Kendal Mountain Film Festival - Report

They're hosing down the streets of Kendal after another cracking year of the Mountain Film Festival. Last year the festival really came into its own with the premier of Touching the Void. It would have been hard to top such a headline-grabber, but this year's festival was another excellent event which was so popular that by Saturday morning, film passes had sold out completely.

For anyone who's never been to Kendal before, it's a bit like being given two hundred different cakes and just one weekend to eat them all. Even sticking to your favourites, you're still going to be pretty sick of cakes if you try and scoff the lot. Far better to pick your must-sees, throw in a wild card - The Clanging Chimes of Doom, an account of extreme caving with Mongolian yakherds, for example - and just enjoy the weekend.

But just making those choices gets harder every year because the quality of film-making on offer just keeps getting better and better, with less cliquey climb-y expedition snooze fests and more thoughtful, beautiful films made by mountain lovers at every level, but still plenty of jaw-drop to keep things interesting.

'A Wake-Up Call For Climbers'

Meltdown, the new film from SlackJaw productions is a wake-up call to climbers. Roger Payne (formerly of the BMC, now International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation - UIAA) and three companions went on an UNESCO-sponsored expedition to climb Island Peak and report back on the growing problem of glacial lakes. Shocking stuff - the villagers talked of the devastation left behind when a glacial lake at the foot of Ama Dablam breached its retaining wall in 1987, causing chaos along the river valley.

Payne and Julie-Ann Clyma reach the top of Island Peak to find the mountain 'rotting away right in front of them'. They've nothing to be chuffed about; the climb is unrecognisable, says Payne, and looking at the dripping rotten summit of this little Himalayan peak, the spectre of global warming becomes horribly real.

Several smaller lakes below Island Peak have grown to become one huge 2km-long lake at the foot of the Imja glacier which, if the walls break, will wash 300 million tonnes of water through the densely populated valley below. A sobering film, leavened with some unintentional comedy moments from UIAA president Ian McNaught-Davies' glamorous Chilean wife Loreto, who puts on a full face of slap every day, even when laid low by altitude sickness. An example to us all, I'm sure the ladies out there will agree.

Also seen Nima Temba Sherpa, an account of a Jagged Globe expedition to Cho Oyu, from the perspective of the sirdar, or head Sherpa, and The Conquest of K2, which uses interviews with expedition members and previously-unseen footage to tell the story of a defeated Italy getting behind a bunch of climbers and holding its head high again.

The disputed account of Walter Bonatti's freezing bivouac is touched upon in the film (a long story, explained properly in this fascinating National Geographic feature - www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0409/excerpt6.html - but Bonatti himself keeps shtum, referring the filmmakers to his books.

Our Highlight Of The Festival...

Personally though, the highlight of the festival was Sur le Fil de 4000m. One of the loveliest mountain films ever made is La Grande Cordee, in which Patrick Berhault narrates his incredible traverse of the Alps from Slovenia to France: climbing, mountaineering, via ferrata, skiing and on plain old booted foot.

It was an incredible achievement in itself, but La Grande Cordee conveys Berhault's love of mountains in a very low-key, gentle way. Watching the French climber tinker up a via ferrata with his son, explaining why this and why that, well, it makes you feel like you're right there with them on that sunny little outcrop. Sadly Berhault died earlier this year, attempting to climb all 82 Alpine peaks over 4000m in three months. He fell to his death on the 58th day, stepping through a cornice on Switzerland's highest peak, the Dom, and Sur le Fil de 4000m was supposed to be the story of how they did it.

Sur le Fil was never going to have a happy ending, but at the end of the film, Berhault's climbing partner Magnin talks about finding Berhault's belongings in the hut. Among them is a small card printed with a definition of courage, and when Magnin read the words aloud, promising that he'd go back and finish the traverse because Patrick wasn't the kind of man to leave things half-done, there wasn't a dry eye in Cinema 2.

Outside The Cinema - Chouinard And More...

Other than films, what else was on? Presentations by climber Jeff Lowe, photographer Heinz Zak, Kurt Diemberger and the perennially popular Alan Hinkes kept the crowds inside even on a glorious frosty Saturday, and the star attraction on Saturday evening was a presentation by Yvon Chouinard, climber and founder of Patagonia, and something of a visionary when it comes to ethical business.

Chouinard [right] was on good form - a committed environmental campaigner who just keeps going, despite his pessimism about the state of the planet. A sense of humour no doubt helps keep him going, and asides such as: 'You know, leading an examined life is a real pain in the ass' kept the session from turning into a hand-wringers' convention.

His advice for outdoors people who want to see the outdoor industry take more responsibility for their impact on the environment? Question companies about the things that are important to you. Ask businesses about the dyes they use. Orange is the most toxic dye, says Chouinard, which is why Patagonia doesn't use it anymore. Inform yourself, he says, but when you're informed, you then have to decide what you're going to do with that knowledge. Like he says, it's a pain in the ass, but it's up to every one of us to do something if we think something should be done.

Chouinard seems like a reluctant guru, but when someone who's made enough money to go surfing for the rest of his life puts $750,000 of his own cash into a 'Vote for the Environment' campaign, you can't help but admire the guy. Well, he was happy to sign a couple of festival posters for us, so if anyone wants one (in exchange for a donation to the environmental charity of your choice), take a look here [link to forum or ebay thingy when I get it up].

Festival Signs Up For One Per-Cent For The Planet

After the Chouinard discussion, the festival organisers had some good news - next year, Kendal Mountain Film Festival will be the first UK organisation to sign up to Chouinard's One Per Cent for the Planet, basically a self-imposed one per cent tax for companies and individuals who believe government isn't doing enough for the environment. In the US, this fund supports grassroots environmental campaigns, and although the UK version is just heaving itself off the ground, it's an exciting project. If you want to know more abut how you can get involved, click here [www.onepercentfortheplanet.org]

Acute Mountain Film Fest Sickness

So at the end of the weekend, the winners are announced [full list here www.mountainfilm.co.uk/2004/results.html] and the weary punters drag themselves home.

The symptoms of Acute Mountain Film Fest Sickness (AMFFS) are familiar - an aversion to bright lights, a facial tic brought on by too much caffeine, an aching bladder and a state of utter and inexplicable knackeredness. You're wiped out, but the last thing you feel like after a bum-numbing two-hour programme is sitting down. What you really want to do is hand in notice on the rest of your life and buy a one-way ticket to Patagonia, but most years, standing pint in hand listening to the lucky sods who really are off to Patagonia next week is the best we're gonna get. All the same, sorry to have missed:

Your Himalaya - a tribute by the Basque climber and filmmaker Alberto Iurrategui to his brother, who died on Gash II, a compassionate beautiful film which won the festival's Grand Prize

The Adventure Is Not Yet Over - Bonington and Houlding climb and hang out together in Australia's Blue Mountains (highly recommended by Chris Lines, Berghaus gear supreme, tha knows)

Parahawking - a British film about parapenting with birds of prey in Nepal

Reflections of a Solo Sheep-herder - a 15-minute film on a North Carolina-based big-wall chauvinist (who says Americans can't do irony?)

And with the Kendal Mountain Film Festival rapidly turning into the Alastair Lee Mountain Film Festival, Alastair's Twice Upon A Time in Bolivia waltzed off with the People's Prize on Sunday. His account of an ascent of the very lovely Pequeno Alpamayo [as climbed by Maria herself in 1997 - Ed.] by a motley crew of bums from Burnley was highly praised by all - well done, Alastair.