OUTDOOR ADVENTURE – The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will continue its three-day, sold-out run tonight at the Bing Crosby Theater, featuring a series of two dozen outdoor adventure films brilliantly displayed through the Bing’s new, just-installed, state-of-the art projector and $12,000 viewing screen.

(Coming this month: a new $50,000 surround-sound audio system).

The eclectic assortment of outdoor films has displayed some stellar adventures, including the chilling drama of a kayaker nearly drowning as a wild river pinned him and his boat to a boulder in Flow Hunters, and unbelievable skills, such as mountain biker Danny MacAskill riding obstacles through a steel plant in Industrial Revolutions.

The biggest loser film from the Friday night offerings might be 5 Races, 5 Continents featuring prolonged interviews (largely unintelligible) with ultra-runner Kilian Jornet through the 2011 running season to some of the world's most demanding races, none of which were explained.

If I had not hiked the 110-mile Tour du Mont Blanc in France, Italy and Switzerland this summer, I would not have had any idea what this film was about.

Best quote from Friday night's films came from disabled rock climber Pete Davis of The Gimp Monkeys:

“The right attitude and one arm will beat the wrong attitude and two arms any day.”

Top films to show tonight (Saturday) include:

Crossing the Ice (Winner of Grand Prize, People's Choice and Best film on Exploration and Adventure at the 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival)

REEL ROCK: Honnold 3.0 (The festival's Best Film on Climbing)

On Sunday, viewers will see a documentary, Wild Bill’s Run, about an adventurous 1972 snowmobile expedition — and crime caper — that attempted to cover 5,000 miles of snow and polar ice between Minnesota and Moscow.

Director Mike Scholtz emailed me this information about a local connection:

“Four people from Spokane helped me shoot and edit the film. Chris White and Michael Pickering of Comrade Studios and Clint Janson and Matt Vielle of Hamilton Studio.

“Chris White, in particular, was invaluable. He composed the score on a Moog synthesizer (befitting the film's 70s setting) and did the sound design and final edit for the Banff World Tour.”

See the lineup of World Tour Films in the Spokane event.

See the always exciting World Tour trailer here.

ADVENTURE — The lineup of films for the three-day run of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in Spokane has been decided — just hours before the first films will be shown tonight starting at 7 p.m. at The Bing Crosby Theater.

Friday and Saturday night snows are sold out.  Only a few tickets remained for Sunday at last check.

See the always exciting World Tour trailer here.

Note: The new owners of The Bing have just installed a new state of the art projector and larger screen to debut with this weekend's film festival showing. Also, for the first time, alcoholic beverages will be sold during the festival event.

World Tour host — better known as the World Tour road warrior — Charla Tomlinson and her traveling partner Lorraine Fung from Canmore, Alberta, met with Phil Bridgers of Mountain Gear at Northern Lights Brewery this afternoon to work through the options.  Several films Bridgers wanted to show still were not licensed and a couple more were hung up in U.S. Mail. 

But they came up with a good lineup of shows for each night.  This is the second week Tomlinson and Fung have been on the road.  They'll log 60 hours of driving and 4,000 kilometers of travel from Nov. 8-Dec. 10 to show the World tour around the region.

Read on for the lineup in Spokane, subject to minor modifications.

ADVENTURE FILMS — The trailer for this year's Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour has been released (above) and, as usual, it doesn't disappoint.  The action you see in this trailer will be played out in Spokane on a bigger screen in this year's World Tour weekend at The Bing — tonight, Saturday and Sunday.

The shows for tonight and Saturday are sold out but tickets are still available for Sunday.

The Mountain Gear staff is meeting with the Banff World Tour host at noon to begin the task of selecting the available films for each night. The decisions are based on film lengths, diversity of films and what films have been licensed to show on the road to get a good mix of different films for each night.

I'll post the lineup as soon as the decisions are made.

See you at the shows!

ADVENTURE — When they talk about “action films,” these are the real deal.  The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour has hit the road and the next stop is the Bing Crosby Theater in Spokane. 

About two dozen films will be shown in Spokane over the three-night run at the Bing, including Crossing the Ice (above), which won the Grand Prize, Adventure category prize and the coveted People's Choice Award at the recent nine-day film festival in Banff, Alberta.

Here's the schedule for this year's tour in this region.

Spokane: Friday and Saturday (Nov. 16-17) starting 7 p.m., and Sunday, 6 p.m., at The Bing. Different films at each showing. Tickets $15 a show or $40 for all three sessions, from Mountain Gear, 325-9000 or mountaingear.com.

Sandpoint: Jan. 24-26 at Panida Theater. Info: Mountain Fever, (208) 661-3857.

Coeur d’Alene: Jan. 27-28 at Kroc Center, 1765 W. Golf Course Road. Info: Mountain Fever, (208) 661-3857.

Pullman: Jan. 29 at Washington State University. Info: Outdoor Recreation Center, (509) 335-1892.

Spokane film lineup to be announced

Since licensing is still underway for films pegged for the World Tour version of the Banff Mountain Film Festival, the features to be shown this week in Spokane won’t be selected until Friday afternoon.

Outdoors editor Rich Landers will be at Friday afternoon’s the selection meeting to post the film lineup for the three-day event online at www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors

JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

SKIING — This street-skiing video clip from the ski film All.I.Can. is one of my favorite moments from the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour that ran three nights at The Bing Crosby Theater in Spokane.

It required skill and a sense of humor. It makes fun of all the virgin powder films people die to make.

It features J.P. Auclair making a wild trip down through the dirty urban snow lining the steep streets in Trail, British Columbia.  It's way more imaginative than screaming off cliffs. Very cool.

ADVENTURE FILMS — Adventure lovers have been feasting at a very full plate of films in Spokane during the three-day run of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour at the Bing Crosby Theater. The lineup of films was selected Friday morning by Mountain Gear staffers. A series of 21 films — seven a night — is being shown in a different lineup each day starting tonight.

Friday night was a real crowd pleaser with full range of emotion and stunning photography. Saturday featured something new for the World Tour:  A filmmaker introducing his film, and he was a local — Jordan Halland of Coeur d'Alene, who helped film the Ice Climbing crowd pleaser Blue Obsession.

The film fest is a virtual sellout, but a few tickets may still be available for tonight. Call Mountain Gear for possible leftovers, 325-9000.

Click on the popular intro footage (above) of short clips from all the festival films to get a taste for what's to come.

Mountain Gear staffers (left) met with World Tour hostess Michelle de Camp of the Banff Mountain Film Festival Friday afternoon to choose the lineup of films. Expect a heavy and sometimes powerful mix of drama, action and stunning photography this year. 

Their goal was to offer variety every night from the movies licensed for the show. Following is the lineup in order:

FRIDAY

All.I.Can — A visually stunning film featuring time-lapse sequences, creative visuals, great skiers and deep powder and environmental messages. Voted Best Feature-length Mountain Film,

Treeverse — Five days will people who never set their feet on the ground.

Trail Collector — Vignettes of riding various mountain biking trails — the only fat-tire flick in the World Tour this year.

 Kadoma — A movie about kayaking in the Congo, with a dramatic ending that could not have been scripted. Voted Best Film on Expedition and Adventure.

Reel Rock: Ice Revolution — Takes ice climbing to a new level.

C.A.R.C.A. — One man's quest to revolutionize the world of animal avalanche rescue.

The Freedom Chair — A great competitive skier finds a new way to win out of necessity. Voted Best Film on Mountain Sports.

SATURDAY

On Assignment Jimmy Chin — A look behind the scenes of a passionate Yosemite climber.

Solitaire — A different kind of ski movie rising from the desert of South Africa.

Seasons: Fall — A 4-minute moody kayaking flick made on Washington's White Salmon River, part of a four-season series.

Spoil — An environmental film that avoids preachiness and relies on visuals to make its point about development and its potential impact on a special line of bears. Voted Best Film on Mountain Environment and Ranked #2 in People’s Choice voting at the Festival in Banff.

23 Feet — Three young women head out on a prolonged road trip to find the meaning of a simple life.

Blue Obsession — Jordan Halland — a heart throb in crampons — sets out on an unusual and artistic ice climbing adventure in Alaska glaciers near Juneau.

Cold — Follows mountaineers as they learn why 16 other expeditions had failed to climb an 8,000 meter Pakistan peak during winter. Grand Prize Winner at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, and likely to make you hesitate to ever complain about the cold.

SUNDAY

Ski Bums Never Die— A light, inspiring short movie about characters you might see this year when you travel north to hit the slopes at Whitewater Ski Area near Nelson, B.C.

Chasing Water — An honest look at the length of the Colorado River. Voted Best Short Mountain Film.

Seasons: Winter — Perhaps the best of the  four seasons series, a 4-minute flick of winter kayaking with some nifty toboggan entries and a cheerful cameo appearance by river otters.

On the Trail of Genghis Khan: The Last Frontier — Australian Tim Cope get's more than he expected as he follows the conqueror's epic 10,000-kilometer route. The 1 1/2-year expedition took 3 1/2 years.  Banff film viewers reportedly fall in love with the main character. Winner of the People's Choice Award at Banff.

Sketchy Andy — Hang on to your seats as a dirtbag climber takes the discipline of slacklining into the future.

Towers of Ennedi — Veteran climber Mark Synnott – known more for his far-flung adventures than his technical accomplishments – brings young climbing stars Alex Honnold and James Pearson to the Ennedi and its unclimbed rock towers in Chad, Africa.

Reel Rock: Origins - Obe and Ashima — A climbing gym innovator works with a 9-year-old child climbing prodigy.

Read more about the Banff Mountani Film Festival World tour.

ADVENTURE FILMS — Adventure, humor, awareness and awe, plus a   good dose of pucker factor, are coming to   Spokane this weekend in a road show of top outdoor adventure films.

And if you don't already have tickets, you may be out of luck.

The cream of the crop from the 31st annual Banff Mountain Film Festival will be traveling from Alberta to The Bing Crosby Theater tonight through Sunday.

But tickets are sold out through TicketsWest.  Call the Mountain Gear Retail Store, 325-9000, to see if any tickets are left for this popular annual event.

The World Tour shows will take the audience to extremes, from ascending to one of the coldest places on earth to rappelling into the hottest place – to take a sample of molten lava from the bowels of a volcano.

The films feature all sorts of outdoor pursuits, including climbing, wildlife, pedaling and paddling.

See above for the always popular festival film clips compiled into the exciting World Tour into segment.

Then click here for details about this year's festival as well as links for clips on many of the top films.