Nekor is the story of an unlikely pilgrimage. Four friends set out to ride the ardous track that surrounds the “Kawa Kharpo”, one of the eight holy mountains in Tibet. Tens of thousands have visited the holy sites along the Pilger Route, some hike the path surrounding the peak. Even fewer bring a bike.
The Powder Award-winning documentary 2.5 Million follows Ortovox athlete Aaron Rice on his year-long journey to break the ski touring world record for vertical meters covered. That meant conquering 762,000 vertical meters, or climbing Mount Everest from base camp to summit 216 times. On average, that’s over 2,000 vertical meters per day.
2.5 Million is the story of a ski tourer from Utah whose love of ski touring and the backcountry led him to go beyond his own limits.
23mins, Director: Jordan Manley, Canada, NZ Premiere, Subtitles: No
Due to climate change, by 2050 ski seasons will be markedly shorter. Lower elevations will receive significantly less snowfall. Two veteran professional skiers contemplate the impact their love for adventure has on the very environment that sustains and fulfils them. As they peer into the future, they realise there is a more sustainable path ahead, but it won’t be easy.
2.5 Million – Promo Clip (Long) from Banff Mountain Film Festival on Vimeo.
Foodless Odyssey
11mins, Director: Anthill Films, Canada, NZ Premiere, Subtitles: No
A longtime dream of mountain biker Matt Hunter, the idea was to bike-pack through hundreds of kilometres of wilderness on the remote Island of Haida Gwaii, living entirely off the land. The rules were simple: we would carry all the survival tools we needed to bike, fish, hunt and camp…. but absolutely no food. Everything we would consume for the week-long journey would be harvested from the land.
19mins, Director: Joey Schusler, USA, NZ Premiere, Subtitles: Yes
Kids and bikes; wherever you are in the world, they go together. The chaotic streets of Kathmandu may not seem like a typical breeding ground for world-class mountain bikers, but then again nothing is typical about Rajesh (RJ) Magar. Since learning to ride on a beat-up clunker, to becoming the four-time National Champion at age 21, RJ’s story is one of boundless childhood dreaming and unstoppable determination, forged from junkyard scraps and tested on the rugged trails of the mighty Himalaya.
Will Gadd and Gavin McClurg grab a thermal air lift towards Mt. Robson and then set flight for the Canada-US border. Along the way the paragliders push the sport of paragliding, or more precisely ‘vol-bivy’, as they journey 640 kilometres above the Canadian Rockies, hopping between seriously exposed landing sites where they’d spend the night. A 35-day journey across rugged landscapes which is the longest air journey by a paraglider ever recorded.