It’s that time in the annual adventuring calendar again – the Kendal Mountain Festival (nee Kendal Film Festival).
There was even a Cave Diving film this year – Beyond the Limits – a film about Pozo Azul in Spain (a system with clear water, big passages, and distances so long that divers need underwater scooters) being extended beyond its 5km explored length.
My duties this year were light: presenting the Bike programme on Saturday (Shortcut, amazing urban biking stunts; Kranked – Revolve, awesome mountain biking – how do they film this stuff?; On a Bike, a super funny (albeit filled with offensive words) “pop video”!; Revolution One, mountain uni-biking; Argentine Project, incredible downhill action; and Race Across the Sky, legendary road racer Lance Armstrong in a mountain bike race), and on Sunday morning I introduced Stephan Siegrist’s presentation Where Earth Meets the Sky about his trip to Antartica, which was pretty serendipitous given Ian’s imminent departure for Antarctica, and Sunday afternoon John Cleare’s talk A Perspective from on High.
Laetitia had a packed weekend too; I sat and watched the Climbing 2 programme while she managed the doors in the BAC screen 2. The titles were The Prophet, Leo Houlding in Yosemite (again); The Swiss Machine, speed alpinist Ueli Steck; The Pinnacle, a tribute to six ultra classic Scottish routes on Ben Nevis; and Point of No Return, a sad tale of three US climbers who didn’t return from their Tibetan trip.
All of this stuff was pretty inspirational to get out and stay out!