Krakow Mountain Festival 2007

Krakow Mountain Festival is one of the most important festivals of this kind in Poland. This year’s 5th edition took place from 5th to 9th December and gathered many prominent Polish and international climbers. This time the visitors had an opportunity to participate in meetings with the world class climbers: Mick Fowler, Steph Davis and Dean Potter. Also leading Polish rock climbers and alpinists were presenting their recent achievements, among them Piotr Morawski (famous e.g. for his first winter ascent of Shisha Pangma together with Simone Moro), David Kaszlikowski (the first asentionists of lots of big wall climbs on several continents and a well-known photographer), Marcin Miotk (this year’s winner of the Snow Leopard Award), Kinga Baranowska (a leading Polish female himalayist of the younger generation), Adam Pustelnik (the maker of extreme multi-pitch rock routes) and Mateusz Haladaj (this year’s repeat of Biographie 8c+ in Ceuse).

The five days of festival were a real feast for the mountain film fans. There was an interesting selection of Polish climbing films as well as the films presented on Banff (Canada) and Kendal (UK) Mountain Film Festivals. The Grand Prix of the Krakow Festival 2007 was given to the film “Sciezka gory” (The Path of the Mountain) by Marek Kłosowicz (Poland).

However Krakow Festival gives awards not just to film makers, but also to Polish climbers who stand a chance of receiving the prestigious “Jedynka” Award (“jedynka” means “figure-of-one” – it’s the name of characteristic Polish piton). It’s an award granted by the Polish Mountaineering Association for the finest achievements in a given year. This time the jury decided to award the party Eliza Kubarska and David Kaszlikowski for climbing a new route (Golden Lunacy VIII+ AF, 1500m) on the world’s highest sea cliff Maujit Qaqarssuasia in Greenland. Second award was given to the Krakow explorers: Lukasz Depta, Andrej Gluszko and Wojciech Kozub for climbing the Hinboro Peak West 6430m in Karakorum. The third awarded was Edyta Ropek (2nd place in World Championship Aviles 2007 in women speed climbing).

Additionally there were numerous other events like workshops, slideshows, dyno competition, outdoor equipment fairs and first aid course. The organizers made sure that the festival was worth visiting by anyone fascinated by mountains and extreme outdoor sports.