Kendal Film Festival

We had to convince the campsite to let us stay. From a previous year we knew that they operated a policy of no single sex groups. That time with only three in the group we had got away with it, but this year we would be seven. Our trusty leader has done his home work, he had called the Caravan and Camping Club to make some enquiries; 'what is your policy on gay couples?'. This was to be our back up plan if all else failed, fairly weak but our leader did like to take up an issue.

To test the waters two of our group went to book in whilst we remained hidden in the car. They seemed to be gone some time, it seemed that our joker was being played. As it turns out they booked in without a problem, but just the two of them! The campsite staff then informed them that they relax their rules for the film festival weekend, but by now it was to late. We would have to remain stealthy and book in with the rest of the party the following night.

We arrived at the Brewery Arts Centre early, our first challenge was to sort out the tickets which this year seemed to be incredibly complicated. We had tickets for Fridays films, weekend passes and tickets for special events! I ordered the coffees whilst greater minds sorted out the confusion. Like shopping, or a visit to a museum you have to pace yourself at events like this. We had three days ahead of us and although you do little more than sit in a chair fatigue is inevitable. Apart from the Extreme Film School seminars we filled Friday with short films covering the entire spectrum of extreme sports.

The big event of Saturday was Catherine Destivelle. The theatre was packed with eager listeners. Unfortunately there seemed to be some technical problems with her presentation. Her slides seemed bleached out and her films low quality or without sound. The biggest gasp was during a showing of a film made on the Devils Tower. Climbing to half height and bridging out across a chimney the rope 'apparently' gets stuck and the only way for Catherine to proceed is to untie the rope and let it fall through the gear. She then continued to solo the rest of the route.

The second eagerly anticipated lecture was Alex Huber. He was talking about his recent activities in the Dolomites and had some top rate film footage. Starting with a winter solo on the Tre Cima di Lavaredo and then free climbing the route in summer (Bellavista, 8c). The best was left to last with a solo of the Hasse-Brandler route. He talked through how he prepared for such an undertaking by practising on his local crag, soloing up to 8a+. But this couldn't prepare one for the film that followed. Really you have to see it. Despite the fact that he practised the route with his brother it is an outstanding sustained piece of climbing.

By Sunday afternoon we were feeling the effects of too many films. The last film of the day was Rubicon, an 'experimental' Russian film of climbers tackling the Great Sail Peak in the Baffin Islands. The mountain spirits were to much for at least one of our party, funny enough I think it was another of my friends who put the film maker in touch with the organisation at Kendal.