OVER 2,500 people are expected to attend to the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival, taking place next week and showcasing, among others, a climber who specialises in scaling city centre buildings without a rope.
This seventh incarnation of the festival lasts from Thursday to Sunday and its headline act is American climber, Timmy O’Neill, whose ‘buildering’ feats include a series of locations in Prague.
Top Scottish climber Dave MacLeod also gives a new lecture at the festival. MacLeod, from Glasgow, is now recognised as one of the best rock climbers in the world after climbing the world’s first ‘E11’ graded climb two years ago and then following that up with a climb called ‘Echo Wall’ on Ben Nevis last year – a climb which he admits is harder but has refused to grade.
MacLeod has spent the summer working another new route in the Orkney Isles – a route thought to be at least E11.
A film about MacLeod’s exploits on Echo Wall took the festival’s Best Film Award last year.
The winners of the award, since the festival’s launch, are:
• 2003: ‘Pushing Winter’ – a snowboarding film by Paul Raistrick of Aviemore
• 2004: ‘Never Say Nevis Again’ – a kayaking film by Steve Rogers of Fort William
• 2005: ‘Cano-Bagging’ – a ski mountaineering film by Blair Aitken of Edinburgh
• 2006: ‘E11’ – a climbing film about Dave MacLeod’s landmark route, Rhapsody
• 2007: ‘Scottish Extremities’ – a sea-kayaking adventure around Scotland
• 2008: ‘Echo Wall’ – Bafta-winning film about Dave MacLeod’s climb on Ben Nevis
