Reel Rock, the climbing film tour now in its 20th year, comes to Spokane’s Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave., this Sunday, Oct. 25. The Bower Climbing Coalition is hosting the evening, which runs 5 to 9 p.m., with Wild Walls Climbing Gym and Bloc Yard Bouldering Gym as title sponsors.
The tour began as a plan by three friends from Colorado College—Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen and Josh Lowell—to give climbers the kind of annual film event skiers already had. Their production company, Sender Films, has since made documentaries including “The Alpinist” and “Valley Uprising.” Rosen told Climbing magazine the idea was to make “character- and story-driven films about climbers,” and the 20th edition leans on that formula with four world premieres.
Olympic champion Janja Garnbret takes on Bibliographie, the 5.15c route at Céüse, France. Michaela Kiersch heads out on a global sending spree that makes her the first woman to climb both V15 boulders and 5.15 routes. Ben Mayforth, a paraclimber born with spina bifida, redefines adaptive climbing in his pursuit of 5.13. And Colin Haley heads to Patagonia for a solo winter ascent of Cerro Torre.
The Spokane showing doubles as a fundraiser. The Bower Climbing Coalition (BCC) formed in 2016 in memory of Andrew Bower, a local climber who died while replacing aging bolts at Dishman Hills, and the group has replaced hundreds of bolts at area crags since. For this event, the coalition will donate 50% of proceeds to ongoing support for victims of the Spokane Complex Fires, in addition to supporting BCC’s ongoing upkeep work at local crags. Get tickets here.
