Chris Sharma
Book Festival Evening Program

Thursday, November 5, 7:30 p.m.
Eric Harvie Theatre
$18 in advance / $20 day of

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Chris Sharma is the King. The King of sport climbing that is. He has been at the top of his game since the age of 14, when he won the US Bouldering Nationals. A year later, he completed a 5.14c climb, which was the highest-rated climb in the American rating system at the time.

Sharma’s reign in sport climbing and bouldering for the past dozen years has been as a master of firsts, as he continues to set new standards around the world. A historic ascent in 2001 of a route in France Sharma named Realization, was the first confirmed 5.15a in the world. A California native, he’s recently climbed the 75 metre line, Jumbo Love at Clark Mountain in Mojave, rated as a 5.15b.

At 28, Sharma is already known to the Banff Mountain Film Festival audience through films including King Lines, directed and produced by Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer, and winner of Best Film on Climbing in 2007. Featured in the film is Es Pontas, (5.15.a/b) a deep-water solo line in Mallorca, highlighted by a seven-foot leap between holds that took Sharma over 50 attempts to stick.

“He has everything,” said 2007 Banff Mountain Film Festival jury member Kerrie Long of Sharma in the film King Lines. “He’s young, talented, beautiful and articulate. And yet, this is a gritty story of persistence and determination — he’s always reaching for the route he might not be able to do.”

Read more about Chris Sharma in an interview with 2008 Banff Mountain Writing Program Participant Fitz Cahall in Climbing magazine.

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Photo Credit: Chris Sharma © John Evans