depending on how the mood takes you, there'll be the chance to follow Andy Cave and Leo Houlding on a virtual climbing trip to the Czech Republic, find out whether or not climbing ice bergs is a good idea, follow the first unsupported traverse of the Southern Patagonian ice cap - the third largest in the world, or paraglide across the Grand Canyon. As if trekking into it isn't enough ...
There's plenty of action from closer to home as well. If you fancy watching an ascent of the Cresta route on Ben Nevis - sometimes with nothing but 'moral support' attaching you to the cliff - then Dundee can definitely cater for you. And just to round things off, there's even plenty of cliff dancing from St. Kilda - we aren't quite sure what that involves but it sounds, erm, interesting anyway :-)
Party, party, party!
It's also the 25th birthday of the film festival this year, making it the longest-running adventure film festival in the UK, so if there isn't any birthday cake on the agenda then we reckon there ought to be.
More info
Tickets range from £6 to £10, depending on which session you want to go to, or you can buy a full weekend ticket for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which costs £28.
More information on the festival website, or you can go straight to the programme, or book tickets here.
