Christian's Science

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

By Sam Petri

The editor of Alpinist brings his purist aesthetic to the big screen with the Alpinist Film Festival.

There will be no pornography shown at the Alpinist Film Festival. If you are looking to get your jollies from viewing skiing, surfing or climbing done by unidentified athletes set to the cheapest possible sound track, festival organizers suggest you go up north to Banff or maybe head south to Telluride.

No, here in Jackson Hole, the Alpinist Film Festival digs deep, focusing on the personal stories and dramatic narratives of surfers, climbers and skiers as they work at finding the purest experiences within their disciplines.

The third annual Alpinist Film Festival takes place at 7:00 p.m. each night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the new Center for the Arts Theater. Now in its third year, the Alpinist Film Festival has sold out all three nights each year since it’s inception. Although the name has changed (it was originally called the Barry Corbet Film Fest), the spirit remains the same.

That spirit is largely defined by Christian Beckwith, editor of Alpinist magazine and founder of the Alpinist Film Festival.

“We are very focused on finding films with strong story lines, as opposed to what is commonly referred to as ski porn, surf porn or climbing porn,” said Beckwith.

“We are much more interested in the human element and in the art of using the vehicle of film as the medium of presentation. And that is a similar spirit in what occurs within every cover of Alpinist.”

Beckwith hitchhiked to Jackson in 1993 simply to climb. At the time, he was new to the sport, having learned only three years earlier. His passion for pure experience, something he felt deeply during traditional climbs, led to the creation of the 20-page Mountain Yodel in 1994, a low-budget ’zine that published the writing, photography and art of Teton climbers.

Beckwith’s manifestos inside the Yodel led Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, to recommend Beckwith for the editor position at American Alpine Journal. He pounced on the opportunity and edited the journal from 1996-2002 until he simultaneously resigned and was asked to leave due to power struggles.

Shortly after leaving, internet tycoon Marc Ewing called Beckwith wanting to start a new climbing magazine. Their outlook on what a climbing magazine should be was a perfect match.  

Open up any of the 19 quarterly issues of Alpinist, and you will find first-hand accounts from men and women who take their climbing skills to the most demanding situations, stories from unassisted climbers making their own decisions on the highest peaks in the most remote locations.

No how-to belay spreads here. No information on bouldering hot spots, stretching techniques, yoga trends, or gear reviews. And very few advertisements.

Instead of the commercialized columns that pollute every other outdoor magazine – the ones that look to gain readership and ad dollars by reporting on the basic and often irrelevant aspects of the sports about which they claim to be experts – Alpinist takes the high road. And the quality of the photographs and general production make it worth saving on your bookshelf.

If only you could somehow capture the vibe of the Alpinist Film Festival in the same glossy fashion. In today’s X-Games-driven, Mountain Dew-induced, cell-phone-squawked adventure sports world, it’s hard to imagine an outdoor magazine or film festival that downplays, even turns down sponsorship. But for purist Beckwith, ad dollars and sponsorship money are the last thing on his mind.

His only concern is to present these pursuits in good form. Most of the time that means presenting climbing in Alpinist, but this weekend Beckwith gets to tackle skiing and surfing in a similar style. And we all get to watch.

In his office, located conveniently near to Pica’s Mexican Taqueria in Buffalo Junction, Beckwith studies the latest issue of Alpinist, looking into a redesign for the magazine.

He wants to clean up the cover, get rid of the text that has been running on the left hand side, and make small, but refined changes on the inside. The latest issue is marked with pen and riddled with sticky notes. He flips through it and grumbles something about perfection.

I quip that it’s never perfect, that chasing perfection is half the fun. He shoots me a smirk, I think because he knows if you ever accomplish perfection, or do anything perfectly, then the process is over.

His magazine is about the process of getting there, of making it to the top of the mountain. If it were about being on top of the peak, the magazine might be called Scenery Admirer, not Alpinist.
As we sat and talked, Beckwith unloaded some of his thoughts on climbing, technology, publishing and film.

On the magazine:
“We’re very focused in the magazine with climbing – this is what we do. We don’t venture into trekking, mountain tourism, or anything like that. With Alpinist we are much more interested in presenting the deepest experiences that people can have with their climbing. And we often find that’s on traditional climbs. Climbing in the mountains, climbing using your own gear, where the decision making process is an integral part of the act.”

On the Film Festival:
“With the film festival, what we’re conscious of is a focus on these specific disciplines that is refined and steady. That allows us to celebrate these pursuits with a greater depth and a greater authenticity. The message is not diluted. The focus is not diluted. And as a result the celebrations are very unique in the outdoor world because they are more focused than some of the other ones you’ll find in the other mountain film festivals.”

On the experience:
“I think the more you rely on machinery and technology the farther you remove yourself from the lessons of these experiences, the insights of these experiences ... We are very interested in that experience where you have the deepest possible opportunity to explore your own possibility, your own potential, your own limits. These experiences, when they are reduced to their simplest forms, act like a mirror and you have a very accurate representation of yourself as an individual. I think that the farther that you move yourself from the purity of that experience the less accurate the portrait of yourself as an individual becomes.”

On the reason:
“It’s all about the experience, whatever you get out of it is fantastic … It ultimately has nothing to do with what anyone else says or thinks ...With any luck, whatever you get from it is actually important enough that it has a positive effect on you as a person and you bring that positivity back to your life and town. That’s the most you can ever ask for with this stuff. If it’s about an audience, if it’s about fame or sponsorship or money, you’re missing the point.”

-Photo by Cameron R. Neilson. Christian Beckwith, Editor of the Alpinist Magazine.

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