Grand Prix 2009 Contest
This year we watched 11 Polish films – most made by amateur directors, who during KFG get a unique chance to verify their filmmaking ambitions . Unfortunately, similarly to the previous year, the quality of most films was at best average. It seems that the jury led by Jerzy Surdel, a famous director and filmmaker, had no problems with choosing a winning film which would be distinct from the other ten. The film in question was a skiing production of ?ukasz Gabryelski titled The White House, which related actions of Polish freeriders. Members of the jury appreciated above all the professional edition of The White House. They also emphasised consequent realisation of the subject and suggestive music.
A Special Reward for camera work was awarded to Rynna ?mierci by Mateusz Solecki and Marcin Banaszk, which tells a story of a rescue mission of mountain patrolmen from the Karkonosze Mountains Rescue Service. The Award of the Audience went to a film about the best Polish sport climbers (who climbed this year 9a routes) – Sprawa Humoru 9a by Jacek Matuszek and Mariusz Majer.
Another tradition of the Festival is the official presentation of the winner of the prestigious “Jedynka” Award, which is annually awarded in recognition of exceptional achievements in alpine and sport climbing. This prize has always stirred a lot of emotions, however this year the atmosphere was exceptionally heated. As the chairman of the Jury, Artur Paszczak, admitted: it was the first year when the level of the six candidates (selected from 15 initial entries) was so equalled and voting results were so minimally different.
Polish climbing was full of events this year, we had a few breakthroughs, e.g. the first, long awaited, 9a leads. Yet, how to put into one bag rock climbing, high mountains and sport competitions? These are totally different climbing realities. Eventually, the final verdict was reached and “Jedynka” was won by a climbing team of Marcin Micha?ek, Krzysztof Starek and Wojciech Kozub for leading a new line on the north face of Malanphulan 6573 m (1400 m height difference, ice up to 85 degrees, 4 days, of which the last two 39h non-stop) in the Nepalese Himalayas . It is worth remembering that most of the nominees delivered lectures during the Festival.
A total novelty, which we hope will become another permanent element of the festival tradition, were the Finals of the Polish Bouldering Cup. Our boulder competitors had never performed in front of such a big audience and in such special atmosphere. It turned out that the idea of incorporating this event into the Festival was a very successful one. The organisers declare that during the next year's edition of KFG we will have a repetition of the event, yet this time in the rank of the Polish Bouldering Championships. As a warm up, the audience could watch on a big screen the highlights of the eliminations (which took place the day before on the artificial climbing wall of the Korona Sports Club), and after that we could observe live competitions, which turned out to be very dramatic.
The show was winding up very slowly, which was not intended by the organisers. After the first round, non of the competitors gained even a bonus point and it seemed that the problem-setter, Adam Pustelnik, had set the bar a little too high… Even loud cheering did not help, there was simply no way to do the problem. Another thing was that, for the first time in Polish bouldering competitions, most problems consisted only of artificial structures without climbing holds (this type of climbing is difficult to master unless you often climb on structures).
Kinga Ociepka (KS Korona) finally overcame a bad series and proved the strongest this evening – as it turned out she collected the biggest amount of points on all female problems. Among men the best was Tomek Oleksy (MKS Tarnowia). The winner of the whole Polish Bouldering Cup Series were: Monika Prokopiuk (Skarpa Lublin) and Piotrek Bunsch (MKS Tarnovia).
This year a very strong position on 7th KFG held the skiing and freeriding theme. There were at least three events focused on freeriding. As in the previous year, there was a well developed block of freeriding workshops led by leading Polish riders (Piotr Gnalicki, Kostek Strzelski, Jakub Radli?ski, Tomasz D?biec, Piotr G?siorowski i Kris Lizak). The beginners received a thorough dose of knowledge about gear and lines ideal for the start of their freeriding adventure (ABC of safe freeride and the best European and Polish spots for freeriders), and the more experienced riders had an opportunity to participate in discussions on dangers and challenges connected with hard alpine lines.
Panels were extremely popular. There is a great need for the first hand information about equipment, safety or riding spots. This style of skiing is developing fast, is becoming fashionable, there are loads of films on this matter but many people don't know how to start freeriding. It is quite a board spectrum of knowledge and skills to master (.) Let's hope that next year the programme of the panels will be even more varied – commented Tomek D?biec (Poza Tras?). We are absolutely in favour of it!
Skiing also dominated the films. We have already mentioned the Grand Prix for The White House (another two skiing films participated in the festival contest: Into the White by Kostek Strzelski and Majesty Freeride Pro Tour by Tomasz Grzywi?ski and Dawid Kr?pski). We may add that a big dose of freeride, freestyle, extreme snowboarding and something absolutely crazy and absurdly hazardous – i.e. speedriding (combination of skiing and paragliding) was present during the Saturday screenings from one of the biggest festivals in the world – Canadian Banff Mountain Film Festival.
Access to Polish climbing areas was an important issue during this year's KFG thanks to the Climbing Groups Initiative "Our Rocks". In Poland most areas with rocks belong to private owners or are located within national parks and reserves. At least half of these areas may be closed in the near future (the authorities are currently preparing a new Natural Reserves Act). Mariusz Biedru? Biedrzycki from Our Rocks was appealing for financial help which will allow Our Rocks to act on behalf of the Polish climbing scene. The first effects can be already seen – a few days ago such support was offered by Climbing Clubs from Warsaw and Katowice.
It is hard to mention everything that was going on during 7th KFG in such a short summary. The Krakow event gives us every year an exceptionally huge dose of emotions connected with mountains. Let's hope that next year we will see a similar show consisting of the well established elements of the Festival but also of some new ingredients. However, one thing is certain – it is worth organising the Festival.
