MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release
October 3, 2000

The Banff Centre for Mountain Culture announced today that two free noon-hour seminars

"Expedition Leadership - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and "The High Cost of a Free Ride" will be added to this year’s Banff Mountain Film Festival line-up.

The Centre also announced that Maurice Herzog, who was scheduled to give the opening presentation for the Film Festival, will not attend this year’s event. Instead, Reinhold Messner, the man who many describe as the world’s greatest living mountaineer, will give the opening address.

Recent books have re-examined historic ascents, and raised again the perennial question of leadership. Was one expedition leader too autocratic? Was another too indecisive? Did yet another achieve success by making the expedition a living hell for all its members?

This seminar will examine the concept of effective leadership in the mountaineering context, and how the nature of that leadership has changed over time and in changing circumstances. Panel members will share their opinions on the characteristics of great expedition leaders, on the best-led and worst-led expeditions of the twentieth century and about the fairness -or otherwise - of re-examining the leadership style of a long-past expedition.

Panelists include: Michael Brown, climber, kayaker and award-winning filmmaker; Babu Chiri Sherpa, climber and ten-time Everest summiteer; Larry Hulsmans, Senior Program Director, Core Leadership and Management, The Banff Centre for Management; and Reinhold Messner, first climber to summit all fourteen 8000-metre peaks.

 The High Cost of a Free Ride
Sunday, November 5, 1999, Max Bell Auditorium, 12:30 - 1:45 pm. Free

Sponsorships and grants seem to be increasingly important as climbers and other extreme athletes struggle to raise the money necessary for ambitious expeditions. But does outside funding, by its very nature, change the experience of the expedition and are these changes, in some cases, unacceptable? Are funders and sponsors dictating who goes where, who leads, what pictures are taken?

This seminar will examine the expectations of the funders and sponsors, the responses of the climbers and athletes, and the ways in which they may come into conflict.

Panelists include: Arlene Burns, expedition trip leader, Member of Polartec Challenge board of advisors, sponsored by three companies; Kitty Calhoun, climber, guide and MBA; Leo Houlding, climber; Ann Krcik, former Director of Marketing Operations at The North Face and founder of Extreme Connection; and Rebecca Martin, Director, Expeditions Council, National Geographic Society.

Reinhold Messner to Open Film Festival

Friday night’s opening presentation will feature Reinhold Messner, the world's greatest living mountaineer. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of an 8,000-metre peak, Messner will reflect upon the history of Himalayan climbing since that first ascent of Annapurna, as well as how that climb and the recording of it inspired him to a life of Himalayan climbing.

The festival regrets that Maurice Herzog will not be part of the opening night presentation, as originally announced. Mr. Herzog has cancelled his Banff appearance for personal reasons.

For tickets, contact:

Banff Centre Box Office, Box 1020, Stn 38, Banff, AB, Canada, T0L 0C0
Phone: 403-762-6301 or 1-800-413-8368
Online ordering: www.banffcentre.ab.ca/CMC

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