Media Release

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For immediate release
May 26, 2006

Andes survivor Nando Parrado headlines 2006 Banff Mountain Festivals

Author joins guests including Ed Viesturs, Simone Moro, Leo Houlding, Andy Kirkpatrick, more

Banff Mountain Film Festival · October 28 to November 5
Banff Mountain Book Festival · November 1 to 3
The Banff Centre · Banff, Alberta, Canada · Information: 403.762.6675
Tickets on sale June 1 · Box Office: 800.413.8368

Stranded 12,000 feet up on a snow-packed ridge in the Andes in 1972, Nando Parrado was among 28 survivors of a violent plane crash that would soon draw the world’s spotlight. In the 72-day ordeal that followed the crash, the slowly dwindling group of survivors suffered through unimaginable cold, starvation, and panic before Parrado and teammate Roberto Canessa made a desperate nine-day trek west to Chile to get help. Their heroism helped to save the remaining 14 survivors, and their story became a worldwide sensation with the publication of Piers Paul Read’s bestselling chronicle Alive. The Hollywood film of the same name premiered 20 years later.

This year, Parrado tells his own story in the superbly readable memoir Miracle in the Andes, and he brings that story to the 2006 Banff Mountain Festivals as one of the Festivals’ headlining guests. Parrado joins a world-class lineup of mountaineers, outdoor athletes, filmmakers, authors, photographers, and thousands of enthusiastic audience members at one of the mountain community’s biggest events of the year.

Speakers and presenters for the 2006 Festivals include high-altitude mountaineer Ed Viesturs, who made it to the top of Annapurna in May 2005, becoming the first American climber to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks, a feat he completed without the use of supplemental oxygen. Viesturs arrives in Banff with his new memoir, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks.

Italian mountaineer Simone Moro is one of the world’s most technically skilled climbers, summiting major peaks (many as speed ascents) and completing 8b- and 9-level ascents on sport and mixed climbs. The former climbing partner of Anatoli Boukreev, Moro has, among many other feats, summited Shishapangma, Lhotse, and Everest, opened a new route on Nanga Parbat, and speed-ascended Broad Peak in 29 hours.

Often referred to as Britain’s climbing prodigy, Leo Houlding arrives in Banff with tales from rock faces all over the world. A spectacularly talented freeclimber, Houlding has redpointed a line on El Capitan, made the first free ascent of the West Face of the Leaning Tower, and on-sighted the Regular Northwest Face of Yosemite’s Half Dome.

Fellow Brit and star big-wall climber Andy Kirkpatrick will also bring his stories to Banff. “Andy is one of the funniest of Britain’s top climbers,” Sir Chris Bonington has said. “He represents what is best in modern British climbing: boldness, innovation, sense of humour, irreverence, commitment, and an appetite for risk.” Kirkpatrick has climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan more than 10 times, including a 12-day solo ascent of Reticent Wall, viewed at the time as perhaps the hardest climb of its type in the world. His 15-day winter ascent of the Dru, a 1000-metre pillar in the Alps, pushed Andy and his partner, Ian Parnell, to their limits.

Created more than 30 years ago, the Banff Mountain Film Festival has become the premier event of its kind in the world. The Festival showcases the best films worldwide in mountain subjects – alpinism, culture, environment, and sport – and attracts the best in mountaineering, adventure filmmaking, and extreme sports as presenters and speakers. More than 60 films will screen during the eight-day Festival, and an international jury will award prizes for the best films in the categories of climbing, sport, environment, culture, short, and feature-length.

Each year, running concurrently with the Film Festival, the Banff Mountain Book Festival brings the spirit of outdoor adventure and the tradition of mountain literature to Banff, uniting writers, publishers, editors, photographers, and readers. Featuring guest speakers, readings, seminars, an international book competition, a book fair, and book signings and launches, the Book Festival is now in its 13th year.

For more information on the 2006 Banff Mountain Festival:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture/festivals/2006/

The Banff Mountain Film Festival is presented by National Geographic and Dunham, and sponsored by Patagonia, Deuter, OR, Timex Expedition, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and Polartec, with assistance from Lake Louise Mountain Resort, PETZL, MSR, Nokia, and Mountain Equipment Co-op.

The Banff Mountain Book Festival is presented by CMH - Canadian Mountain Holidays and National Geographic, and is sponsored by Dunham, Patagonia, Deuter, OR, Timex Expedition and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, with assistance from the Alpine Club of Canada, Banff Book & Art Den and The Mountaineers Books,

CBC Radio-Canada, the Calgary Herald, Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the International Alliance for Mountain Film also provide valuable support for the Banff Mountain Festivals.