Programme - Thursday 19 October 2017 - evening

Mark von Roy is a ski hound and film maker. He delves into the history of freestyle skiing, which is unthinkable without legendary Fuzzy Garhammer and his sons Max and Moritz.

During the retrospective, bits from diverse films by and with Fuzzy Garhammer will be shown. He will be present in person.

The children of famous parents often stand in their shadow. Not Norman Dyhrenfurth, who celebrated his 99th birthday in May. His life story includes chapters as mountain guide and cameraman, not only in the mountain world but also in Hollywood.

Saddle: Up to 5,000 passengers daily disembark from local mountain trains. Hailed by the Bernese Highlands tourism industry as its saviour, the planned express gondola to the Eigen Glacier has already overcome many legal hurdles, but also meets with resistance.

The “Headless Children” route in the Rätikon range feels like “climbing through a painting”. Kilian Fischhuber attempts the first repeat of this spectacular grade 10 route on colourful limestone.

They are the leaders of a new generation of juvenile climbing stars: Ashima Shiraishi and Kai Lightner started breaking records at child age and impress even their role models. While cave-climbing in Norway, they learn tough lessons, especially how to persist in the face of failure.
In 2011 Peter Mortimer received the Price for the best Alpine Film.

Feeriding pros Thibaud Duchosal from France and Lucas Swieykowski from Argentina often travel to Russia on the quest for new descents. This time, they aim for Europe’s highest peak, Mt. Elbrus (5,642 m) in the Northern Caucasus, where stunning rides and intriguing stories await them.

Little Padma Angdus was born in Ladakh in Northern India, aware that he is the reincarnation of a Tibetan spiritual leader. Aged 6, he becomes enthroned as Rinpoche. His world falls apart when he is expelled from the Ladakh monastery because it is not his own. Only the irrefutable love of his teacher helps him to persist in the quest of reaching his disciples, of finding his path in the Himalayas.

The world’s longest railway tunnel was built in the late 19th century and traverses the Saint-Gotthard Massif in the Swiss Alps. This film explores the immense undertaking of its construction and casts a glance at its future.

Sent by the Nazis to Southern Tyrol in 1940 to record German folklore songs, musicologist Dr. Alfred Quellmalz finds himself arduously traversing remote mountain valleys while pitted against time and at the mercy of volatile political changes.

In 1970 Gert Judmaier suffers a tragic fall during his descent from Mt. Kenya and remains stranded for 7 days with a fractured leg. An incredible transcontinental rescue operation succeeds in retrieving him alive. 45 years later the original team returns to Mt. Kenya. A film by mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner.

Only one out of a group of five mountaineers survives a tragic avalanche accident on the Tibetan eightthousander. Between contradictory versions of the event, questions abound.