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Australian Climbing Festival: The Low Down 22-Dec-2006 At 3:16:46 PM adgoneclimbing

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Easter 2007 is getting close now and heaps of events and speakers have been confirmed for the Australian Climbing Festival. A massive amount of effort has gone into the festival already from many individuals from all over Australia and it is shaping into a great event.

This is a bit of a long post as we haven’t put much up about the festival until now – we wanted to wait until lots of events were confirmed (rather than lots of ideas).

Below are some highlights from the line-up of events, and some of the comps that you can enter! More info can be found here

18 SPEAKERS ALREADY CONFIRMED
• Peter Croft, HB, Jon Muir, Ben Heason, Tim Macartney-Snape, Glen Singlemann & Heather Swan, Simon Carter, Garth Miller, Louise Shepherd, Bob McMahan, Jonathan Clearwater, Chris Bray & Clark Carter, Arno Ilgner, Kent Jensen, Gemma Woldendorp, Erik Monasterio… and more in the works!

OZ MOUNTAIN FILM FEST (non-stop adventure films all weekend)
• Adventure film competition - with over $1000 worth of prizes.
• Best of Banff Mountain Film Fest - Climbing Selection.
• Heaps of new talent and old favourites

CLIMBING COMPETITIONS
• Escalade Climbing Championships’07 – invitational sport climbing competition on a spectacular custom-built twin wall (difficulty, speed and dyno comps).
• Beal Slack Lining comp - over an outdoor pool ($1000 worth of prizes)
• Diverse range of comps to test the quirky talents of Australian climbers (gear placement, table traversing, big wall skills, rope coiling and more)

CLINICS (clinics have limited space and can be pre-booked by FULL PASS holders)
Clinics from experienced climbers such as:
• Garth Miller – Training
• Simon Carter – Climbing Photography
• Julian Saunders – Injury Prevention
• Ben Heason – Trad Climbing
• Monique Forestier - Training
• Arno Ilgner – Mental Training for Climbers

MOUNTAIN MUSIC AND ARTS
Now is a great time to enter one or more of the creative comps (Photography, film, writing) to be in the running for some great prizes (more than $7,000 worth of prizes already!)
• LIVE MUSIC from Midday ‘til late both days - a mini music festival for climbers - a great place to catch up with friends.
• Lowepro Vertical World Photography Competition -with over $5000 worth of prizes.
• Lowepro Vertical World Gallery - high-quality mounted prints of some of Australia’s best adventure photography.
• Art of Climbing Gallery showcasing the creative talents of climbers.
• HIGH TIMES Short Story Comp – with over $1000 in prizes.

LOCATION:
The Blue Mountains have 3400+ climbs – that really says it all!

FUNDRAISING
• To contribute to the international community the festival will be hosting a Giant Outdoor Gear Garage Sale, with all proceeds going to the Australian Himalayan Foundation. Donations of gear please!
• 10% of all festival profits will go to the fledgling Australian access fund, preserving cliff environments.

ALSO:
Debates, huge gear area with bargain prices and lots more…

The best way to get the most from this huge weekend is to buy a EARLY BIRD ‘FULL PASS’ for the whole weekend @ $79.95 (down from $99.95). These are limited in numbers and include all events except clinics (which are limited to 10-30, are pre-booked and are only available to FULL PASS holders) and competition entry fees. For up to date information on what’s on at the festival go to www.climbingfestival.com.au

Please let us know if you have any feedback on what’s going on at the festival and any ideas – this is a festival for the whole climbing community so the more people who get involved the better it is going to be!

It’s been 8 years since the last Escalade, so we’ve got some catching up to do!

Adam and Claire Donoghue (Festival Co-ordinators)