First shown at Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, a world tour featuring the best films starts its New Zealand leg at the Queenstown Memorial Centre next Wednesday and Thursday.
It’s also a fundraiser for the NZ Alpine Club — the rebuilding of Matukituki Valley’s Aspiring Hut was assisted by money raised at past local screenings.
"We’re super-fortunate to be kicking off the NZ leg of the world tour and getting a chance to be inspired by incredible people doing amazing things," local volunteer event organiser Nigel Lloyd says.
Next Wednesday’s short films include a German film following two adventurous fathers bringing their 2-year-old sons on a six-day mountain bike tour through the Swiss Alps — it turns into a test of patience for all four.
In other films, a Norwegian skier who loses a leg in an accident gets back to skiing big lines, two world-class ski mountaineers attempt a daring first descent of Mount Robson’s south face, in Canada’s British Columbia, and three Belgians attempt the first free ascent on an elusive route on Patagonia’s Torre Central.
Next Thursday’s films include one about a top female ultrarunner who took up the sport at the age of 50 despite claiming not to be a runner.
In others, two adventurers kiteski along the remote coastline of Baffin, in Canada, others explore a secluded valley in Nepal and a team try to find what’s poisoning watersheds in the Arctic.
Screenings start both nights at 7pm; tickets via eventbrite.co.nz
