Last night, I went to see the Banff Mountain Film Festival’s world tour showing at the Paramount Theater in downtown Denver. Unfortunately I had to leave before the final film to get Amy to the airport, but what I saw was pretty enjoyable. The films for tonight’s showing are different, but I doubt I’ll make it, especially since I’m dropping off my bike for some work tonight and parking downtown is a bit of a disaster.

It started off with The Red Helmet, which was a short (6 minute) film of various action sports, with a loose story of a young kid overcoming his fears by finding a red helmet in the film, and putting the helmet on results in an awesome blast of climbing, kayaking, jumping, and mountain biking. Great start to get amped up for the rest of the set of films.

Immediately following was “Silent Snow,” a snooze-fest about how all the pesticides in the world flow to Greenland, melt the ice, and poison people. The only information was provided by two teenage girls who I had a hard time finding credible. Yawn.

There was also a film about a cool caving and kayaking expedition to find the underground source of a huge river in Papua New Guinea. Very interesting.

Another film was about traveling to The Heavenly Pit, a HUDGE cave/pit in central China, and BASE jumping from a cable that stretches across the center of it. Very cool story of the travel, and an incredibly intense jump.

The last film I saw was a short about the patrol director and the park coordinator for Aspen (different people). Interesting and enjoyable. Sadly I had to leave afterwards, but the next film about climbing sounded awesome.

A great show, I’ll definitely be seeing it next year.