March 6, 2002

2002 Banff Mountain Summit Celebrates International Year of Mountains

"Have you ever wondered how extreme landscape shape our lives, and how we in turn impact the land around us?"

Banff Mountain Summit 2002 — Extreme Landscape: Challenge and Celebration will examine the issues and the inspiration of the world’s extreme landscapes from October 27 to 29, 2002. The Summit, along with the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festivals, will be the premier mountain culture event of 2002, a year that the United Nations has declared International Year of Mountains.

"The Summit will explore how extreme landscapes shape people's lives and how people impact extreme landscape," says Bernadette McDonald, vice-president, Mountain Culture, The Banff Centre. The event will include respected mountain authors, scientists, dancers, musicians, anthropologists and filmmakers. "Each Summit guest has a passion for mountain places and has translated that passion into creative endeavours, environmental and scientific research, and critical thinking," McDonald notes. Banff Mountain Summit 2002 is presented by Parks Canada.

Speakers at the Summit will include award-winning authors Gretel Ehrlich and Terry Tempest Williams, mountaineer, author and parliamentarian Reinhold Messner, author and ethnobotanist Wade Davis, specialist on sacred mountains Edwin Bernbaum, cultural photographer Chris Rainier, Canadian poet and singer Sid Marty, climber and founder of Patagonia Yvon Chouinard, high-altitude archaeologist Johan Reinhard, adventurer Will Gadd, mountain writer Rick Ridgeway, leading authority on international peace parks Jim Thorsell, conservationist George Schaller and many others.

Banff Mountain Summit 2002 will include a symposium, slide shows, lectures, exhibitions, films, vertical dance performances and panel discussions on the following themes:

• Tribes — the Culture of Extreme Landscapes
• Eat the View — the Consumption of Extreme Landscape
• Mountains of the Brain — the Psychology of Extreme Landscape
• Adventure Capitalists — Corporate Responsibility
• Mountains of Inspiration —Interpretation of Extreme Landscape

Exhibitions by artists and photographers inspired by extreme mountain landscapes will also be showcased at Banff Mountain Summit 2002. Artists such as Alaskan photographer Bradford Washburn, British multi-media artist Andy Parkin, cultural photographer Chris Rainier and French painter Jean-Georges Inca will be presented at public galleries throughout Banff.

The Summit and the Banff Mountain Festivals take place October 27 to November 3 at The Banff Centre, Canada’s only learning centre dedicated to the arts, leadership development, and mountain culture. Festival accommodation packages at the Centre include superior rooms, mountain views and superb recreational facilities.

For tickets, information and festival accommodation, go to www.banffmountainfestivals.ca or call the Box Office at 1-800-413-8368, 1-403-762-6301.