Heading out for a quick hit of backcountry skiing this AM; time for a quick report on how the film festival is going. Since 5Point is a new festival, I’m sure the organizers were wondering how their turnout would be. Not to worry, a full house of more than 600 outdoor sports folks filled the auditorium/gym of our town rec center for last night’s flicks. We watched ‘em all, though by 11:00 PM I was nodding through the last one. One of our faves was “Ephemere,” a Swiss art film presenting five sports in five days, strung together with an ephemeral woman tipping an hourglass back and forth. Sound weird? Indeed, getting a bit out there but WAY better than watching endless cliff hucking. Got some of that anyway, as our least favorite of the bunch, but still an eye opener, was “Source,” which is basically a kayak hucking flick involving ballistic plunges off waterfalls. In between, our top picks were the Chris Sharma rock climbing film “King Lines,” and a powerful full-screen presentation of “A Dozen More Turns,” that heart ripping story of Montana backcountry skiers who go out for powder play, but encounter a tragic avalanche disaster due to a small glitch in their decision making process. “Dozen” has of course been easily accessible on the web for quite some time now, but seeing it in large format was powerful. As always, the film made me examine my own life in many ways. Excellent to have this stuff three blocks from WildSnow world headquarters. More later, gotta head out and see how much snow the last storm layed down.

Today was going to be a backcountry ski morning, but the weather got springtime shaky so I’m banking some office time. Besides, our very own mountain film festival starts today here in Carbondale. This afternoon, at 5:00 PM, be there for burritos and beer then a slew of movies specially tailored for younger mountain boys and girls (and all nonagenarians). From base jumping to adventure fishing — looks like they’ve got it covered. More here.

Len Shoemaker, 1881 - 1973

As for Len, I’m sure he’d be psyched at the way we’re honoring our mountain culture. As blogged yesterday, we climbed and skied Len’s eponymous mountain. While I knew who the man was from my studies over the years, I figured perhaps it’s time to put on my history hat (no, it’s not tinfoil, Dave) and blog at least a few more details about Len. His obit is nowhere to be found on the web, so here is a short bio copied verbatim from his book “Roaring Fork Valley.”

“Len was born on April 22, 1881, at Rosita, Colorado, and accompanied his parents to the Glenwood Springs area in 1886. The Shoemakers were married in Carbondale, December 2, 1906. He was a member of the Washington Park Community Church, the Masonic and Elks lodges, and the Eastern Star, all of Denver. Len was author of several books during and after his long career with the Forest Service. He retired in 1943, having served posts in Boulder, Carbondale, along the Frying Pan and in Denver, where he remained for twenty years. He returned to Glenwood Springs in 1968 — where he died at the age of 92, July 18, 1973.”