BACKCOUNTRY FILMS — John Latta of the Stevens Peak Backcountry Coalition is reminding outdoor enthusiats that we're just a week away from the Winter Wildlands Alliance 7th Annual Backcountry Film Festival, set for next Friday (Nov. 11), in the Wolfe Auditorium at Gonzaga University's Jepson Center. 

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., films at 7 p.m..  This is the second season the film festival films will be in Spokane. 

“These are are all new films for 2011-2012,” Latta said  “The Fest is a confluence of fun made possible by some great people working together for good causes,” including the effort to maintain backcountry skiing in the Stevens Peak area near Lookout Pass.

NORDIC SKIING — Two great ways to meet up with the area's cross-country skiing community are coming up:

• Snow Ball Potluck and Moonlight Ski Tour, Jan. 15, starting at 5 p.m. at Selkirk Lodge on Mount Spokane. Bring potluck item and headlamp for the skiing, which will start about 6:30.  Sponsored by Spokane Nordic. RSVP:  Jack Benedetto jackbenedetto@hotmail.com
• Spokane Langlauf 10-kilometer classic style citizens race, the largest nordic skiing event in the region, Feb. 13, at Mount Spokane. Pre-register at Fitness Fanatics or online.

Former Spokane residents Torsten Kjellstrand and his son, Bjorn, reach to their Swedish roots to demonstrate a few basic skate-skiing techniques to try on the groomed cross-country ski trails.

SKIING — Starting Jan. 1 and hitting slopes on both sides of the equator, Greg Hill of Revelstoke, British Columbia is 80 percent through his goal to climb and ski 2 million vertical feet in one year — all self-propelled.

To put this in perspective, powering through 2 million vertical feet is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest three times a month for a year. It’s like scaling each of the seven summits, then starting over again, until you’ve done it 14 times.

For the city bound, it’s like taking the stairs to the top of the Empire State Building four times a day, every day, for a year.

But Hill is making this epic in remote, high-altitude mountain ranges, in avalanche terrain, often with 50 pounds of gear strapped to his back.

Hill has just logged 1.6 million vertical feet and is on pace to accomplish his goal, according to backcountry.com.

He’s been around the world skiing this year. After skiing for months in South America’s winter, he recently returned to his hometown of Revelstoke, British Columbia, to finish his mission.