Film festival highlights backcountry adventures

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival in North Lake Tahoe. On Feb. 26 the Tahoe Art Haus and Cinema in Tahoe City will host and showcase nine unique films aimed to inspire winter adventurers to seek the snow less traveled.

The Backcountry Film Festival is renowned for its mix of professional and grassroots films, from well- known filmmakers to first-timers who take a video camera out on their weekend excursions.

The evening celebrates both types, as they search out untracked powder and terrain in their respective ranges across the globe.

The program includes:

• “Out on a Limb”: Winner and Best of Festival production from T-Bar Films which tells the story of Vasu, who’s love for skiing and the backcountry overcomes all obstacles.

• “Powder Pilgrimage”: Best of the Backcountry Award Winner from Joey Howell, which chronicles the ventures of two friends ski bumming to Valdez, Alaska.

• “Backcountry Baker”: Best Grassroots Film winner by Jeremy Lurgio, which follows a Labrador Retriever named Baker as he and his owner pursue their love of backcountry skiing.

• “From the Road”: Fischer Creative portrays the balance between liberation and limitation as a group of athletes come together to help a skiing comrade gain reconciliation on a giant Alaskan peak which ended his professional guiding career.

• “Afterglow”: A revolutionary and visually spectacular film from Sweetgrass Productions that brings a whole new light to night skiing.

• “95 to Infinity”: Doglotion Media follows brothers Andy and Mike Traslin as they keep the torch lit for 95 months of consecutive winter turns.

• “Higher”: Teton Gravity Research continuation of the adventures of Jeremy Jones.

• “Sundog”: Sturge Films captures the dog days of skiing in powder-filled Patagonia.

Tickets are available online for $10. All ticket proceeds will benefit the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Education Association. Films start at 7pm.

The festival is part of the larger Alpenglow Mountain Festival, a nine-day celebration of human-powered winter mountain sports, events, clinics, equipment demonstrations, presentations, film and more.