Maybe it’s because of the incredible films, or the inspiring people we meet or the strong community we get wrapped up in every year at Mountainfilm Festival, but even after the closing picnic wraps, we still find ourselves buzzing from inspiration and looking forward to sharing our stories with our friends and family back home.

If you didn’t make it Mountainfilm Festival, don’t worry, the tour will kick off soon. Find inspiration in your own neck of the woods, here.

And if you want a taste of the festival, check out Mountainfilm’s Flickr gallery.

Also, to check out the winning films at this year’s festival, boogie on over to the Outside blog where they have a great wrap-up with all of the trailers. Here’s the top winner at Mountainfilm: Happy.

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At Mountainfilm? Don’t miss a very special performance tonight by Craig Childs, Timmy O’Neill and others in the Rios Libres crew.

This will be a powerful multi-media performance. Master wilderness story-teller Craig Childs, backed up by an all-star band consisting of the outlandish and legendary Timmy ONeill on drums and others, will be on stage giving the story behind the scenes for Power in the Pristine, taking you on a journey from ice cap to sea in Chilean Patagonia. This source to sea exploration will give the viewer a visceral sense of what it is like to travel on one of the most remote and beautiful free-flowing rivers in the world that is threatened by a mage-hydroelectric project.

Sheridan Opera House, 9 p.m.

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Unless you’ve been living in a deep, dark cave… You may have noticed that there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each Friday. Every month, we’ll be choosing a theme that fits with the Osprey lifestyle. We kicked off the month with 5 Point Film Festival, and we’re counting down the days to Mountainfilm in Telluride, so this month we’re devoting it to… you guessed it: film! Welcome to the Osprey Friday Round-Up!

We’re smack dab in the middle of Mountainfilm Festival, so this Friday we’re going to share a few of the films that we’re digging here in Telluride. Thanks, and happy Friday!

COLD: Ascending an 8,000-meter peak is never easy. In winter, with temperatures plummeting to 30 below and colder and with snowstorms raging, it is nearly unthinkable. More…

TOWERS OF THE ENNEDI: The Ennedi Desert in northeastern Chad. It’s a hot, sand-scoured and unfriendly place, but from its vast belly rise clusters of spires, towers and rock formations that are breathtakingly lovely. More…

LIFE CYCLES: With this film, Life Cycles co-creators Derek Frankowski and Ryan Gibb have changed the visual aesthetic of mountain biking forever.

CHASING WATER: In Chasing Water, photojournalist Peter McBride sets out to document the flow of the Colorado River from source to sea. A Colorado native, McBride hails from a ranching family that depends on the Colorado for irrigation, and this is the story of his backyard. More…

TRUCK FARM: Forty-eight minutes may seem awfully long for a film about a truck farm. After all, how much can a filmmaker say–that is interesting–about a truck that has been converted to grow plants in the back of it? More…

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Mountainfilm Festival kicks off this week in our beautiful backyard of Telluride. Currently in its 33rd year, the Mountainfilm Festival is a four-day, six-senses experience of art, adventure, culture and the environment. It attracts filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, mountaineers and explorers from around the world. The theme for this year’s festival is “Awareness Into Action”. It’s amazing to get so many people that are so passionate about important causes together in one place and we’re excited to connect with amazing people and organizations that we support, like Timmy O’Neill, Shannon Galpin of Mountain2Mountain, James Q. Martin and Chris Kassar of Rios Libres, Dan Austin of 88Bikes and Sweetgrass Productions.

Below, we’ve included a couple trailers of films that we’ll be watching at this year’s festival.

The spirit celebrated at the festival may be of a vital eco-system or a fragile one. It may be of an endangered culture or of one courageous soul. It may be of a grassroots sustainability movement, the struggle of a species on the brink of extinction or captivation of the pure spirit of adventure. In whichever case, it is always a spirit that is unique, important and eminently laudable.

Along with thought-provoking, inspiring conversations, Mountainfilm Festival is packed with some killer events! Visit the Mountainfilm website for details and check back here, we’ll be live-blogging throughout the festival.

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Mountainfilm Tour 2011 Elks Theater, April 1-2

By: Markus Jobman, Osprey Adventure Envoy Team

Once in a while you need to step back, pause and re-boot. Look at the world around you and the everyday life that each of us lives. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day craziness. We get busy with careers, friends, obligations and adventures — and sometimes we forget to just stop and see what is going on and really enjoy what is around us.

This past weekend we took a break. We attended Mountainfilm on Tour. It is a celebration of what is around us: life, adventure, nature, mountains and the thrill of enjoying it. We attended the tour in our home town of Rapid City. For the third year in a row, Mountainfilm’s tour event acted as a fundraiser for the Rapid City Urban Orchard Project, an organization that works with the Department of Parks and Recreation to plant apple trees in green spaces throughout the city and organizes volunteers to care for them after they are planted.

Read more…

Events, Osprey Adventure Envoys, Osprey Culture, adventure, causes adventure, Adventure Chronicles, climate change, Climbing, Colorado, Conservation, Events, film, inspiration, Markus Jobman, mountain biking, mountaineering, mountainfilm, mountains, North Face, Osprey Packs, patagonia

We’re excited about the latest round of Mountainfilm guest speakers to be announced. In keeping with the 2011 Moving Mountains Symposium theme of “Awareness into Action,” the series of special guests announced last week, “have all committed their lives to rolling up their sleeves and making a serious difference in the world,” Festival Director David Holbrooke said.

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Mountainfilm isn’t just a festival to showcase films; it’s a festival devoted to sparking a conversation. It’s an assembly of people who have come together to see what the human spirit can achieve.

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I’m new to this. This, being the film world. Two years ago was my first time at MountainFilm in Telluride. I was there as a judge for the Charlie Fowler Award, which meant I got to have seats reserved, intense philosophical and conceptual conversations after every viewing, catch food in-between flicks, and do it all over again the next day. Last weekend was no different, except for the seats. This time, I stood in line. The only film I got into early was my own—Waypoint Namibia, and I sat in the back and watched a festival cut of the film Chris Alstrin shot and we worked on creating exactly one year ago to the date of the viewing at Telluride.

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Happy Memorial Day Weekend! We’re hoping that you get out and play this weekend and appreciate some of your favorite wild places and the wildlife that live there.

We’re spending our Memorial Day weekend in our beautiful backyard — Telluride for Mountainfilm. Currently in its 32nd year, the Mountainfilm Festival is a four-day, six-senses experience of art, adventure, culture and the environment. It attracts filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, mountaineers and explorers from around the world. The theme for this year’s festival is “Extinction.” It’s amazing to get so many people that are so passionate about important causes together in one place and we’re excited to connect with amazing people and organizations like Chris Jordan, Tim DeChristopher, Timmy O’Neill, Sweetgrass Productions and iLCP

Read more…

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In my mind, it was in the middle of the Miss USA pageant when I first saw the ad.  A cadre of young girls in leotards burst through a door and waved ribbons and moved their arms around with weighted wristbands. It was horrifying, even without the music.

“Get in shape girl, you know the feeling.”

“Get in shape girl, it’s so appealing.”

I was seven. It was right around the age when I cornered Reed in the coatroom and pinched him for saying mankind instead of humankind. I have no idea where this behavior came from. Nor do I understand why it was okay in my mind to watch the Miss Universe pageant and keep my own score (I was convinced the judges had it out for us Midwesterners), but the actions of Hasbro Toy Company were offensive. Fitness in a package? In the same aisle as Barbie? (In the same aisle as the Barbie I wanted?)

Today, over 25 years later, I bought my first set of 2 pound weights. Pink ones. It was all they had. They are all I am allowed to use, for now. Currently, I lie on the floor and wave them around above my head, hips, I make snow angels on every imaginary plane intersecting my body. If I move them for long enough, I am convinced, I will feel something.

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