There was music, awesome pictures, and a packed cinema full of people in Softshell jackets: European Outdoor Film Tour was in town once again.
The show consisted of 7 movies (5 short movies and 2 longer ones) and lasted about 2 hours plus a short break of 15 minutes.
It started with the filmlet "Parallelojams" which was about a group of crackclimbers in Utah doing all sorts of weird stuff like sticking their fingers, hands, and feet in tiny cracks on an otherwise polished rock. The pictures were amazing and so were the comments of those freaks. One of my favourite movies.
Next came my absolute favourite movie: "Patagonia inland ice expedition" was a great documentary by Norway-based Børge Ousland and Thomas Ulrich from Switzerland about crossing the inland ice of Patagonia without external aid on ski and kayaking. It took them 56 days to reach their destination and they suffered from sepsis, snow-blindness, and the usual paddy when you realize that you are basically alone in the most misanthropic part of the world.
Right before the break they screened another filmlet: "Highliner" by Dean Potter (filmed by Heinz Zak) is about Slackroping (aka funambulating between two rocks with a few hundred meters of nothing but fresh air below your feet), which on first sight seems like a great new way to commit suicide. I didn't really understand why it was necessary to get rid of the (non-hindering) safety rope, but then again slackroping generally makes absolutely no sense at all. The pictures were impressive, but there were certainly better movies.
The next movie was entitled "Tracking the Soul" and was a amusing parody on the surf-movie genre, featuring two cross country skiers on their search for the ultimate track. Funny.
Afterwards they played a tiny movie about extreme whitewater kayaking. I didn't particularly enjoy it mainly because I've never really grasped what people like about kayaking.
The next movie was announced as the main movie of the evening, and it was about the first ascent of Thalay-Sagar's NW ridge in India. The climbers were apparently supported by Mammut, who also sponsored big parts of EOFT. The pictures were great, but not as great as "Patagonia inland ice expedition".
The show ended with "Sinners", a niftily cut freeriding / snowboarding movie. I can't really judge whether it was good or not, since I'm not into this sort of locomotion. A few boarders next to me said it was good though.
All in all the European Outdoor Film Tour was a nice event with a wide spectrum of outdoor movies. I'll certainly go there next year, too. (Here is hoping that there will be more prices to win next year. This year it was just ridiculous.)