2007 Mountainfilm Festival Guests

JOSH BERNSTEIN

Explorer, author, and wilderness educator Josh Bernstein is best known as the host of the hit adventure/archaeology series “Digging for the Truth” on The History Channel. In the past three years, he has traveled by camel, car, train and plane through Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Easter Island, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Mongolia, Peru, South Africa, Turkey, Yemen and Zimbabwe (among others). Born and raised in New York City, Josh has degrees in anthropology and psychology from Cornell University. Since 1997, Josh has served as president & CEO of BOSS, the Boulder Outdoor Survival School, the oldest and largest survival school in the world, and he has appeared as an expert on survival and survival training on several national news programs, including NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and the Today show. When not exploring the tombs of Egypt or the jungles of the Amazon, Josh lives between a yurt in Southern Utah and an apartment in New York City. In 2007, Josh joined Discovery Channel to host and executive produce specials and series focusing on anthropology, archaeology and environmental issues. In addition to his work for several environmental organizations, Josh is an active member of The Explorers Club, The Royal Geographical Society, and The American Museum of Natural History. He attended his first Mountainfilm in 1995. (more at www.joshbernstein.com)

Gary Braasch

Gary Braasch photographs environmental issues and conservation, nature, biodiversity, ecosystems, field science, and climate change in stock photos and assignments. Pictures of landscape, patterns, forests, Antarctica, the Arctic, global warming, cities and travel destinations are used by publications worldwide. His photography grows from a deeply felt connection with nature and an ardent conservation ethic. One of the issues at the heart of his conservation work is the Alaskan tundra. Caribou and migratory wildfowl are kicking up their heels at the recent court decision to stop oil leasing of the crucial Teshekpuk Lake region of the National Petroleum Reserve. He has one of the very few photo documentations of this huge and wild area. It’s been a rewarding year for Gary: the Sierra Club presented the 2006 Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography in September. His book, Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming Is Changing the World, is to be published this fall by University of California Press. As well, the United Nations has chosen him to illustrate its 2007 calendar featuring the work of the international climate change, biodiversity, and desertification treaties. (more at www.braaschphotography.com)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Christo: American Bulgarian-born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, June 13, 1935, Gabrovo, of a Bulgarian industrialist family. Jeanne-Claude: American, French-born Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, June 13, 1935, Casablanca, of a French military family, educated in France and Switzerland.

Broughton Coburn

Broughton Coburn is the author of seven books and has worked on conservation and development projects in the Himalaya for 20 of the past 33 years. In 1997, he was awarded the American Alpine Club’s Literary Achievement Award for his body of work. His conservation and development work has encompassed projects for the World Bank, UNESCO and the World Wildlife Fund. His most recent project, for the American Himalayan Foundation, was to edit Himalaya, a book of exquisite photographs with essays by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, President Jimmy Carter, Sir Edmund Hillary, Richard Blum and others. Most recently, Broughton has been involved with exploration of several sacred lost cave cities in Upper Mustang, Nepal.

Carrie Dann

Carrie Dann, a Western Shoshone, and her sister, Mary—who passed away in 2005—have been at the forefront of the Western Shoshone Nation's struggle for land rights and sovereignty for. For over 40 years, they lead a political and legal battle to retain ancestral lands in Nevada, California, Idaho and Utah. Carrie continues the fight. She has squared off against international gold mining corporations, the nuclear industry and the U.S. government. For their courage and perseverance in asserting the rights of Indigenous peoples, the Dann Sisters have received numerous awards including the 1993 Alternative Nobel Prize, the International Right Livelihood Award. Carrie—also the subject of countless film documentaries, articles and books—is a living legend in the struggles of Native Americans.

Steph Davis

Climber Steph Davis has been profiled in publications including Outside, Men’s Journal, W Magazine, and Sports Illustrated. She has made first ascents in Pakistan, Patagonia, Baffin Island, and Kyrgyzstan. She was the first woman to free climb the Salathe wall on El Capitan and the first woman to summit Torre Egger in Patagonia. Davis’ writing has appeared in Climbing and Rock & Ice, among other publications. She is sponsored by Patagonia, Clif Bar, Five Ten and Cascade Designs.Married to climber Dean Potter, she makes her home in Moab, Utah and Yosemite, California.

Wade Davis

A native of British Columbia, Wade is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. He holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent over three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among fifteen indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6000 botanical collections. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing The Serpent and the Rainbow, an international bestseller that appeared in ten languages and was later released by Universal as a motion picture. Eight other books followed and in 2007, a history of the early British efforts on Everest titled Fire on the Mountain will be published. Interestingly, Wade has inspired numerous documentary films as well as three episodes of the television series, The X-Files. In recent years his work has taken him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Vanuatu and the high Arctic of Nunuvut and Greenland. A professional speaker for nearly twenty years, Wade has lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Society, the World Bank, and at 130 universities. Mountainfilm is thrilled to file Wade (and his family) under “repeat attender.”

Johnny Dawes

British climbing maverick Johnny Dawes is a self-described “long-term friction addict.” He was also the first climber on the planet to break into the E8 and E9 (extremely severe) climbing grades in the 1980s. Johnny enjoys pioneering climbs on grit, slate, rhyoilite, granite and, if he must, limestone. On-site ascents (climbing a route sight-unseen without weighting or falling on the rope) are his specialty. He has made a number of films and claims to have evolved into “a metaphysical explorer,” on-siting, as it were, in the next dimension. He loves racing cars, dancing, fluffy toys and black beans.

Kit Deslauriers

Kit’s mother used to ask her when she was going to do something the “easy” way. In October of 2006 Kit became the first person to ski from the top of the highest point on each continent and the answer to that question now seems apparent … never! Kit spent almost 10 years living in the Telluride area and it was during these formative years that she gained a true sense of where she was headed, always toward her own dreams. During a ski expedition to Siberia in 1999, she met her husband–to-be Rob DesLauriers and moved from Telluride to live with him at the base of the Tetons in Wyoming. Kit is a 2-time World Freeskiing Tour Women’s Champion and a sponsored athlete working for The North Face but mostly, Kit is someone who embraces the possibilities regardless of gender, age or societal norms. (more at www.kitdski.com)

Dennis Dimick

Dennis Dimick serves as executive editor at National Geographic Magazine in Washington DC. He previously served as the magazine’s environment editor. His slide show “Where Energy and Climate Meet” focuses on the nexus between climate change, our energy choices, and a sustainable economy. Using photography and graphics from National Geographic stories, the show is based on three Sept. 2004 articles called “Signs from Earth” that document observed effects of climate change worldwide, and from other recent articles on fossil fuels and alternative energy. The show keys on the relationship between the burning of fossil fuels – coal, oil, and natural gas ­– and recent warming of earth’s climate. It presents a range of low-carbon energy choices we have available if we hope to stem the rising tides and other impacts of a warming planet. The Sept. 2004 “Signs from Earth” articles were cited in 2005 by the Overseas Press Club for best environmental coverage, and received second place from the Society of Environmental Journalists for explanatory journalism. An August 2005 article on alternative energy called ‘Future Power” was rated by the magazine’s readers as the most popular of the year. An Oregon native, Dimick holds degrees in agriculture and agricultural journalism from Oregon State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before joining the National Geographic staff in 1980, Dimick was a photographer and reporter at newspapers in Oregon and Washington, and served as an editor at The Courier-Journal of Louisville, KY. He and his family live in Arlington, VA.

Sam Drevo

Sam Drevo is a world class kayaker, instructor trainer/guide, and photographer. He has taught thousands of people to kayak all over the world, and resides in Portland, OR where he owns and operates eNRG Kayaking. When he is not out traveling the world guiding eNRG Kayak expeditions or filming first descents, you can find Sam Drevo in the Northwest teaching kayaking. Sam’s twenty years of paddling experience started out on the Potomac River in Washington D.C. under the tutelage of the U.S. Canoe & Kayak Team coaches. Fourteen years of river instruction experience combined with a competitive background in every discipline of whitewater kayaking has afforded him opportunities to teach throughout the USA and abroad in Canada, Norway, Costa Rica, Nepal, Laos, New Zealand and Europe. His favorite rivers include the Clackamas River in Oregon, the Mekong in Laos, the Ula in Norway, and the Verzaca in Switzerland. According to an interview on www.wetdawg.com, the biggest drop he has run is the Paonia Reservoir Dam, a 150-foot slide not far from Telluride. “Fast and scary.”

Charlie Fowler (1955 - 2006)

It is with great sadness that we announce that Charlie will not physically be a part of the 2007 festival. He was simple in character but a mythic mentor to many. Mountainfilm will honor his long-time presence in the climbing community and the world as a whole during the 2007 Festival ... Rest in peace dear friend ...

Charlie Fowler is a professional photographer, filmmaker, writer and trip leader. An avid climber since 1968, he has ascended many of the world’s most difficult peaks and pioneered new routes on rock, ice and mountains in the Andes, the Himalaya, North America and Europe. Recent climbs include 8000-meter peaks Cho Oyu, Everest and Shishapangma. Born in North Carolina and raised in Virginia, he graduated from the University of Virginia in 1975, with a degree in Environmental Science. After stints in Boulder and Telluride, he landed in Norwood in 1992, where he has lived ever since. Involved with filmmaking for many years, his credits include Ice Climb for National Geographic; Rock and Road and The Kingdom of Muli for American Adventure Productions; and several episodes of High Country Climber for Outdoor Life Network. He also appeared in and helped film John Catto’s award-winning La Escoba de Dios. In 2004, the American Alpine Club awarded Charlie the Robert and Miriam Underhill Award for outstanding mountaineering achievement. In 2005, he co-founded Mountain World Media LLC, a publishing company. What ties him in to the 2007 Festival is his solo of the Direct Route of the Eiger North Face in 1992. Aside from all of the above, Charlie served on the Mountainfilm Board of Directors for most of the 90s. (more at www.charliefowler.com)

Dr. John Francis

As the Vice President of the Research, Conservation and Exploration Group at the National Geographic Society, Dr. John Francis oversees the Society's funding of scientific research and is a firm believer in the power of film to inspire conservation action. A biologist and expert on marine mammals, John received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz and spent five years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution. He is a seasoned field biologist; whose research has taken him to such far-flung places as Australia, Canada, Mexico, Chile, New Zealand, Hawaii, California, Alaska and Argentina.

Jeff Goodell

Jeff Goodell's latest book, Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future (Houghton Mifflin), was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2006 by Kirkus Reviews. The New York Times called it "[A] compelling indictment of one of the country's biggest, most powerful, and most antiquated industries...well-written, timely, and powerful." He is the author of three previous books, including Sunnyvale, a memoir about growing up in Silicon Valley that was selected as a New York Times Notable Book. Our Story, an account of the nine miners trapped in a Pennsylvania coal mine, was a New York Times bestseller. He is a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine.

Adele Hammond

Movement, in its most literal sense, is a very important part of Adele Hammond’s life, and by extension, her art. As a bird migrates, so does she, spending time in different cultures, collecting experiences and recording them in her drawings. “Within the pages of my sketch books, representing some 30 years of visual wanderings, the mysteries of the natural world have remained a very personal passion for me and a constant force in my work. Always based in nature, the drawings have ranged from the tangible to the fantastic, weaving what we see physically in the landscape with my own personal interactions.” Her drawings are charged with a mark-making vocabulary that is overtly physical, urgent, and inseparable from the natural world. Trained in Paris, New York, and California, she has exhibited most recently at the Maryhill Museum in Goldendale, Washington, the Beppu Wiarda Gallery in Portland, Oregon and the Panza Verde Gallery in Antigua, Guatemala. Adele currently lives in Oaxaca, Mexico with  her husband, John Harlin, and daughter Siena. (more at adelehammond.com)

John Harlin III

John grew up in Leysin in the Swiss Alps, where his father, John Harlin II, founded the International School of Mountaineering. After his father’s death on the Eiger Direct in 1966, John returned with his mother and sister to the US, where he has been an active mountaineer, skier, adventurer, editor, and writer. As a teenager he made numerous expeditions to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including the first kayak descent of the Kongakut River. After graduating from the University of California with a degree in environmental biology, he worked as a climbing guide in Rocky Mountain National Park and founded his own ski-mountaineering guiding company. He then wrote a major series of guidebooks, The Climber’s Guide to North America, before joining Backpacker magazine as an editor. He was the editor-in-chief of Summit magazine for six years before returning to Backpacker as its Northwest Editor and co-host of their PBS television series Anyplace Wild. He is now editor of the prestigious American Alpine Journal, the journal of record for new mountain routes worldwide, and has written and edited several books about mountains, climbing, and travel. He has made first telemark and first ski descents, climbed new routes, or made first river descents in Peru, Bolivia, Tibet, Alaska, Canada, the Alps, and throughout the contiguous US. John will appear in the upcoming IMAX® theater film The Alps: Giants of Nature, produced by MacGillivray Freeman Films and scheduled for release in Spring 2007 (www.alpsfilm.com). He is also writing a book about his family’s history and his experience climbing the Eiger’s North Face, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2007. He lives in Oregon with his wife Adele Hammond and daughter Siena.

Paul Hawken

Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author. Starting at age twenty, he dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. His practice has included starting and running ecological businesses, writing and teaching about the impact of commerce on living systems, and consulting with governments and corporations on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy. His writings have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Resurgence, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Mother Jones, and Utne, and he has published six books including The Next Economy, Growing a Business (the basis of a 17-part PBS series), and The Ecology of Commerce (voted in 1998 as the #1 college text on business and the environment by professors in 67 business schools). His last book, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (co-authored with Amory Lovins), is published in fourteen languages and has referred to by President Bill Clinton as one of the five most important books in the world today. His next book, Blessed Unrest, will be published in time for the festival! In other endeavors, Paul co-founded Smith & Hawken, the garden and catalog retailer and several of the first natural food companies in the U.S that relied solely on sustainable agricultural methods. (more at www.paulhawken.com)

Lynn Hill

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Lynn grew up in southern California. She started climbing as a 14 year old on a climbing trip with her sister and her sister's fiancé.
In 1979, Lynn Hill completed one of many impressive landmarks in her career by becoming the first woman to establish a 5.12+/5.13, Ophir Broke in Ophir, Colorado. In 1984 at the Gunks she performed one of her most impressive leads, the onsight first ascent of Yellow Crack 5.12R/X. From 1986 to 1992 Lynn Hill was one of the world's top sport climbers, winning over 30 international titles, including five victories at the Arco Rock Master. In 1991, she set another landmark by becoming the first woman to redpoint a consensus 5.14, Masse Critique in Cimai, France. After ending her career as a professional competitive climber, Hill went back to traditional rock climbing. In 1993, together with her partner Brooke Sandahl, she became the first person, male or female, to free climb The Nose, a famous route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. In 1994 she upped the ante, by becoming the first to free climb the entire route in a single 24 hour period. Lynn Hill's impressive list of achievements span decades, age groups, climbing styles and gender, establishing Hill as one of history's foremost free climbers.

Aaron Huey

At 18, Aaron Huey escaped small-town Wyoming and found himself living in an old Communist apartment complex in Bratislava, Slovakia. There, he studied as a Rotary Scholar, graduating with a degree in stone sculpture, followed by a 1999 BFA in painting and printmaking from the University of Denver, in Colorado. In 2002, he walked every step of 3,349 miles across America with his dog, Cosmo. The journey lasted 154 days. There was no media coverage. Last month, Aaron was nominated to pdn magazine’s top 30 emerging photographers in the world. For his 2006 feature in National Geographic Traveler that was titled The Last Real America, Aaron won the Gold Ozzie (for best use of photography). He currently lives in Kabul, Afghanistan, doing jobs for whomever happens to call. His photography appears in Smithsonian, all 3 National Geographic Magazines, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, among others. (more at www.aaronhuey.com)

Benedicto Ixtamer

Benedicto Ixtamer is a Mayan artist who lives along the shores of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. Art is his life. He likes to draw animals, landscapes, fruits and people. He paints to save the history of the Mayan culture. In 2004, Benedicto began traveling to the United States for art exhibitions in Colorado, Iowa and Nevada, and he is now in Telluride for the second time. You will most likely see him on the street with his canvases, paints and a smile that may be partially responsible for global warming.

Payson Kennedy

Payson Kennedy is a founder and past president of the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), located in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina. Many top American paddlers have trained and worked at the NOC, including more than a dozen US Olympic team paddlers. Payson has degrees in philosophy, anthropology and librarianship and spent fifteen years in the academic world before leaving for the NOC. With his wife, Aurelia, he has led adventure travel trips in Central America and Nepal for 15 years. He is now retired and living on the banks of the Nantahala River, where he guides, bicycles and is creating a pond without the use of mechanized equipment on an oxbow that was cut off from the river. In 2005, Payson was inducted into the International Whitewater Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony.

James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler says he wrote The Geography of Nowhere, "Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work." Home From Nowhere was a continuation of that discussion with an emphasis on the remedies. His next book in the series, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, is a look a wide-ranging look at cities here and abroad, an inquiry into what makes them great (or miserable), and in particular what America is going to do with it's mutilated cities. His latest book, The Long Emergency, is about the challenges posed by the coming permanent global oil crisis, climate change, and other "converging catastrophes of the 21st Century." (more at www.kunstler.com)

Dr. Chuck Kutscher

Dr. Chuck Kutscher is a Principal Engineer and Manager of the Thermal Systems Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado where he has worked for 28 years. His research interests include concentrating solar power, solar heating, and geothermal electricity generation. His work on the fundamental behavior of transpired solar air collectors led to a 1994 R&D 100 Award and a Popular Science "Best of What's New" award. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Colorado School of Mines and was Unit Scientist of the Solar Energy Unit for the National Geographic Society’s Kids’ Network. He served for nine years on the Board of Directors of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES), including a two-year term as Chair (2000-2001). He was presented with the 2006 Charles Greeley Abbot Award, the highest honor given by ASES, for “outstanding contributions in the research and development of active solar systems and solar thermal technologies.” Dr. Kutscher was General Chair of the SOLAR 2006 National Solar Energy Conference held in Denver from July 8 to 13, which brought the nation’s top climate scientists and renewable energy experts together to develop solutions to global warming. He has given presentations at conferences around the country on this topic and is editor of a new 200-page ASES report, Tackling Climate Change in the U.S., available at www.ases.org. He enjoys whitewater kayaking and lives in Golden, Colorado with his wife Karen and son Forrest.

Bernadette McDonald

Bernadette McDonald is the founder and former vice president of the Mountain Culture Division at The Banff Centre. She was director of the Banff Mountain Film Festival for 20 years and was founding director of the Banff Mountain Book Festival. She is a founding member of the International Alliance for Mountain Film and was an invited speaker at the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2001 to launch the International Year of Mountains. In 2006, she was awarded the King Albert award for her contributions to the global mountain community. As an author and editor, her book projects include "Voices From the Summit: The World’s Great Mountaineers on the Future of Climbing," "Extreme Landscape," "Whose Water Is It" and "I’ll Call You in Kathmandu: the Elizabeth Hawley Story." Bernadette is an avid climber, hiker and skier and travels the world in search of warm rock and deep snow. Her newest book, "Brotherhood of the Rope," profiles the extraordinary life of Charlie Houston.

Cristina Mittermeier

The relationship between nature and humans is where Cristina Mittermeier's photography finds its true mission. The idea that people and nature are not isolated from each other, but inexorably connected, lies at the heart of her work, which has taken her to 54 countries, including some of the most remote and beautiful areas of the planet. A marine biologist by training and a regular contributor to the scientific dialogue on the conservation of the planet’s biodiversity, Cristina’s work initially strove to explain, with science, the importance of preserving Earth’s living heritage. Photography has allowed her to tell an emotional story that links the devastating effects of biodiversity loss and human well-being. Cristina’s latest book project, The Human Footprint, was produced by the Wildlife Conservation Society in conjunction with the International League of Conservation Photographers, of which Cristina is executive director.

Dr. Daniel Nocera

Daniel G. Nocera is the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and he is widely recognized as a leading researcher in renewable energy at the molecular level. Nocera studies the basic mechanisms of energy conversion in biology and chemistry with primary focus in recent years on the photogeneration of hydrogen and oxygen from water. Nocera’s research in energy conversion has been featured on the nationally broadcast television programs, ABC Nightline and PBS NOVA in the US and Explora in Europe and radio shows such as NPR. He developed the pilot that was used to begin the new PBS science program ScienceNow and his PBS NOVA show was nominated for a 2006 Emmy Award. Nocera has been awarded the Italgas Prize (2005), the IAPS Award (2006) and the Burghausen Prize (2007) for his studies on renewable energy. Nocera received his early education at Rutgers University where he was a Henry Rutgers Scholar, obtaining a B.S. degree in 1979 with Highest Honors. He moved to Pasadena, California where he undertook graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology. After earning his Ph.D. degree in 1984, he went to East Lansing, Michigan to take up a faculty appointment at Michigan State University. He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Professor of Chemistry in 1997. Nocera has supervised 85 Ph.D. graduate and postdoctoral students, published 225 papers, given over 400 invited talks and 25 named lectureships. Nocera has worked with the President’s of five universities to set-up energy initiatives at their institutions. He is also working with many individuals in Hollywood – to help them decide how they can address, in a meaningful way, the global energy challenge.

Bernice Notenboom

Bernice Notenboom is an adventurer, explorer, writer, radio correspondent and filmmaker who once worked 60 hours per week for one of the world’s leading software companies. In 1995, she abandoned her corporate career to create Moki Treks, which connects its clients with aboriginal people as travel guides and cultural emissaries. Moki Treks won the prestigious World Legacy Award in 2004. Bernice’s passion to explore nomadic tribes in remote places has brought her to 70 countries. She is a contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Natural Health and The Washington Post. Bernice has produced over 25 radio documentaries for NPR’s Savvy Traveler, Living On Earth, Marketplace and All Things Considered. In 2007, Bernice will ski to three poles in one year: the cold pole (Siberia), the North Pole and the South Pole.

Geoffrey O’Connor

An Academy Award nominee, Geoffrey O’Connor is a writer, director and cinematographer whose credits include BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning documentary collaborations with Michael Moore and the BBC Documentary Features Unit. His signature style of satirical comedic filmmaking has allowed him to carve out a unique niche in commercials, documentaries and literary nonfiction. Geoffrey is the producer and director of activist videos, done in collaboration with the punk rock band Greenday and the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.

Doug Peacock

A longtime independent advocate for wilderness, Doug Peacock served as the real-life model for the fictional character George Washingstone Hayduke in Edward Abbey's The Monkeywrench Gang. Doug’s book Walking It Off: a Veteran's Chronicle of War and Wilderness is, in part, the story of his close and cantankerous friendship with Abbey. In 1988, Doug’s film, Peacock's War aired on Nature and won the Grand Prize at Mountainfilm. An ex-Green Beret medic and Disabled American Veteran, Peacock is a supporter of veteran causes and several peace movements. In April 2007, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and plans to write a book called Repatriation.

Dean Potter

Dean Potter is the only person to free climb Yosemite's Half Dome and El Cap in a single day. He also made the first free ascent of Mount Watkins, Yosemite's other Grade VI wall—as well as its first one-day ascent. He has set multiple speed records in Yosemite. In Patagonia, Dean made the first-ever free solo of Fitzroy, via the Supercanaleta, and then followed it with the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre, becoming the first to solo both peaks. He topped off those feats by free soloing the first ascent of Californian Roulette on Fitzroy, a route that had been tried since 1969. In the last twelve years, Dean has also been at the forefront of slack lining (walking on a length of springy nylon line, often at dizzying heights).

Chris Rainier

Chris Rainier’s mission is to put wilderness and indigenous cultures on film. He is a National Geographic Society Fellow, co-directs the National Geographic Society’s Cultural Ethnosphere Program and directs the All Roads Photography Program. He is a contributing photographer for National Geographic Adventure magazine and a correspondent on photography for NPR’s Day to Day. His work is seen in Time, Life, Smithsonian, The New York Times, many National Geographic publications and in museums and galleries around the world. Chris is on the Mountainfilm board of directors.

Roz Savage

Only 5 women had ever rowed solo across the Atlantic. It seemed improbable that Roz Savage could join this elite few. She had spent most of her adult life working in a London office, had never been to sea and was only 5ft 4in tall. But she left career, home and husband to pursue her dream. After just one year of preparation she set out from the Canary Islands to row 3000 miles to Antigua. After struggling through storms, capsizes, and equipment failures, she finally arrived at her destination after 103 days alone at sea. Roz is currently bidding to be the first woman ever to row solo across the Pacific Ocean. Her 3-stage row launches from San Francisco in Summer 2007. (more at www.rozsavage.com)

Chic Scott

Chic Scott took up climbing in 1962 and within a few years was pioneering new routes and winter ascents in the Rockies (FWA of Mounts Hungabee in 1966 and Assiniboine in 1967). In 1968 he travelled to Europe where he became one of the first Canadians to climb serious technical routes in the Alps (The Swiss Direct on Les Courtes North Face, the Gervesutti Pillar on Mont Blanc du Tacul and the north face of the Aig du Dru). Hired that year by Dougal Haston to teach climbing at the International School of Mountaineering in Leysin, Switzerland he returned in 1971,72 and 73 to climb and work for ISM. In 1974 he worked the entire summer on the filming of ‘The Eiger Sanction’ with Clint Eastwood. Chic was the first Canadian in modern times to climb in the Himalaya, when he joined a British Expedition to Dhaulagiri IV (1973). In the late 1970s and 1980s he made several significant climbs in the St Elias Mountains of the Yukon. In recent years Chic has turned his energy to writing and is the author of 3 ski mountaineering guidebooks to western Canada and three history books. (more at www.chicscott.com)

Isabel and Eva Sophia Shimanski

Isabel and Eva Sophia Shimanski (10 and 6 years old, respectively) come from a family history of social activism and engagement—from a great-grandfather's involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler, to both grandmothers' advocacy for the rights of the developmentally disabled and the nascent rights movement for women in Latin American, to parents who are engaged in development work and capacity building for nonprofits. Isabel and Eva Sophia have participated in two Pennies for Peace campaigns at their school and have been active promoters of the program. They come to Mountainfilm to share with children and adults how to affect global change with a virtually worthless American coin.

Will Steger

Known for his numerous polar expeditions, deep understanding of the environment and his efforts to raise international awareness to environmental threats, Will has been an eyewitness to the on-going catastrophic consequences of global warming. He has traveled tens of thousands of miles by kayak and dogsled over 40 years, leading teams on some of the most significant polar expeditions in history. He led the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole without re-supply (1986), the 1,600-mile south-north traverse of Greenland (the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history in 1988), the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica (the historic seven month, 3,471-mile International Trans-Antarctica Expedition in 1989-90), and the first dogsled traverse of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Ellesmere Island in Canada (1995). Recently, he formed the Will Steger Foundation with a personal and professional commitment to foster leadership and cooperation in environmental education and policy. The Foundation’s first initiative, Global Warming 101, will engage and empower individuals and policy-makers to translate their concern into action on this critical issue. Over 20 million students followed the 1995 International Arctic Project via on-line daily journal entries and the first-ever transmission of a digital photograph from the North Pole. Will joins Amelia Earhart, Robert Peary, and Roald Amundsen in receiving the National Geographic Society's prestigious John Oliver La Gorce Medal. In 1996, he became their first Explorer-in-Residence. He is also the author of four books: Over the Top of the World, Crossing Antarctica, North to the Pole, and Saving the Earth. (more at www.willsteger.com)

Robert Swan OBE

Sir Robert Swan has earned his place in history alongside the great explorers and adventurers who have tested their physical and mental strength to the limit in the planet's most hostile environments. By the age of 33, he had become the first person to walk to both the North and South poles. His 900-mile journey 'In the Footsteps of Scott,' across the treacherous Antarctic ice cap to the South Pole, stands as the longest unassisted walk ever made. The successful completion of his North and South Pole expeditions marked the beginning of a new phase in his life. On both expeditions, he experienced firsthand the effects of environmental damage on the Polar icecaps. In Antarctica, his eyes were affected and the skin peeled off his face after walking for weeks under the hole in the ozone layer. In the Arctic, the team almost drowned due to melting ice, caused by global warming. These experiences shaped Swan's lifetime goal -- to work for the preservation of the Antarctic as the last great wilderness on earth. With his yacht, '2041,' he circumnavigates Africa in 2003 -- inspiring and being inspired by communities and young people on the issues of HIV/AIDS, sustainability and the environment.

Pete Takeda

Pete Takeda is a senior contributing editor to Rock and Ice magazine and a frequent contributor to Outside, Sports Afield and Backpacker. As an internationally recognized rock, ice and alpine climber for the past 20 years, his climbing exploits have been covered in Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, Outside and Sports Afield. Pete’s recently published book, An Eye at The Top of The World, is a winning hybrid of Cold War history, environmental mystery and outdoor adventure that will appeal to history buffs, mountain climbers and James Bond fans alike.

William Henry "Trey" Taylor III

William Henry “Trey” Taylor III is the co-founder of Verdant Power, Inc., a sustainable energy company that produces hydroelectric power without dams. In December 2004 he was recognized in Esquire magazine’s Genius Issue as one of “America’s Best and Brightest.” Currently, he’s working on the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) Project, an ambitious endeavor that will ultimately generate electricity through sunken turbines from Manhattan’s East River tides. Verdant Power has received the go-ahead to place the first two of six turbines in a channel to test whether they can generate electricity efficiently without disturbing the environment. One turbine will send power to a supermarket and a nearby parking garage. The other will house monitoring equipment to gauge performance. If all goes well, four more turbines will be installed soon for an 18-month test that could lead to 200-300 of the devices. Taylor has over 35 years of experience in marketing and communication with such firms as ITT Corporation, British Telecom, and Procter & Gamble. He has served as director of advertising for four trade associations: Edison Electric Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute, American Council of Life Insurers and the Health Insurance Association of America. Taylor also helped develop and produce several nationally known public affairs TV shows, including The McLaughlin Group and Make Peace with Nature. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Hydro Research Foundation and the Advisory Board of the National Hydropower Association, chairing its R&D committee. He is a charter board member of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition. (more at www.verdantpower.com)

Randy Udall

Randy Udall is director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) in western Colorado and one of the nation’s leading activists and innovators in promoting energy sustainability. CORE's partnerships with individuals, governments and businesses have led to some remarkable accomplishments, including the nation’s first solar-energy incentive program, the world's first renewable-energy-mitigation program, as well as some of the most aggressive and progressive green power programs in the country.

Thomas Ulrich

A carpenter and a mountain guide from Switzerland, Thomas Ulrich started early with extreme climbing. His first expedition to Patagonia in 1988 was followed by six more, one of which included the first successful traverse of the southern Patagonian inland in 2003. He has published articles in National Geographic and has become one of the world’s most famous adventure photographers. Thomas also works as a cameraman and filmmaker and has won several prizes for his movies. In 2006, his attempt to cross the Arctic solo and unsupported failed; nevertheless, he goes on planning the next expeditions bound to his credo: “Follow your heart!”

Caroline Ware-George

Caroline Ware-George was born in the midst of the Swiss Alps into a family of outdoors lovers. Paradoxically, she didn't really enjoy the outdoors herself until she got into a serious accident in the mountains that left her flat on her back for two months with many broken bones and a "disease" from which she has never been cured: a passion for mountains. After competing in the Ice World Cup for three years, Caroline returned to her roots and became the first American woman to climb the three great north faces of the Alps: The Eiger, the Matterhorn and the Walker Spur on the Grandes Jorasses—all in just three months.

Paul Watson

For 30 years, Captain Paul Watson has been at the helm of the world’s most active marine nonprofit organization, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Paul’s career as a master mariner began in 1968 as a seaman with the merchant marines and with the Canadian Coast Guard. He has authored six books: Shepherds of the Sea, Sea Shepherd: My Fight for Whales and Seals, Cry Wolf, Earthforce!, Ocean Warrior and Seal War. In 1972, he co-founded the Greenpeace Foundation in Vancouver, B.C.

Rex Weyler

Rex Weyler is a journalist, writer, and ecologist. He was born in Denver, Colorado in 1947, went to high school in Midland, Texas, and later studied physics, mathematics, and history at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He worked as an apprentice engineer for Lockheed in 1967, but left engineering for a career in journalism. In 1969, he published his first book with photographer David Totheroh, a pacifist discourse with photographs from a winter in California’s Yosemite Valley. Weyler married Glenn Jonathans in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 1971 and immigrated to Canada in 1972. He worked at the North Shore News in North Vancouver and with Greenpeace. Between 1974 and 1982, he served as a director of Greenpeace, editor of the Greenpeace Chronicles magazine, and was a co-founder of Greenpeace International. He sailed on the first Greenpeace whale campaign, and his photographs and news accounts of Greenpeace appeared worldwide. Weyler received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for his Native American history, Blood of the Land, and he co-authored the self-help classic Chop Wood, Carry Water. He co-founded Hollyhock Educational Centre on Cortes Island in British Columbia – dedicated to environmental, personal, and professional studies – and which remains Canada’s leading educational retreat centre. Weyler was married for the second time in 1990, to Lisa Gibbons. He remains active in environmental work. He writes for magazines and newspapers, is widely reprinted on the Internet, and appears weekly on Canada’s Omni-10 News show, The Standard. (more at www.rexweyler.com)

Mark Wilford

Mark Wilford, a Colorado native, has traveled around the world climbing for over 30 years. He enjoys all aspects of the sport, from bouldering to Himalyan big wall. He is known for his strong traditional climbing values and bold apline solos. He strives to keep the adventure in climbing.

Neville Williams

A lifelong adventurer, world traveller, and amateur mountaineer, Neville Williams is the founder and chairman of Standard Solar Inc. A former journalist, Mr. Williams first became involved with solar energy during the Carter Administration as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy. He is the author of CHASING THE SUN: Solar Adventures Around The World [New Society Publishers, 2005), an account of bringing solar power to people without electricity in 11 countries in Asia and Africa. In 1990, Williams embarked on his greatest adventure ever – to bring solar power to unelectrified people in the Developing World. He founded the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a non-profit organization devoted to financing and facilitating solar rural electrification. Later, Williams founded the Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO), and was its chairman and CEO until 2003. Now headquartered in Bangalore, India, SELCO has installed over 65,000 solar home lighting systems, bringing household electricity to a quarter million people in India, Vietnam and Sri lanka. In 2001, SELCO received the Award for Corporate Excellence from the U.S. Dept. of State. An Ohio native, Mr. Williams studied at the Universities of Colorado, and Neuchatel, Switzerland. He is the author of a book on the Vietnam War, and of numerous articles published in Nature, Outside, The New Republic, The Nation, the New York Times Magazine, New Times, and other publications. Mr. Williams was a war correspondent in Vietnam and later worked as a writer/producer for WNBC-TV News in New York. In 1987, he joined Greenpeace USA as its national media director where he became interested in renewable energy and solutions to global warming. Williams attended the first three Mountainfilm Festivals and feels priveleged to participate in this one. (more at www.standardsolar.com)