Mountainfilm in Telluride hosts fundraiser with sneak peek film 12/26

24 Dec Mountainfilm in Telluride hosts fundraiser with sneak peek film 12/26

[click “Play” to hear David Holbrooke talk with Susan about the fundraiser and movie]

Ten years ago, in 1999, Mountainfilm in Telluride regular, world-class climber/author Conrad Anker found the frozen body of mountaineer George Mallory on Mount Everest. In the years that followed the discovery, Anker obsessed about Mallory much in the way Mallory had obsessed about becoming the first person ever to conquer Everest’s summit. Mallory and his partner, Andrew Irvine, were last seen in 1924 only 800 feet from the top. Had the duo successfully tackled the Second Step and reached their goal? Just how much was Mallory torn between ambition and his love for his wife Ruth? What was it like to climb a mountain as forbidding as Everest using the scant gear available in the 1920s? “The Wildest Dream” endeavors to answer these questions with archival video footage of Mallory and Irvine on the mountain, love letters between Mallory and Ruth, and a bold attempt to reenact the summit bid by  Anker and Leo Houlding. Liam Neeson narrates. Also with Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson.

The new film from National Geographic premiered in Canada at Banff Mountain Film Festival in November. Saturday night, December 26, starting at 6:30 p.m., at the historic Sheridan Opera House, “The Wildest Dream” is the centerpiece of Mountainfilm in Telluride’s annual winter fundraiser. Conrad Anker is the special guest of the evening which also includes a high octane live auction featuring a Guided Rainier Climb & First Ascent Gear package,  a Peaks Resort & HeliTrax package, and a Wagner Skis & Silverton package.

Tickets, $100, include an open bar and hors d’oeuvres reception.

For more, click the play button and listen to Festival director David Holbrooke’s podcast.

(Clint Viebrock photo, “Rain & Rainbow, Mountainfilm 2009)