mountaineering

Charlie Fowler perished in an avalanche in China in 2006, along with his climbing partner Christine Boskoff. He was a world-class mountaineer and climber, and some of his most noteworthy ascents were with no rope. Rock and Ice lists his accomplishments in detail. Here’s a short sampling:

He soloed David Breashears’ technical Eldo Scarefest Perilous Journey (5.11d X), the Loose Flakes Route (5.10) on the 1,500-foot walls of the Black Canyon, and the 1,800-meter Direct North Face of the Eiger. Fowler’s more conventional climbing resume is mind-blowing — 8,000-meter peaks like Everest without oxygen (and without actually using an ice axe), 5.13 rock, hard bouldering, A4 big walls and myriad first ascents: free, aid, ice and alpine.

It’s May, summit month on Everest. This season several expeditions are particularly connected to the Mountainfilm in Telluride community.

Eddie Bauer/First Ascent’s team consists of Jake Norton, David Morton, Brent Bishop and Charley Mace and they are tackling the West Ridge route pioneered by Americans Willi Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein. Norton is featured in the film Wild Love: Jake Norton and Wende Valentine, which will screen at this year’s festival and is about life, love and risk in the mountains.

Nearly 72,000 people voted for National Geographic Adventure's People's Choice Adventurer of The Year for 2012. The winners are Sano Babu Sunuwar and Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa, who with second-hand equipment, a tiny budget and no corporate sponsors, climbed Everest, descended with paragliders and paddled to the sea — an adventure they called “The Ultimate Descent.”

Some other finalists are familiar to Mountainfilm in Telluride audiences: Nick Waggoner of Sweetgrass Films with Solitaire, bike rider Danny MacAskill from Way Back Home and Cory Richards from the Charlie Fowler Award-winning film Cold.

Mountainfilm in Telluride invited Conrad Anker to town in mid-March, and he spoke to a packed room about his recent summit of Meru, a highly technical peak in India that has eluded many top-notch climbers for decades. Anker had been "obsessed" with the peak for 20 years, and his last unsuccessful attempt in 2008 with Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk was chronicled in Samsara, which won Mountainfilmin in Telluride's 2009 Charlie Fowler Award. The three men went back last fall, an effort that will be the subject of a new film, called House of Cards, that will premiere at Mountainfilm May 2012.

Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk Bring House of Cards to Festival

Telluride, Colorado (March 13, 2012) –On October 2, 2011, world-renowned climbers Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk summited the Shark’s Fin, a granite buttress on the northeast side of 6,310-meter Meru Central in the Gangotri mountains of India. Their feat was ranked first in a list of “Top 10 Ascents of 2011” in Rock and Ice and is now the subject of a documentary called House of Cards, which will premiere at Mountainfilm in Telluride’s annual festival May 25-28.

The Mountainfilm Commitment Grant was created to help ensure that important stories are not only told, but also heard. Allision Otto and Carole Snow were recipients of one of the 2011 grants for their documentary project, titled Keeper of the Mountains, which is about the Grande Dame of the Himalaya, Elizabeth Hawley, who is now in her late 80s. This legendary Everest historian was a journalist and chronicler of Himalayan expeditions. Because she traveled to Nepal in September 1960 and never left, her unique vantage on mountaineering history has put her in a position to decide who has earned a summit in the Himalaya, and she’s helped resolve many mountaineering controversies.

Mountains and Passion Converge with Conrad Anker and Jenni Lowe-Anker

Telluride, Colorado –Join mountaineering legend Conrad Anker and his wife, author, artist and adventurer, Jenni Lowe-Anker for a free Mountainfilm in Telluride presentation. Anker will share stories from his historic first ascent of Mount Meru – one of India’s most defiant peaks — a tale that is intertwined with the couple’s extraordinary love affair.

Lowe-Anker’s husband, Alex Lowe, was one of the world’s greatest mountaineers, and he was Anker’s best friend. After Lowe died tragically during a Himalaya expedition with Anker, Anker married his widow and adopted their three children. Lowe-Anker tells her unusual story of love, loss and courage in her memoir, Forget Me Not and will share her perspective in conjunction with Anker.

Even if you’re not a climber, this is a fascinating story. It’s got all the elements of a good tale — a strong cast of characters, a stunning setting, tragedy and many complicated plot twists.

Once upon a time, an Italian named Casare Maestri and an Austrian called Toni Egger climbed one of the world’s most difficult peaks, Patagonia’s Cerro Torre, in 1959. Their success was marred by two significant factors: 1. Egger died after they summited, and 2. Maestri’s claim of success turned out to be a bold-faced lie.

Maestri returned to the climb in 1970 to defend his honor and climb the mountain once more, this time fixing thousands of feet of rope and using a gas-powered drill to install approximately 400 bolts up the granite spire. Again, he claimed success, although he was actually a few hundred feet short of the true summit — a minor detail he dismissed, saying this section was “not really part of the mountain,” because “it’ll blow away one of these days.”

Chris Sharma and Steve House Confirm Appearances in May

Telluride, Colorado (January 31, 2012) – Mountainfilm in Telluride presents a literal rock star lineup for its 34^th annual festival this May 25 to 28. Chris Sharma — considered one of the world’s best rock climbers — and Steve House, hailed as one of the best high-altitude mountaineers in the world — will attend this spring’s festival as guest speakers.

In 2008, Mountainfilm regulars Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk attempted to climb the NW Face of Meru's Shark Fin in India, which had stymied an all-star list of climbers including Anker's mentor, Mugs Stump. This team wasn't able to make it to the top either, but Samsara, an outstanding film directed by the ridiculously talented Ozturk that resulted from the expedition, won Mountainfilm's Charlie Fowler Prize at the 2009 festival. The three men reunited this year to take another shot at it and on October 2, made mountaineering history by being the first people to climb the North West Face of the peak. Chin sent photos from the expedition and Ozturk recently responded to questions from Mountainfilm Festival Director David Holbrooke.