Out & About: Backcountry Film Fest coming to Spokane
OUTFOCUSED – An evening of films about muscle-powered adventures is coming to Spokane as a fundraiser for a local group that’s trying to preserve the backcountry experience in a few pressured areas.
The 11th annual Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival will begin at 7 p..m. on Jan. 28 at the Bing Crosby Theater, sponsored by the Inland Northwest Backcountry Alliance. Tickets are $12.
The Backcountry Film Festival collaborates with filmmakers from around the world to produce a show that mixes films about outdoor thrills with flicks on environmental initiatives.
The nine films to be featured in Spokane include:
“Japan by Van” – Immerse in head-deep powder of the Shirakawa backcountry.
“Shifting Ice” – Follow the grueling fun of an all-women team in scientific exploration.
“I Love Splitboarding” – A fresh way of living, and playing in the backcountry.
“Always Above Us” – A glimpse of the sacrifice and hardship involved in the life of a climber.
“The Forecaster” – Avalanche expert Drew Hardesty leads by example, paying respect to the responsibility that comes with our backcountry freedom.
Money raised at the festival is used to help the Winter Wildlands Alliance promote and preserve winter backcountry and a quality human-powered snowsports experience on public lands.
The alliance filed the lawsuit that pressured the U.S. Forest Service into requiring forests to study and designate where winter motorized use should be allowed.
John Latta, of the Inland Northwest Backcountry Alliance, said his group is working to represent backcountry skiers and encourage forest supervisors in this region to comply with that policy.
Protecting some of the traditional backcountry skiing and snowshoe experience in the Lookout Pass-Stevens Peak area from encroachment by snowmobiling is one of the group’s priorities.
“We’ve been working on this a long time,” Latta said, noting that after years of meetings, the Panhandle National Forests has appointed a new Coeur d’Alene District ranger that manages the Stevens Peak area.
Winter travel planning options vary by forest, he said.
“Even though there are models to follow from forests in Wyoming and Colorado, we don’t know exactly how to press the Idaho Panhandle Forests to work on their own mandates,” Latta said. “Their staffs are stretched thin. They’re coming off a terrible fire season and their budgets are shrinking. We know that.”
The effort has been complicated in recent years as more backcountry skiers turn to snowmobiles to quickly reach the fresh powder.
“We just want to work at getting a message out about sustainable snow and backcountry ethics,” Latta said.
All backcountry enthusiasts would benefit from a designated Stevens Peak area with a boundary where everyone had to park motorized vehicles and go in by quiet muscle power, he said.