Our visit to Banff coincided with the Mountain festival, which is a week long series of talks, films and events dedicated to all things adventurous and mountainous. Being the overly organised individual that I am, I had bought tickets in advance for the Saturday night talk and screenings. I’m so glad I did.
We heard Sarah McNair-Landry speak which was awe inspiring. This 25 year old woman became the youngest person to ski to the South Pole when she was 18, she has crossed the Gobi dessert in a kite buggy and led expeditions to the North Pole. Most recently she and her brother kite skied and hiked over 3,000km across the North West Passage. She talked about meeting the communities along the way, and about making difficult decisions that involve enormous detours and being woken up by polar bears.
The three films included free-skiing in Kashmir, an eight woman commonwealth team’s trip to the South Pole and a fascinating look at a couple’s relationship as they climbed the largest sea cliffs in the world in Greenland.Â
There are some more pictures from the Rockies on flickr if you haven’t seen enough yet!
