Alpinist Magazine announced the dates and lineup for the Second Annual Barry Corbet Film Festival, a unique mountain gathering that honors Jackson Hole mountaineering legend Barry Corbet. In March 2005, Alpinist celebrated Corbets athletic and artistic spirit with a series of films and presentations that evoked the joys of deep snow, wild water and steep stone.
The first festivals success prompted Alpinist to make it an annual event, and in 2006, in addition to the master festival, a one-night abridged version of the BCFF will be presented in major cities around the country, including Portland, Seattle, Boston and Boulder, CO.
This years master festival will take place January 19-21, 2006 at the Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Three nights of film-one each for skiing, surfing and climbing-will be presented by legends of their particular disciplines.
Big-mountain skiing pioneer Doug Coombs will MC the opening night, Thursday, January 19, and present the world debut of The Grand Adventure, the story of his descent of the Grand Teton, a mountain he has skied nine times. On Friday, January 20, surfing superstar Gerry Lopez will present his favorite surf films, including the new film, All Aboard the Crazy Train, which features Lopez and Laird Hamilton. Patagonia founder and outdoor icon Yvon Chouinard will wrap up the festival Saturday night with a presentation of the seminal film, Mountain of Storms, which chronicles the 1968 journey from Ventura, California to El Chalten, Argentina, that resulted in a new route on Patagonias Fitz Roy, the naming of Chouinards company, Patagonia, and the birth of the adventure lifestyle.
Each night will include other films, from classics to world premieres, within the selected disciplines. “The featured films showcase the common threads that unite skiers, surfers and climbers across borders, disciplines and generations,” says Christian Beckwith, Alpinist Editor and founder of the BCFF. “The parties before and after the screenings, the world-class presenters and the magical energy of Jackson in winter all underscore our goal: to throw the best party of the year in Jackson Hole.”
The BCFF Road Show will present an abridged version of the films shown at the master festival, and will be held in conjunction with regional BCFF sponsors. Dates and locations will be finalized by the end of November.
Barry Corbet was a Jackson Hole legend who ticked the first ski descent of Buck Mountain and named the infamous ski run Corbets Couloir at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. A former Snow King ski instructor, Exum Mountain Guide, and founder of the Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, he was also an American climbing legend who helped put the first American team on Everest. “An athlete beyond compare,” as one of his fellow guides called him, Corbet combined the pursuits of exploration and exhilaration in an exemplary fashion.
In 1968 while making a ski film, Corbet was gravely injured in a helicopter crash. After the accident, which left him partially paralyzed, he made several films about living with disabilities, wrote a book, Options: Spinal Cord Injury and the Future (now in its tenth printing) and founded New Mobility, the leading magazine for the disabled. As one of his colleagues from that magazine said, “Because of his spinal cord injury, Barry kind of had two lives. And he lived more fully in both of them than most of us do in one.”
Doors open each night at 7:00 p.m. for pre-film cocktails. Films begin at 8. Tickets are available at Teton Mountaineering, Skinny Skis and the Valley Book Store, or by calling Alpinist at 307-734-0600.
The Barry Corbet Film Festival is supported by Patagonia and Nemo Equipment and powered by Base Camp Communications.
