


If you've ever been at one of our shows, you know that Road Warriors love their job! Have you ever wondered what Road Warriors do if they have a night off? Apparently, they drive 2.5 hours to see the
Banff Mountain World Tour in a neighbouring state. Let me explain ...
Each November, two tour vans leave Banff -- one heads East, one heads West. The vans themselves will be on the road until May of the following year (save for a brief visit back home for Christmas). Road Warriors, however, are only on the road for a maximum 5-6 weeks at a time. This is the semi-official time frame in which a happy Road Warrior will start to miss home and the comfort of their own bed a little too much and run the risk of turing into an unhappy Road Warrior. So, every 5-6 weeks there will be 2 Road Warriors in the same place at the same time. This is a great time for us! We share stories, learn new techniques, and one of the Road Warriors gets to head home for a well-deserved break (while the other heads out for an exciting tour).
Try to follow along: Road Warrior Paul has spent the last 5 weeks travelling from Arlington, Mass. to Greenville, South Carolina and most stops in between. Road Warrior Charla (that's me) arrived in Greenville SC on Mar 26th ready to take the tour home. This is the last leg of this tour, so I will drive from Greenville to Banff. Due to a scheduling shuffle, Paul and I found ourselves with an entire day off. While enjoying post-show drinks with the fabulous Greenville Tour Hosts (
Half Moon Outfitters), Paul mentioned that our colleague, Road Warrior Jamie, had just arrived in Boone NC for the 2-night engagement hosted by the
Appalachian State University Outdoor Programs. I am always up for a road trip, so a plan was hatched to drive to Boone to surprise Jamie and attend the show. To make it a true surprise, we located the hotel he'd be staying at and made our own reservations.
Boone is no ordinary stop on our World Tour (although, could any of the stops really be called ordinary?). Everyone in the Banff office knows the Boone show. Despite being a relatively small location (pop. 15,000), they host two sold out nights in a 1700-seat theatre -- that's 3400 people (23% of the population)! Many of our audience comments and emails come from Boone, as do many
Banff Mountain Photo Competition entries. One things for certain: Boone loves Banff! And Banff loves Boone!
After our 2.5 hour drive, we arrived at the beautiful
Gideon Ridge Inn. Thankfully, the weather was a little dreary so Jamie was still in his room. Paul knocked on the large glass door of the
Cedar Cottage and we both watched while a look of stunned confusion made its way across Jamie's face. We're almost 100% certain that this is the first time that 3 Road Warriors have been in the same place, at the same time, all while being 'officially' on tour. After a brief stop to check out new gear at
Footsloggers, we headed out for lunch at the
Black Cat Burrito where we had an intense discussion to determine if the
Gideon Ridge Inn was, indeed, the most beautiful accommodation on the tour. All three of us have been touring since at least 2002, so we've stayed in our fair share of hotels. The
Upham Hotel in Santa Barbara was a very close second, but the
Gideon Ridge Inn was finally named "The most beautiful Accommodation of the Banff Mountain Film Fest World Tour" by our esteemed panel of judges. The inn was beyond beautiful! Paul's room actually had 2 fireplaces, and we all had soaker tubs. Jamie was staying in the very private
Cedar Cottage from which you could see the views all the way down the valley.
The staff were lovely, breakfast (cornmeal pancakes, fruit, sausages) was yummy and well presented, and the amenities were indescribable. The best part: Innkeeper Cobb was an avid Banff fan long before Road Warriors started staying there! He treated us like royalty (although I would hazard a guess that ALL guests are treated in the same manner).
We accompanied Jamie to his tech rehearsal, and on to a fabulous reception at Boone's
Turchin Center to celebrate the winning images from the
Appalachian Mountain Photo Competition. The competition was started 6 years ago and was inspired by the original Banff version. I instantly found myself so overwhelmed with excitement for the show that I felt like a 13-year old girl in a room with Justin Timberlake (or the celebrity of choice for 13-year old girls). I learned that
Richard Rapfogel was one of the jurors -- Richard was awarded a Special Mention in the
2004 Banff Photo Comp for his image
"Agasthiyar Falls: Two Women". As the former Photo Comp coordinator, I had personally notified Richard when he won. I met
Eric Heistand -- winner of several awards at the local competition, including Grand Prize and People's Choice, for his image "Splash or Trash". Eric used to attend BANFF while in Colorado, and then moved to Boone. We were interviewed by Terry Smith of Mountain Television. We met Roy from Redwood Creek -- the wine of choice for all of the reception attendees. The list goes on and on! I could have stayed there all night and just chatted to fascinating people. The air was electric with excitement, and the films hadn't even startd yet. You can see the list of winning photographers at
this link.
On to the actual screening: As we approached the
Farthing Auditorium, I felt like I was walking up to a sold-out Rolling Stones show. There were traffic cones to direct the onslaught of traffic. There were guys randomly scattered asking each passing group "I need tickets. You got Banff tickets?". Wow!
Once inside, Paul and I sat in different areas of the theatre so we could enjoy the true audience experience. It was the first time I had ever attended a screening purely as a fan! I was not reponsible for operating any equipment nor speaking on stage, and I was watching from a real seat (not a projection booth, or next to a sound board). As expected, the show was incredible and the audience appreciative. Jamie did a fantastic job of entertaining the excited crowd. The films were all well-received. The prize draw was intense -- it involved makeshift slingshots fashioned out of large funnels attached to rubber hosing, used to launch t-shirts to the screaming fans. This is obviously a tradition since the audience knew to stand up the moment the prize draw began.
Funny thing: After the show, the lovely lady that was sitting next to Paul asked if he was involved in the show somehow.
"Yes", he said,
"How did you know?" ...
"You were humming the music the whole time" she replied. We all killed ourselves laughing while Paul apologized profusely. No one knows the soundtracks better than the Road Warriors that have seen the films dozens of times! The lady was quite good-natured and seemed almost honoured to have experienced the films with an actual Road Warrior.
Thank you, Boone! Thank you, thank you, thank you! As Road Warriors, we often meet people who say thank us and share how the films have inspired them. Boone, you have inspired us! Your adoring audience and fantastically organized event are two of the many reasons that this is the coolest job on earth!