We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: We first met Allie Bombach when she came to intern with Osprey several years ago and we’ve watched her explode into one hell of a filmmaker. It’s only fitting then that we share Allie’s words on what will be the 35th Anniversary of the incredible Mountainfilm Festival, coming up this Memorial Day Weekend (May 24-27, 2013). Here’s what Allie, rockstar filmmaker of Red Reel and the MoveShake series has to say about her time at MountainFilm past and how it’s inspired her to become who she is today.

I went to my first Mountainfilm in 2009. It was during a time where I was uncertain where to go with filmmaking. I had just sold most of my belongings and I was preparing to set out on the road to film my first documentary – 23 feet. It was at a time where I was overwhelmed and discouraged if I could even make a film. I needed support, a community, and MountainFilm gave me that and so much more.

I hitched a ride from Santa Fe, slept on a friend’s floor in town, and out of sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time I was given a pass by a kind Mountainfilm staff member. I was elated, and I spent the entire festival not missing a beat. I listened and absorbed every moment that I could.

I was so inspired by the films I saw and even more so by the discussions afterwards. Being able to meet the filmmakers that still are my mentors today was a life changing experience. They helped me believe in myself and encouraged me to push forward with filmmaking.

After that festival, I knew exactly where I wanted to be every Memorial Day weekend to come. I made it my goal to one day have a film in the festival. I thought maybe ten years down the line I could be a part of it, I had no idea it would be the next year.

The week I spend in Telluride for Mountainfilm is the wind in my sails for the rest of the year. Living on the road, I am constantly moving and trying to keep connected to a borderless community through the virtual world of social media. But, nothing compares to being face-to-face with the community that inspires me to live this life. The conversations had at Mountainfilm inspire new projects, create wonderful collaborations, and fuel the drive that it takes to make these films a reality. It’s such a gift, one I look forward to every spring and I’m so thankful for it.

Looking back, I think who I am and what I am striving to create would be entirely different if I hadn’t gone to Mountainfilm. That sounds cheesy – but, it’s the truth.

Happy 35th Mountainfilm! Thank you so much for the inspiration and community you bring into my life.

Events, Osprey Culture, Outdoor Activities, adventure, film festivals, travel, video Allie Bombach, community, films, inspiration, Mountainfilm Festival, MoveShake, Red Reel, telluride

© The Joy Trip Project

5 Point Film Festival kicked off last night here in Carbondale and it’s hard not to feel the buzz of inspiration, adventure and pure life. Maybe it’s because our own Timmy O’Neill led us in a chant of healing for our friend Bean Bowers who is battling cancer right now, a yell of love for a recovering Renan Ozturk or maybe it was the moment of joyous shouting to celebrate those we have lost and we, who are LIVING, but we’re more excited and honored than ever to be in such a powerful and inspiring community.

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Events, Friday Round-up, Osprey Athletes, Osprey Culture 5 point film festival, adventure, film festival, Fruita Fat Tire Festival, inspiration, Timmy O'Neill, video

For 10 years, a dream lingered, but the clutter of modern living pressed it into submission. Still clinging to the pull of wild places and adventure, Fitz and Becca Cahall revived their youthful vision of summits and faint trails by abandoning work and the city for the wilderness. The Love Letter follows a pair of climbers in search of new and classic routes along the difficult to reach stretches of the Sierra spine, focusing not just on the summits themselves, but the process of attaining them. In the clutter of the modern world, can wilderness still restore the human spirit? We would like to think so.

We caught up with Becca Cahall, of The Love Letter, and asked her some questions…

It sounds like The Love Letter was a dream in the making for a long time. What first sparked your inspiration for this project?

The inspiration for the trip and the movie came from Fitz. I loved the Sierra and wanted to see it in a different way, so I was along for the ride. Yet when we talked about doing it over the last few years, it always seemed so far away… a goal that wasn’t getting any closer. When we started talking about it early last year, it started to consume our thoughts — a culmination of longing and inspiration.

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Osprey Culture becca cahall, inspiration, interview, the love letter, video

For 10 years, a dream lingered, but the clutter of modern living pressed it into submission. Still clinging to the pull of wild places and adventure, Fitz and Becca Cahall revived their youthful vision of summits and faint trails by abandoning work and the city for the wilderness. The Love Letter follows a pair of climbers in search of new and classic routes along the difficult to reach stretches of the Sierra spine, focusing not just on the summits themselves, but the process of attaining them. In the clutter of the modern world, can wilderness still restore the human spirit? We would like to think so.

We caught up with Fitz Cahall, one of the masterminds behind The Love Letter, and asked him some questions…

It sounds like The Love Letter was a dream in the making for a long time. What first sparked your inspiration for this project?

I was 22 living in a van that I didn’t own in Yosemite. We were scrambling to find a camp spot and this woman came up and said she had room in her campsite for another car. She was a scientist doing a project in the national parks. She was pretty old — 32. So ancient, I know. Oddly during that time, I’d keep running into her in the Sierra at various parks and campgrounds. She told me about this three week climbing trip she and her husband had done in Sierra and I thought that’s pretty cool. I thought about that trip a bunch then, but I never had the focus required to do a trip like that. I told Becca about it a while back and it was just always something that stayed in the front of my thoughts.

Later I found that Muir had done a similar trip. David Brower, the father of modern conservation, did an 8-week continuous climbing trip in 1934 and followed a similar course. He ticked off 54 peaks in that time. These men began their careers as climbers and writers and evolved into powerful voices. It’s not to say that I think I’m John Muir or David Brower, but they are certainly heroes of mine, and if I can some do a fraction of what they did for the American West, I will be content.

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Osprey Culture Climbing, fitz cahall, inspiration, interview, outdoors, Q&A, the love letter, video, wilderness

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. This month we’re devoting it to all things spring: celebrating sunshine, getting out on late afternoon trail runs and reminding ourselves that summer is just around the corner. Welcome to the Osprey Friday Round-Up!

In the clutter of the modern world, can wilderness still restore the human spirit? Our good friend Fitz Cahall sure thinks so. He and his wife, Becca, left behind their city life in Seattle for the wilderness… Weeks in the Sierras backpacking and climbing away the stresses and constant chatter of their daily grind. This film is less about the adventure and more about the path to finding that adventure and how that quenches the raw human need for wildness and wilderness. Watch and be inspired to get outside…

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Events, Osprey Culture, Southwest Colorado, adventure 5Point Film Festival, films, Friday Round-up, images, inspiration, Mountainfilm Festival, the love letter

For 10 years, a dream lingered, but the clutter of modern living pressed it into submission. Still clinging to the pull of wild places and adventure, Fitz and Becca Cahall revived their youthful vision of summits and faint trails by abandoning work and the city for the wilderness. The Love Letter follows a pair of climbers in search of new and classic routes along the difficult to reach stretches of the Sierra spine, focusing not just on the summits themselves, but the process of attaining them. In the clutter of the modern world, can wilderness still restore the human spirit? We would like to think so. This is our love letter to wild places…

Have your own love letter to a wild place? Enter our Love Letter photo contest here!

Osprey Culture dirtbag diaries, film, inspiration, the love letter, video, wilderness

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. This month we’re devoting it to all things spring: celebrating sunshine, getting out on late afternoon trail runs and reminding ourselves that summer is just around the corner. Welcome to the Osprey Friday Round-Up!

After a cold, grey, rainy, wet, snowy winter we couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of spring weather. Finally some warmer weather and sunshine to ride, hike and climb in. This also means we’ve been obsessed with photos and videos that show any glimmer of sunshine. So here are some of this week’s favorites.

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Friday Round-up, Uncategorized inspiration, outdoors, spring, sun

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.

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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

In 2006 Shannon Galpin, a single mom from Breckenridge, Colorado with no experience in aid work,
sold her home and flew to Kabul, Afghanistan with the goal of empowering the women and children of that region.

“I am tired and I have said ‘Enough’. I am not going to sit on the sidelines and allow atrocities to happen against women.”

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Osprey Culture, causes afghanistan, biking, inspiration, mountain 2 mountain, women, women's rights

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. Since it’s about this time of year that people seem to start getting antsy with wanderlust, we figured we’d feature one of our favorite topics: travel. Welcome to the Osprey Friday Round-Up!

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Today I can find no better inspiration for travel… For living, than this incredible teaser of 23 Feet — a film by Allie Bombach about people who make the conscious choice to live simply in order to pursue their outdoor passions.

Watch and be motivated to live this life exactly how you want to. “That cheesy expression that you hear… Do what you love and the rest comes. It’s true. It really works like that.”

http://www.vimeo.com/16708859

Osprey Culture, adventure, travel adventure, inspiration, mindful living, outdoors, simple life, the road less traveled, travel