THE DANGER, drama, courage, and adventure of climbing mountains, extreme environments, and humans versus nature, will be on display in Galway next month.
The international Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour returns to Ireland and takes in the Town Hall Theatre on May 8. It showcases the latest films on mountain climbing, Alpinism, mountain biking, adventure travel, skiing, and kayaking. New activities to the line-up this year are wingsuit flying and surfing.
Highlights of this year’s festival include Heaven’s Gate (winner Best Film, Mountain Sports Festival ). A group of wingsuit pilots gather at Tianmen Mountain, China, to attempt flying through the sacred site known as Heaven’s Gate, an archway carved out of the mountain
High Tension (winner Best Film, Mountain Culture Festival ) examines the 2013 incident at Camp II, Mount Everest, which had climbers Ueli Steck, Simone Moro, and Jonathan Griffith running for their lives.
North of the Sun is about a group of young Norwegian adventurers who discover their own private playground on the rocky slopes of a remote Arctic island.
Keeper of the Mountain looks at Elizabeth Hawley, who settled in Kathmandu in 1960, chronicling Himalayan expeditions for The Himalayan Database. As she turns 90, she continues to update these records with rigorous accuracy.
Spice Girl is a documentary on Hazel Findlay, the first woman to climb the British grade of E9. Having mastered Britain’s scrappy seacliffs, she teams up with Emily Harrington to tackle the massive, untamed, bigwalls of Taghia Gorge, Morocco.
Tickets are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 or www.tht.ie
