Yvon Chouinard climbing in Yosemite in the 1960s. The climbing pioneer will introduce Sentinel: The West Face on Saturday’s Stone Night. [Photo] Courtesy of Serac Films
Jackson, Wyoming – January 14, 2008 – The Alpinist Film Festival announced today that Yvon Chouinard–legendary climbing pioneer and founder of the clothing and gear company Patagonia–will present the 1963 film Sentinel: The West Face on Stone Night, January 19th, 2008, at the Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, WY.
In the late 1960s climbing was in its formative years, and its crucible was Yosemite Valley. Royal Robbins and Yvon Chouinard were two of the best climbers in the world, and their ascent of the West Face of the Sentinel, as captured by the film, proved a perfect exploration of the poetry of the nascent sport. The film was written and narrated by Barry Corbet, the inspiration for The Alpinist Film Festival, after the accident that paralyzed him. “His soul shows in the words,” says director Roger Brown. The film won Best Film at the 1966 Trento (Italy) Film Festival.
Chouinard’s presentation will be the second time he has presented at the AFF. In 2006 he presented the 1968 film Mountain of Storms, a seminal film in the evolution of the adventure lifestyle, about he and four friends who drove from California to Patagonia, where they would put up the first ascent of Fitz Roy’s Southwest Buttress, the so-called “California Route.”
Along with being a climbing pioneer, Chouinard is among the most innovative and influential entrepreneurs in the outdoor industry. In its early incarnation, he developed a variety of climbing equipment under the company name Chouinard Equipment Ltd., selling it out of the back of his van. When he learned of the damage his top-selling pitons wrought on the mountains, he shifted his production toward “clean climbing” equipment, revolutionizing the sport. In 1989, Chouinard Equipment Ltd. was acquired by its employees and reborn as Black Diamond Equipment. Black Diamond is currently one of The Alpinist Film Festival’s sponsors.
Chouinard’s other company, Patagonia, has set the mold for corporate environmental stewardship and activism. Its progressive approach is evidenced by Patagonia’s sponsorship of The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival: the company underwrote the entire cost of making the 2008 AFF carbon neutral.
Alpinist Film Festival film coordinator Conor Miller said, “The ethos of The Alpinist Film Festival could not be better personified than by Chouinard, a dedicated adventurer and the most articulate advocate of ethics and environmentalism in the worlds of both adventure and business.”
The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival will feature its signature Snow, Surf and Stone nights January 17-19 at Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, Wyoming. A fourth evening, The People’s Choice Ceremonies, will present the People’s Choice award-winning films from the previous three evenings at the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson. As an official entry into the AFF, Sentinel: The West Face will be in contention for the People’s Choice Awards, the winners of which will be shown January 20 at the People’s Choice Ceremonies in Jackson Hole. Winners of the individual evenings receive a gift certificate from Patagonia worth $750. The Grand Prize winner receives an additional gift certificate worth $1,500.
Tickets for The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival are $18 for the Snow, Surf and Stone nights and $20 for the People’s Choice Ceremonies. Tickets and additional information can be found online at www.alpinist.com/film_festival. To date, every event in The Alpinist Film Festival’s three-year history has sold out.
About The Alpinist Film Festival
The Alpinist Film Festival celebrates the adventure lifestyle across disciplines and generations with three nights of film in skiing, surfing and climbing. The Festival’s mission is to advance the art of cinematographic storytelling as it underscores the unity among the adventure lifestyle communities. A portion of every year’s proceeds are donated to charities that help preserve the places of our inspiration. Because one of these places is our planet, beginning in 2008, the Festival will purchase carbon offsets to counteract its carbon footprint.
About Alpinist Magazine
Hailed by Italian climbing legend Reinhold Messner as “The best climbing magazine in the world today,” Alpinist Magazine is an archival-quality, quarterly publication dedicated to world alpinism and adventure climbing. The pages of Alpinist capture the art of ascent in its most powerful manifestations, presenting an articulation of climbing and its lifestyle that matches the intensity of the pursuit itself. Alpinist has been awarded three Maggie Awards, for Best Quarterly/Consumer Division, Best Overall Design, and Best Electronic Newsletter, and was featured in a seven-page article in Outside Magazine (“The Purists”) in March 2005. The magazine’s editorial and publishing offices are based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and online at www.alpinist.com.