There is a fantastic website out there that has set up an online community for explorers and people involved with expeditions and adventurous outdoor purists. This site is a free web forum which lets its members - from enthusiastic amateurs to professional experts - share and exchange information, recruit team mates, review and recommend equipment and suppliers and to follow the trials and tribulations of intrepid souls across the globe.

The site has as incredible founder, Belinda Kirk, who in 2010 led the Seagals team into the Guinness Book of World Records as the first all-women crew to row unaided around the coast of Britain. That in itself is mind blowing!

This site is totally inspirational and puts you in touch with people who can help you make it happen. It really is like nothing else out there and an invaluable resource for you. Get visiting we say! http://www.explorersconnect.com/ And let us know what expeditions you cook up with your new Explorer friends!!

The 2012 UK Banff Moutnain Film Festival starts tomorrow in Scotland with sold out shows in Edinburgh and Glasgow. See you there if you managed to bag yourself a ticket!

May 2012 be loaded with incredible new discoveries and amazing adventures.

Merry Christmas everyone! It is the time when the year draws to a close and we think about all of our achievements, adventures and actions for the past 12 months. It leaves us wondering if we did eveything we could possibly have done as well as we could have done it. Did we get everything out of 2011 that it had to offer and more importantly did we put everything into 2011 that we could have?

Inevitably this time of year leaves us asking questions and leaves us looking for inspiration. You've found it right here! Find all the motivation you need to get out there and do something at the 2012 festival. Are you ready for your dose of inspiration?!

Merry Christmas Banff Community!! 

The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival was held in Banff, Canada between October 29 and Novembr 6 2011. As custodians of the UK Tour, it was absolutely VITAL to be at the festival and watch ALL the films in order to programme the 2012 UK Banff Mountain Film Festival Word Tour. Aside from watching the films- we sampled the talks, interviews, photography and workshops too! Leo Houdling, Coy Richards, Simone Moro, Anson Fogel and Dervla Murphy don't even touch the sides of the incredible people that were at the festival.

Stay tunned because we found some incredible films that will feature on the 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival UK Edition! Don't delay buying tickets though- venues will sell out!

Well- the Banff festival loves all things snow and all things snow loves the Banff festival. That's why we're heading to the Ski and Snowboard Show at Earls Court on the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd October 2011. Over the weekend we holding 4 screenings of specially selected ski and snowboard films from the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. Once you're inside the show, the screenings are free. And through the Banff website you can get £5 off your show ticket for any day. Just enter the discount code: BANFF. Click here  to book.

So- bring on the blue sky and deep powder. Grab some fresh tracks, feel the rush, ignite your passion, and get ready for the ski season with these steep-and-deep films. See you there!

As the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour grows across the world, we have the exciting chance to work with the Tyndall Mountain Club and take a screening to Ireland! This is the first Banff screening in  Ireland for a long time. It's happening in Kilkenny on the 8th October 2011 at the Set, click here for details. Tickets are selling really quickly so make sure you book ahead.

Come and see the brilliant films you'd expect from Banff and also great prizes too!

The UK Banff Team are excited to announce that from the 27th January - 10th March next year, the 2012 UK Banff Mountain Film Festival will be travelling across the land with an incredible new selection of the world's best adventure films.

Since the final screening on the 2011 Tour, we have been incredibly busy searching the UK for brand new festival locations. The search is now complete and the 2012 Tour sees some brilliant new locations and venues added to the UK Banff Mountain Film Festival schedule.

We also have some exciting news coming soon about extra Banff screenings in London - so stay tunned!

Some tickets are on sale already with the rest to follow soon. Keen an eye on the locations and booking page for your venue. 

Here's the list of 2012 UK Banff Mountain Film Festival screening locations!

Bath
Birmingham - new venue!
Bridgend
Brighton
Bristol - new venue!
Cardigan
Edinburgh - new venue!
Glasgow
Keswick
Leeds
Liverpool - new venue!
London
Manchester/Stockport
Newcastle - new venue!
Norwich - new venue!
Poole
Stafford - new venue!

Well, it is only half way through 2011 but we're already hard at work planning the 2012 UK Tour. Rest assured it will be BIGGER. We're adding more locations and more shows. If you live in Scotland or the West Midlands, you won't be disappointed! But there are other additions to the Tour as well. The 2012 Tour dates and locations will be announced soon so keep an eye on the site. Or you join the mailing list and we will send you a newsletter with the good news!

Bring on 2012 we say!!!

For the past 15 years, the Banff Mountain Photography Competition has been privileged to showcase some of the finest images in mountain photography. In these few short years the technology of photography has evolved very quickly – Kodachrome is gone and now everyone (almost) is shooting digital.

The Banff Mountain Photography Competition is looking for your best mountain images – we invite you to send your mountain stories in the form of photographic essays. The style and content of these essays will be determined only by the skill and creativity of photographers themselves. The basic form of the essays is that they should consist of no more than seven images, and that they follow this year’s theme of MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE.

The best photo essay (2-7 images) will recieve $3000 Prize (Canadian dollars).The Banff Mountain Photography Competition is run through the Banff Centre, Canada.

DEADLINE THURSDAY 31st March 2011 Click for more info

We have a winner of the trip for two to the Canadian Rockies and £2,000 of The North Face kit.  Kate Allen of Hampshire is the lucky devil who gets to choose another lucky devil to take with her on the trip of a lifetime! Will she choose someone to share The North Facce kit with? She doesn't have to. We wouldn't!!

Congratulations Kate. Have a brilliant adventure and say hi to Banff for us!

Thanks to The Canadian Tourism Commission, World Expeditions, The North Face and Snow+Rock for this incredible prize.

The Tour wrapped up on Saturday with a sold out show in Cardigan, Wales. That's it for the 2011 Tour! That doesn't meant that the adventure and prizes stop though. We will be drawing the winner of the trip for two to the Canadian Rockies plus £2,000 worth of The North face kit and announcing the lucky person shortly!

We will also be announcing the winner of the G3 Orange Mountain Bike soon too! Keep an eye out here for details.

We will also be keeping you up to date on all things Banff, including updates on info on Banff film makers and athletes as well as running the odd competition too. Don't leave it a year to revisit the site because you'll miss out.

On lives the adventures!

The Tour has ALMOST drawn to a close with our last show tomorrow night all the way over in Cardigan, Wales. Keep an eye on the website and news pages throughout the year. We will be putting up intersting news and stuff to keep your adventurous selves going till the next UK Banff Tour!

Don't forget to enter the competition to win yourself a brilliant trip for two to the Canadian Rockies as well as £2,000 work of The North Face kit. Somebody will have themselves the time of their lives- it may as well be you! Click here to enter.

Last Saturday the Banff Mountain Film Festival visited the Yorkshire Museum. The Roman gallery was transformed into a theatre foyer complete with bar to keep us hydrated in preparation for the films. Mars the Roman God of War watched on as lovers of the outdoors gathered peacefully to celebrate the mountains! The museum was a fantastically unique venue for the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Thanks York!

We're well into the thick of things with the 2011 UK Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. The show in Keswick last Friday was sold out- we had a really fun night! Next up this week is Manchester and Leeds. If you can't make these shows or can't get a ticket (they're selling fast) why not join us in York at the Yorkshire Museum on Saturday 26th February?

We've added this brilliant new city and venue to this year's Tour- York at the Yorkshire Museum. It will be a wonderfully atmospheric place to enjoy Banff films, a drink and the chance to win heaps of fantastic prizes. Doors open at 1830 (there's a bar!) and the films start at 1930. 

Last year our grand prize was a trip for two to Mont Blonc with World Expeditions. Our lucky winner- Jennie headed off last year on an incredible adventure that we're totally envious of!

Jennie said: The Mont Blanc guided walk was great. Coming from South Africa, it was a trip we would have never throught about doing. The walking was really absorbing: from impressive mountain passes with glaciers, to alphine grassland and local villages.

This year we're giving away a trip for two to the Canadian Rockies and £2,000 worth of The North Face kit. Make sure its your holiday snap on the news page next year. Click here to enter !

We're in the thick of the London screenings at the moment with our final one tonight. The venue is an incredible gothic chapel which is a unique place to sit an enjoy inspiring, adventurous films from all over the world.

We were joined by Jim Baker all the way from the Banff Centre in Canada for the screenings on Tuesday and Wednesday. Jim shared with everyone a bit about the Banff Mountain Film Festival that is held in Canada every year and also about the other countries that the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour travels to.

See you tonight if you're coming or hopefully at one of the other locations on the Tour Trail!

Friday's screeening at the Komedia, Brighton has sold out already! We had a heap of fun in Brighton last year with a really high energy audience so we can't wait to retun, in a few short days! Many of our other screenings are almost sold out so don't miss out on buying your ticket.

The UK Banff Mountain Film Festival screened in Glasgow last night. We had a heap of fun meeting everyone that came along and of course gave away a stack of prizes from our Tour partners. Definitely looking forward to our next stop in Brighton next Friday!!

The day has arrived- the first screening of the 2011 UK Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour with all new films. Glasgow was our first stop last year too and this year they've bought up big with the tickets. All of the tickets actually!!! We've now sold out. Sorry if you've missed out. Make sure you don't miss out on a screening local to you. Buy your ticket now. Many of the venues are selling really fast!

Only three sleeps to go until the Festival featuring the 2011 films kick off in Glasgow. We will be giving away heaps and heaps of prizes throughout every screening (prize draws and giveaways). Some of the prizes include The North Face kit, Snow+Rock gear and Black Diamond goodies. Everyone that enters will also go into the draw to win a brilliant G3 Orange 2011 mountain bike (worth over £800)  from our very lovely friends at Cycle Surgery. Make sure you come along to a screening and enter the draw (its free of course!).

The festival kicked off yesterday with an introduction from Sir Rannulph Fiennes. We showed some of the best fims from the last few tours and gave away a stack of prizes! Now, only a few short (short!) weeks until the Tour ramps up again with all new films on the 2011 UK Edition of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour.

Get your tickets soon- some of the venues are almost sold out!

See you there?

Did I mention prizes? We gave away a heap of prizes during the evening from The North Face, Black Diamond, Snow and Rock and Sea to Summit. We will be doing the same at all the venues!

The Banff Mountain Film Festival starts in just over a week   with a special screening at the Outdoors Show on Friday 14th January starting at 1900. To celebrate the first year the Outdoors Show has been held in London, we've put together a special programme showing the best films from the last few Banff Mountain Film Festivals. This will definitely get you in the mood for the whole new set of films being featured on the UK Tour starting on the 28th January.

Tickets are only £10 and we are incredibly happy to have Sir Ranulph Fiennes, only the world's 'Greatest Living Explorer', joining us on the evening to introduce the screening.

Outdoors Show London Excel, 14th January 1900 tickets £10

Click to book

(Photo from the film Medeoz)

Happy New Year everyone!! The UK Banff Team wish you a fantastic 2011 and hopefully see you all in a few (short) weeks!!

The films have been watched, paused and watched again! The decison has been made and we've now chosen the films for the 2011 UK Banff Tour. A programme has been designed for each of the venues on the Tour.  This year’s line up is definitely going to catapult you to incredible locations across the globe. 

From skiing in Kashmir to speed climbing in France, from mountain biking huge trails in New Zealand to kayaking enormous waters in Argentina.   

Go to the films tab on the top menu to see a list of the films being featured at your local Banff screening. There really is nothing else like this out there!

(Photo from the film Follow me)