Hitting the road

For those who were unable to make it to Telluride over Memorial Day, good news: Mountainfilm is coming to you.
This Sat., Nov. 19, Durango Nature Studies is bringing two evening showings of the film fest as well as a special kids’ film matinee to the Durango Arts Center. As an added bonus, this year’s Mountainfilm contains a short clip featuring local adventurer extraordinaire Steve “Doom” Fassbinder tackling the desert trifecta of tower climbing, fat biking and pack rafting.

Showings for Mountainfilm are at 2 (kids matinee), 5 and 8:30 p.m. highlights include:

- “The Mysteries” (8 min.) – Follow pho- tographer Krystle Wright’s 41⁄2-year journey to capture the elusive world of BASE jumping.

- “Wasfia,” (11 min.) – A documentary on female climber Wasfia Nazreen, the first Bangladeshi to scale the Seven Summits, who climbs not just for the thrill but to raise awareness of the plight of her fellow countrywomen.

- “Operation Moffat” (20 min.) – The story of one of the original “dirt bag” climbers, British pioneer Gwen Moffat. As a young woman in the 1940s, she pieced together work, camped, hitchhiked, bathed in icy lakes and went days without food all in the name of scal- ing rock. She went on to become Britain’s first female mountain guide, as well as a mother, writer and force to be reckoned with.

- “Mile 19,” (10 min.) - Since 1986, 178 so- called “legacy runners” have completed every Los Angeles Marathon. Johnnie Jameson is a member of this group, but he’s not an elite runner; he’s just your average postal worker. But what he lacks in speed, he makes up for in creativity. Whether running backwards or dribbling a basketball, he does it all in his signature Payless shoes.

- “Adventure Dispatch: Steve Fassbinder” (6 min.) - Using fat bikes, climbing gear and packrafts, Fassbinder sets out into Utah’s desert, experiencing places few of us will ever see. Part of a series sponsored by Specialized.

- “Showdown at Horseshoe Hell,” (20 min.) - Horseshoe Canyon Ranch is a sleepy patch of rural Arkansas, except for the one time a year when climbers descend on it for 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell, a sort of Burning Man for climbing. When elite climber Alex Honnold shows up, he brings his A game. But he might not be prepared for the level of rowdiness and a pair of underdog climbers.

Buy your tickets early at Maria’s Bookshop or Pine Needle. Proceeds benefit DNS.