Banff Tour Wraps in Portland

The final night of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour's Portland run was tonight. The lineup went a little something like this. (Approximate running times in parentheses)

Dream Result (16:00) - Kayak film that won a People's Choice award on Banff's Radical Reels tour. Includes some Norwegian boating, a wreck reel and a world record waterfall drop attempt. A good mix, but I don't know enough about the sport to know whether some of the things they do are intentional.

Parking Garage: Beyond the Limit (5:00) - A parody of the Everest: Beyond the Limit TV show. For those who find themselves out of breath after a flight of stairs. Sir Edmund Hilarity.

Crossing the Ditch (1:15:00) - Won the Best of Exploration and Adventure award at the festival. Two novice kayakers decide to paddle across the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. Thousands of kilometers, months of travel. They encounter rough seas, sharks and yachtsman. Will they make it? Will they encounter the Blair Witch as per their photography? This one got my girlfriend to swear never to touch a kayak. (She left open the possibility of using parking garages, though.)

Salt (26:00) - Winner of the Creative Excellence award at the festival. By the way, it's not this one. Salt documents a photographer's multi-year journey into Australia's dry Lake Eyre to capture images and battle personal demons. Emotional story, amazing time-lapse landscapes.

Rush Hour Dream (5:00) - German businessman falls asleep on the bus, wakes up paragliding.

Last Paradise (26:00) - Tells the story of a group of Kiwi action sports pioneers. Great old-school footage of surfing, snowboarding, skiing, hang gliding and proto-wakeboarding.

Not a bad group of films this year. I like how they changed the lineup every day, instead of repeating some as they did in years past. I'd have liked to see more snow sports. If they think it's the wrong time of year for that, they're wrong (judging by all the kayaking movies, that might be the case).

Check the Banff Centre site for tour stops near you and get tickets as soon as they go on sale. These shows sell out in days in Portland. Unless you live in Banff, the tour is your only chance.

Banff Tour: Day 2

Banff's signature image this year by Topher Donahue

Another stellar lineup for a Wednesday night of mountain-film watching. All running times approximate.

The Swiss Machine -  Ueli Steck speed climbs various routes in Yosemite and the Swiss Alps. Alex Honold shows up, awkward as ever.  (15 minutes)

Kranked Kids: Just Down the Road - Dad leaves son alone. Dad is a bike filmer. Story of son's joyride. Cute family stuff. (5 minutes)

The Asgard Project - Story of a climbing and wingsuit BASE jump project on a remote Baffin Island peak. What an ordeal. They didn't make it look like fun at all. Except the BASE jumping. A tiny portion of the total. Too much climbing and suffering. (45 minutes)

Into Darkness - Short introspective on caving. Made me feel claustrophobic just watching it. Portland produced by John Waller and Uncage the Soul Video Productions (15 minutes)

Chimæra - Slo-mo ski movie. Some park, some pow, some landscape. I'd like it more if I wasn't so sick of slo-mo. (5 minutes)

Eastern Rises - Fly fishing porn about a trip to Russia's far eastern Kamchatka peninsula. Big fish, big laughs, bigfoot. Best film of the tour so far. (30 minutes)

Here fishy fishy

Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour Returns To Portland

Nothing says film fest like a 'soft focus' photo

If you can't get to the mountains, you might as well watch films about them. It's a mantra that keeps many a snowboarder from shaking and sweating his way through the summer. Even in the midst of peak season a film fest program can expose an audience to a dozen perspectives they may never have experienced. Go for the kayaking, stay for the BASE jumping. Tonight the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour started a three-day run in Portland, administering the fixes and averting the shakes.

Here's a quick rundown of the program. Breaking the ice was The Longest Way, a short film about one man's year of walking through China told using a series of still photos. Impossible to fully grasp at best, nausea inducing at worst. Check it out on YouTube. Next up, Life Cycles, a movie about bikes. It was heavy on time-lapses and art, but the tour cut (adapted from the full-length film) left it feeling choppy. The night's feature was a movie near to many peoples' hearts. A Life Ascending told the story of Ruedi Beglinger, an elite mountain guide in BC's Selkirks, and how a fateful avalanche changed his life. Among the lives claimed in this tragedy was one Craig Elmer Kelly of Mount Vernon, WA. A heavy movie, indeed. After a short intermission (during which your humble author both polished off a bacon, egg and cheeseburger and won a raffle prize), First Ascent: Man vs. Eiger played. Dean Potter was the star and pioneer of a sport called free-basing: climbing mountains without rope, but with a BASE jumper's parachute. The idea is that if you fall, you don't die, you fly. It seemed to work. He didn't die. Sorry to spoil the ending. After the awe-inspiring Man vs. Eiger came the awww-inducing Still Motion, a short compiled of stills from Alberta foothills wildlife cameras. The final film of the evening was Wild Water, a film that sought to capture the essence of river running. That means using lots of slo-mo. An emotional movie nonetheless.

If any of this sounds interesting, well the next two nights are either sold out or close. Check REI or craigslist for tickets. Also, neither of the next two nights will have the same movies as tonight did. Unlike in years past where they've repeated some of the shorts, this year the host assured us that all three nights will be totally different. Just the kind of fix I need.

Tailgate Alaska: Outtakes

Alaska's state bird is the willow ptarmigan. It's a member of the grouse family, but to the uneducated eye, at a glance, it looks like a dove. I mention this because when you blast a toeside turn and the resultant rooster tail makes a flock of these fowl erupt in front of you, it's enough to make you think you're in a John Woo movie. Best move is to come out with both guns blazing. Slash first, ask questions later.

There's a chance you may come across a man biking down the Richardson Highway toward Thompson Pass with a fully-grown falcon perched on handlebars. Do not be alarmed. This man is probably trained to rescue and rehabilitate raptors. You know, mommy bird style. I didn't ask if he ever vomited into the young bird's mouth, nor if he taught it how to "sick 'em."

Mike Basich, dropping. Photo: Jeff Hawe

The King of the Hill contest went off the very same day I went for most of my riding. Those blue skies make things get done. We did a flyover on our way out and things were getting going. Weird to see a bunch of sponsor tents set up at the bottom of Bro Bowl: a 10-minute sled ride for all involved. Check out a write-up with the above and more quality photos at snowboardermag. Another quality piece including full results at ESPN. Congrats to King Will Brommelsiek and Queen Holly Enderle. Hip hip, hooray and shit.

Tailgate Alaska: The Weather Breaks

That's what I'm talkin bout

Yup, the sun even shines in Alaska sometimes. After another single-run, mostly-waiting day, (Enchanted Kingdom with Alex, Dane and Leigh, guided by Ken) I was downgraded to a half-day and the priority shaft that goes with it. Meaning I got to wait some more, even on a bluebird day. This waiting had a distinctly different feel to it. The feel that I'm actually going to ride, before the sun sets, just not right now. Much better than the past days of sitting around not knowing if I'll ever ride in AK. Today? Tomorrow!? Next year!?!? More like 1:00, be here, be ready. That's more like it.

My group for the day was three California firefighters: Martin, Lance and Clayton

Our guide, Ken, from Tahoe

Top of the first and third line: Cold Smoke (reverse view, I'm not insane)

Clayton, pure stoke on Cold Smoke.

Bottom of Cold Smoke. Fun features, 10-footers, etc.

Second run: Bloodstain. Follow the tracks back to the gully shadow in the middle.

Ender ender. Thanks everybody, see you next year!

That's as close as I can get you without a GoPro-on-a-stick. After that, you'll have to pony up the dough. Trust me, it's worth it. All waiting and bs aside, when the bluebird day came and I finally got out there, it was about the best time I've ever had. And that was only a half day... Start saving your pennies and clear your calendar for next April. I'll see you up there.

Tailgate Alaska: First Heli Run in the Books

Clear enough to ride

The window to ride opened this afternoon for three lucky groups. Fortunately, I was among them. The rest of our group consisted of Mike from San Diego, the product manager for Dragon; Alex from Germany, the European head of distribution for Rockstar Energy Drink and Dawn, who was late to show, so I know nothing about her. She was a skier and had a Jackosn Hole Air Force patch on her pack. Our guide was Dave the Wave. He also had a JHAF patch, but a different one. The legit-looking "Swift, Silent, Deep" one. His I believed. Wavey, as we called him, was small enough to fit in my pack and let the leash out on us a little. Good man.

The route we took was near the top of the middle ridge in the picture above, but it was on the other side. It was called R.F.S. The F is the f-word. The others mean "really steep." We took the not-as-steep route, it being our first time together as a group. That said it still maintained 45° for the first 1000 feet or so, which is steeper than most runs at Mt. Hood Meadows. Oh yeah and knee-deep powder. Lower on the run the snow got worse and the terrain flattened out, but not before some nice drops and ripped turns. Some shitty traverses later and we were at the road, waiting for our shuttle home. Yes, we took the run to the road and had a van retrieve us. Works in a pinch. This time, meteorological.

For sure, the weather was hot on our tails from the second we landed. Right now, it's dumping and howling. I'm told tomorrow morning is looking good, but I'm beginning to think they say that to keep our hopes up through the night. If the wind doesn't scour the slopes clean and the sun manages to grace us with her beauty, it might be on again mañana.

Hoping to see more of this

If that's all I get for heli-baording in Alaska, well, I'll have credit that rolls over for next year. I'm nowhere near satisfied. I'm told this is the lowest snow year on record here and with all the rocks on that run, I believe it. Then again, this storm tonight could produce. Stay tuned.

Tailgate Alaska: How About a Drink?

Mmm beer, I do feel welcome

The wi-fi is shaky around here, as is my computer. It doesn't like the cold. Never mind that, welcome to Tailgate Alaska. The worlds only snowboarding tailgate party. Probably. Saturday and Sunday were down days, as in the heli didn't fly and we sat around waiting. Here's a taste of what that feels like.

My group getting our heli briefing. Stand there: stay alive.

After the heli briefing was a quick avalanche beacon search test. Pretty basic for anyone who has used a beacon before. Similar for those who haven't. I'm sure you could teach a monkey to find a beacon. Those things are so good these days. You could almost use them blind and just go by the different sounds.

Sunday was the day I was scheduled to fly. No love from the weather. Everyone set for Saturday got rolled over and, well, it didn't matter, we all got some patience practice.

The Alaska Backcountry Adventures 'campus'

The most treacherous line I saw all day

The 'Dirty North' cave. He claims he stayed comfortable.

Venture Snowboards knows how to store a box of wine

My home away from home

Some digs had significantly better production

Sessioning a spine hip to pass the time

End of the day party

End of the party bonfire, going out to all who came before us and left too soon.

There you have it, the day you hope you never have to endure. The down day. The bitch of it is, you can never stray too far. Leave early and you risk losing the heli-skiing time you've payed your left foot for. right now for example, the weather looks like it might be breaking. Time to go check in again...

Tailgate Alaska: This is How It Begins

Head out the window, foot on the gas

Overnight flight to Anchorage arrives right on time. Maybe even a little early at 12:35am. The one time I'd be more comfortable spending hours in a holding pattern. You see my accommodations for the next eight hours are on a bench in the terminal. The RV isn't ready 'til 8:30 and I don't have a hotel. At least it's heated and indoors. Plus, I'm on a roll with freaky-ass dreams. Ask me about them sometime, but be prepared.

The RV - alternately called motorhome or coach - wasn't ready when I showed up, so I had to mosey next door to a bar that served breakfast. I've never been in a bar at 8:30 in the morning, but I have listened to the NoFX song "First Call" enough times to know what I was walking into. Thankfully the song wasn't spot on. Two other mopes joined me as I passed on a questionable breakfast and settled on some tea.

If only it stayed that sunny

When my ride was finally ready and I was properly briefed as to how to mix my urine with antifreeze - 1:1 ratio, so nothing freezes - I blasted downtown for some real breakfast at the Snow City Cafe. Crab cakes benedict and carrot cake for the road kept me company as I headed north on the Glenn Highway (1). Wait, what? I forgot my cameras? Better stop by Wal-Mart - loose return policy - to 'buy' a new one.

No moose were harmed in the shooting of this sign

Rolling north past Palmer the Chugach Range stayed in tantalizingly in view. The only roadside viewpoints I missed were the ones I was driving too fast to stop for. The RV might be built like a truck, but it navigated the wooded roller coaster much like the local sheep. Once I looked down only to find I was going nearly 80. Nimble and quiet that one. That being said, I almost caught some air on choppier sections of the road. The frost heaves nearly heaving me out of my seat.

As I made the turn south on the Richardson Highway (4) the road turned into a birch and spruce tunnel. The light at the end signified by the ever-present Chugach. Light snow started falling as I reached my destination, Thompson Pass, the ABA parking lot and Tailgate Alaska. Only to find the office was closed. A hand-written sign on the door said "Fish fry at the Fat Mermaid. Come join us!" Fat Mermaid? Don't mind if I do. Onward to Valdez.

Insert photo of you and your 500-pound tuna here

The snow turned to rain coming down the mountains and of course by the time I got there, the fish was gone. This being a port town fish was readily available, so I went down the street for the halibut. Not as good as I had hoped for, but I was in Alaska, fish in my belly and freeriding in sight. Here's hoping for more snow, but other than that I couldn't ask for much.

A lone breadstick always looks phallic.

Down the street, The Board Room hosted the King of the Hill opening party. Nick Perata and Mark Sullivan took the mic and told the news. Delay. Since the WESC was delayed, it would start on Saturday and KotH would wait a few. So, until then, we ride anyway.

Today, instead of contest coverage, I'll be checking in for tomorrow's heli trip, checking out base camp and probably checking out some survival classes. Full coverage of the Tailgate lot to follow. Right now, gentle snow, in-n-out sun, breakfast on the way. Peace.