Mark your calendars!
2008 Kendal Mountain Festivals
20th – 23rd November 2008

‘Kendal’ is one of the world’s most prestigious mountain festivals, an internationally-known event that attracts top adventurers, climbers, writers, film-makers and film premieres from around the world. And it’s a huge tribal gathering and the main social event for outdoor enthusiasts in the UK.

This November’s event once again offers the most diverse programme of films and documentaries of any film Festival in the UK. We will be attracting premieres from many major adventure film makers from around the world. We offer an unequalled range of presentations, lectures and debates on all topics of interest to people passionate about the outdoors, mountain communities, the natural environment and adventure sports, with specialist programmes for skiers and boarders, BASE and parapenting, adventure races, kayaking and mountain biking.

Our unique Adventure Film Academy provides an unequalled opportunity to work with professionals to make your own adventure film, and of course there are great parties, music and lots to do at a range of events across a range of venues

Headline speakers for 2008

Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner is often cited as the greatest mountain climber of all time. In 1978 Messner and Peter Habeler were the first to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen and in 1980 Messner repeated this feat solo. He was the first to climb all the world’s fourteen 8,000m peaks, and one of the first and more enthusiastic supporters of alpine style mountaineering in the Himalayas. Other major ascents include the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat with his brother Günther who tragically died on the descent, and a solo of the Diamir face of Nanga Parbat. Kendal is delighted to welcome Reinhold to the Festival, a rare opportunity to hear one of the true greats in the mountaineering world speak about his life and beliefs.

* see : – Reinhold Messner /Version polish and english/

Catherine Destivelle
French climber Catherine Destivelle started climbing in Fontainebleau with her father and soon progressed to the Alps. In the 1980’s she became famous for her successes in the nascent sport climbing movement competing well in the early competitions and climbing classic sport routes such as Chouca 8a+ at Buoux. In 1990 she free-climbed the Nameless Tower in Pakistan and solo climbed the Bonatti Pillar on Les Drus. In June 1991, she opened a new route up the famous west face of the Drus, during a remarkable 11-day solo-climb. She then soloed the Eiger, made winter solos of the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses and the Bonatti route on the North Face of the Matterhorn, attempted Latok in Pakistan and the West Pillar of the Makalu. Catherine became well known to UK audiences from the TV film Seo, with its amazing climbing sequences on cliffs in Mali, West Africa.

David Breashears
David Breashears is an American climber, mountaineer, author and filmmaker. In 1985 he was the first American man to reach the summit of Everest twice and went on to guide Dick Bass on the first ascent of the Seven Summits. Breashears was present on Everest during the 1996 disaster and was made famous by Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air describing how three guides and two clients perished near the summit. He co-directed, co-produced and filmed the 1998 IMAX film ‘Everest’, the footage of which was taken on his 1996 expedition. Breashears has also worked on other films such as Seven Years in Tibet and Cliffhanger, and is the recipient of four Emmy awards for achievement in cinematography.

Steph Davis
American climber Steph Davis is recognised as one of the world’s premier adventure climbers, and one of the few women to have free-climbed El Capitan in Yosemite when in 2005 she climbed the Salathe Wall (VI 5.13b/c). She is also the first woman to climb all seven named summits in the Fitzroy massif. In 2007 she soloed Pervertical Sanctuary (IV 5.10c) on the Diamond, Longs Peak (14,255′) in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Her crack climbing abilities are legendary, and Steph has also recently taken up BASE jumping. She is author of High Infatuation: A Climber’s Guide to Love and Gravity, “partly a history of growing up in the climbing world, partly a book of adventure tales, but mostly an effort to figure out how things fit together”.

Film Competition entries now open for 2008

“Since 1980, the very best showcase for mountain sports, culture & environment”

Mountain Film Festivals :

• Banff Mountain Festivals
• Dundee Mountain Film Festival
• Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival
• Fort William Mountain Film Festival
• Zakopane Mountain Film Festival
• The 12th Andrzej Zawada Mountain Film Review in Lądek Zdrój

*** zapraszam na relacje z innych wypraw polskich himalaistów.