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November 1, 2007

Ian McAllister – wildlife photographer

At the Banff Mountain Book Festival we were treated to one of the most amazing slideshows I’ve ever seen.

Ian McAllister gave an overview of his life story vis-a-vis bears and wolves.

He’s very angry about big game trophy hunting. (And Ian’s a hunter who kills deer to feed his family.) There’s no reason to tag bear or wolf.

Ian McAllister is a nature photographer, writer, and conservationist who has dedicated his life to exploring the remote wilds of the British Columbia coast. Born in Vancouver, his exploration and adventures in the provinceâ€™s rugged West Coast began at a young age, and inspired in him a passion for conservation which led him to become one of Canadaâ€™s leading advocates for rainforest protection.

With a keen interest in wildlife behaviour, ecology, and sailing, McAllister has spent much of the last 20 years travelling along the north coastline of British Columbia, observing the behaviour of coastal wolves and grizzly bears. For the last 17 years, McAllister has lived in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, one of the last places on earth where wolves live relatively undisturbed by humans. In his latest book, The Last Wild Wolves, he documents the behaviour of two packs, one in the extreme outer coastal islands and another farther inland.

McAllisterâ€™s first book, The Great Bear Rainforest (1997), was instrumental in helping Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Ian and Karen McAllisterâ€™s Raincoast Preservation Society, and other environmental groups to successfully lobby British Columbiaâ€™s provincial government to impose a moratorium on grizzly bear hunting and to designate a large portion of the provinceâ€™s mainland coast as parkland in 2001.

McAllister is a founding member of the Raincoast Conservation Society, and his images have appeared in numerous publications including International Wildlife, BBC Wildlife, Audubon, Sierra, and Beautiful British Columbia. Also a filmmaker, his footage has been used by National Geographic TV, Discovery Channel, and the BBC.

Mountain Festivals at The Banff Centre

His two books:

The Great Bear Rainforest: Canada’s Forgotten Coast

The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Rain Forest

November 1, 2007

Araceli Segarra – climber, speaker, model

Remember the fantastic climber in IMAX Everest?

She’s here at the Banff Mountain Festival. Lively, engaging, beautiful.

It was a real treat to see her in the flesh.

Araceli Segarra – official website

November 1, 2007

Banff Festival – Where are the Women?

hmmm

The “Women’s Panel” was scheduled very first thing in the morning â€” not exactly prime time.

Female athletes are still second class citizens in elite adventure sport, so far as I can see.

Yet their accomplishments speak for themselves. Mrs. Dean Potter:

Steph Davis is a record-setting free climber. She has made first ascents in Patagonia, Baffin Island, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan. In 2001, Davis became the first U.S. woman to summit 3,375-metre Fitz Roy in Patagonia. In 2004, she made the fastest female free ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite, and returned to El Cap the following year to become the first woman to free climb its SalathÃ© Wall (VI 5.13b/c). For Davis, it was the dream of a lifetime.

…

Mountain Festivals at The Banff Centre

The athletes (including climbers Steph Davis, Nancy Hansen, Araceli Segarra, and Kira Salak) debated whether even appearing on a “Women’s Panel” was somehow offensive. Part of the problem.

They debated whether “first female ascent” was a backhanded compliment. Or valid.

None had primary role models as young women. They had to be very independent. Trail breakers.

We still have a long way to go until we achieve parity.

November 1, 2007

new hiking record – CDT Yo-Yo

The cyberhobo tipped me to an unprecedented feat on the CDT:

Francis Tapon has finished the first documented yo-yo (through-hike in both directions, in one season) of the Continental Divide Trail, with Garret The Onion finishing soon after. Congrats to them both for an amazing and inspiring feat!

hobolinks :: CDT Yo-Yo Done :: October :: 2007

My first thought was, “both should be credited with the CDT Yo-Yo”. The Onion certainly should not feel he came in “second”.

There is so much variation in route on the CDT that the two adventures cannot be compared.

Francis Tapon trip website.

For the Onion, check his amusing LAST post on the trail: Can I Mex? Mex I Can.

October 31, 2007

John Harlin III – Eiger Obsession

At the 2007 Banff Mountain Book Festival John Harlin III (the son) gave us the background for his new book, The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father.

It’s a moving story. John was very emotional while telling it.

In 1966, when John Harlin II set out to climb a new route straight up the North Face of the Eiger, he was 30 years old, with a wife and two young children. Six hundred metres from the top, Harlinâ€™s rope broke and he fell 1200 metres to his death. His son, John Harlin III, who was only nine years old at the time, and who had completed his first alpine climb at the age of seven, vowed to his mother that he would never climb another mountain. However, his passion for the mountains led him to break that vow.

Throughout his life John Harlin has honed his skills as an adventurer, editor, and writer. He has made first telemark and ski descents, has climbed new routes and made first river descents in Peru, Bolivia, Tibet, Alaska, Canada, the U.S. and the Alps. He is the author of a series of guidebooks, The Climberâ€™s Guide to North America, and has worked as the editor of Backpacker and Summit magazines.

In 2005, Harlin decided to return to the Alps and face the Eiger. Like his father, he left behind a nine-year old child when he went to climb the 1800-metre wall. His book, The The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father, is a memoir of his family and his lifelong obsession with the Eiger, culminating with the thrilling account of his ascent.

Harlin is now editor of the prestigious American Alpine Journal, a frequent contributor to numerous publications including Outside magazine, and appears as the main character in the latest IMAX film, The Alps: Large Format, a film about his emotional quest to climb the mountain where his father died. Harlin lives in Oregon with his wife Adele and daughter Siena.

This is an unforgettable story about fathers and sons, climbers and mountains, and dreamers who dare to challenge the earth. The Eiger Obsession is more than just the story of one manâ€™s climb, itâ€™s a memoir of loss, survival and choosing to face your biggest fears head-on.

â€” Simon & Schuster

Banff Mountain Festivals 2007

The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father

October 31, 2007

David de Rothschild – Adventure Ecology

Note to self: In future, arrive 15min late for festivals to avoid the predictable, boring introductory speeches.

The opening act at the Banff 2007 Mountain Book Festival was quite entertaining, and refreshingly open-minded for an environmentalist. This is no Al Gore clone.

David de Rothschild

Adventure Ecology

Britain’s David de Rothschild has traversed Antarctica, has set a new record for the fastest crossing of the Greenland icecap, and has reached the North Pole. He is both an adventurer and an environmentalist, and at 29, he is the head of Adventure Ecology, an expedition group he founded to raise awareness about environmental issues and climate change.

Following a 2004 Antarctica expedition, de Rothschild came to the realization that he could create a deeper understanding of the natural world through incorporating education as the main vein running through his adventures. “I spent three months surrounded by one of the world’s most astonishing and fragile ecosystems, and it had a profound effect on my outlook and on those with whom I shared my experience.”

In 2005 he launched Adventure Ecology, and now uses his adventures to captivate, to inspire, and to share information about the environment. Adventure Ecology’s goal is to create a greater connection with the natural world through a series of high-profile expeditions. The associated website features videos and information from live expeditions, as well as blogs and interactive games that act as a gateway for children to learn about global environmental issues. The focus on children is deliberate. “There’s a native Indian proverb that says we don’t inherit the Earth, we borrow it from our children,” says de Rothschild. “Curiosity is a great driver of change. But in protecting our children, we’ve also made it very hard for them to go out and experience nature. That’s something our website can address.”

The first mission in the series, “Top of the World”, began in March 2006. With a four-member team, de Rothschild traversed the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Canada. Mission 2 is called “Adventures in Waste” and will include a series of expeditions in 2007 and 2008 with scientists, artists, and filmmakers to some of the world’s most environmentally troubled areas — from the site of an oil spill in Ecuador to heavily polluted areas in China’s Henan province. The series will culminate with a sailing trip from Hawaii to California, raising awareness of the little-known fact that the largest accumulation of garbage in the world can be found in the Pacific Ocean. “We’ll sail a boat made entirely from recycled bottles to document the massive problem of ocean trash.”

De Rothschild was selected as one of National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers for 2007, and as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum. He has written educational books for children, created a naturopathic/ecological education centre in New Zealand, and founded “Sculpt the Future”, a charitable organization working with environmentally disadvantaged communities.

Mountain Festivals at The Banff Centre

One of the many ecological adventures David’s helped to organize was a global warming flood in the virtual world Second Life.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

October 31, 2007

Banff Mountain Festival – events

Just picked up my tickets. Here are my major events, so far:

WED – Book Festival – David de Rothschild and John Harlin III

THUR – Book Festival

THUR – Book Festival – Ed Viesturs, Steph Davis, and Book Festival Awards

FRI – Film Festival – Krzysztof Wielicki and The Alps

SAT – Film Festival

SAT – Film Festival – Lincoln Hall and Remnants of Everest

SUN – Film Festival

Of course there’s much more happening in Banff this weekend …

The official website is quite confusing. An easier way to follow the action is on their events calendar.

October 31, 2007

another reason not to live in California – earthquakes

As those left coast hikers are oft to remind us, “California is the center of the outdoor universe.”

But God will smite the Californicaters …

We nearly lost Tom Mangan of Two-Heel Drive on Monday.

From his personal blog, at work â€” The San Jose Mercury News:

… First words out of my mouth: “Looks like we’re going into Page One.” Not that anybody had to be told.

The quake rattled the newsroom long enough and hard enough to send our news-detection meters into the red. At first we had no idea how bad things were: we could’ve been just down the road from a minor earthquake, or a hundred miles from one that flattened a small city.

Fortunately, it was the former: a magnitude 5.6 quake on the Calaveras Fault, within a mile of where we used to live in the hills east of town. …

Busy being born: October 2007 Archives

Willow Glen resident Catherine Kilkenny gets under a table during an earthquake on October 30, 2007 in San Jose. Earthquake was a 5.6 magnitude, with the epicenter located 5 miles NNE of Alum Rock, 7 miles east of Milpitas. It was the strongest Bay Area earthquake since Loma Prieta in 1989. (Richard Koci-Hernandez / Mercury News)

source

October 31, 2007

live from the Banff Mountain Festival

I made it. Posting via wireless internet from the modern Hostel International.

Walking up the mountain on Deer Street I saw … deer. That’s truth in advertising.

This is my first time to attend perhaps the World’s most famous outdoor film festival.

Over the next 5 days I will be live blogging from Banff. (But the $300 dinner with Ed ~~Vistiers~~ Viesturs, Peter Hillary and that lot is out of my price range.)

Rick McCharles, editor

Banff Centre – Mountain Culture