Day 3 of the festival finished up with some short films and a night of first ascents at the Eagle Eye theatre. It was a great combination of quirky and funny films ( 'Across the Atlas" , Timmy O'Neil's satirical narration of adventures in Morocco, is a must see and has become my favourite movie of the festival so far), interspersed with two speakers, Ed Cooper and Cedar Wright, talking about their respective experiences.

Ed Coopers, nonchalant story telling of climbing in the early 60's both in Squamish and Washington, was eye opening! It was hard to comprehend the ascents he was doing, sometimes with not much if any equipment at all, thank goodness there was a blacksmith in Squamish at the time! The talk was accompanied by many of his amazing photographs, spanning a life time of climbing and changes to both the environment and the sport.

"At the time (1961) there was only about half a dozen or so people who could technically climb in Squamish, we came from Vancouver and Seattle, and on any one weekend there would be one maybe two parties out on the rock... but we knew it would grow."

Juxtaposed with Ed's laid back attitude was the much more energetic and animated storytelling of Cedar Wright and his recent first ascents in Alaska and Pakistan.

What I found interesting after listening to both, was that although the equipment has changed , a lot and for the better, the determination, dedication and lets admit it, slight insanity needed, to make these first ascents, is still exactly the same!