First news of a cracking speaker line-up for the 2008 Kendal Mountain Festival in November.
It might seem a fair way off, but we've just got some early news
on the speaker line-up for this year's Kendal Mountain Film
Festival in November and the line-up's looking so strong we
thought we'd share it with you.
The
star guest is Italian Reinhold Messner - right - is regarded
by many as the greatest mountaineer of all time with an extraordinary
list of achievements including the first acent of Everest without
supplementary oxygen followed by the first solo Everest summit
without oxygen and he was, of course, the first to climb all 14 of
the world's 8,000-metre peaks.
As if that weren't impressive enough, French climber - and yes,
let's admit it, heartthrob - Catherine Destivelle - below -
will be appearing at the festival. She's best known for the film Seo
with its astonishing sequences on the cliffs of Mali, but she's also
a hugely skilled alpinist having free-climbed the Nameless Tower in
Pakistan, soloed the Bonatti Pillar on Les Drus then created a new
route on its west face during a remarkable 11-day solo-climb.
Straight From The States
From the other side of the Atlantic, David Breashears is a
climber, author and filmmaker. In 1985 he was the first American to
reach the summit of Everest twice and went on to guide Dick Bass on
the first ascent of the Seven Summits.
He
was also filming on Everest during the tragic events of 1996, which
inspired the book Into Thin Air, and co-directed, co-produced and
filmed the extraordinary 1998 IMAX film. Everest.
American climber Steph Davis is recognised as one of the
world's premier adventure climbers, and one of the few women to have
free-climbed El Capitan in Yosemite when in 2005 she climbed the
Salathe Wall. She is also the first woman to climb all seven named
summits in the Fitzroy massif. Her crack-climbing abilities are
legendary, and Steph has also recently taken up BASE jumping…
And Lots More...
Alongside the speakers, the heart of the Kendal Festival is the
mountain film competiton with over 60 films being screened and
competing for ten main awards. And running concurrently are the Art
and Book Festivals.
We'll have more details on those in due course, but for now, the
dates for your diary are 20-23 November. You can find more
details at www.mountainfilm.co.uk.
Tickets are available from mid-August and can be bought online or through Kendal’s Brewery Arts box office on 01539 725133.
