Jackson, Wyoming – March 14, 2005 – Alpinist Magazine announced today that all net proceeds from The Barry Corbet Film Festival, which will be held March 24-26, 2005, in Jackson, Wyoming, will be donated to the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation’s Khumbu Climbing School. Formed shortly after the American climber Alex Lowe’s death in 1999, The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation provides direction and financial support to sustainable, community-based humanitarian programs in remote regions of the world, as well as carrying on Alex Lowe’s spirit of adventure.
Barry Corbet, who died December 18, 2004, was an American skiing and climbing legend who in 1963 helped put the first American team on Everest. Barry got his first experience behind a film camera on the expedition, and that experience led to his career as a filmmaker. He was awarded his first National Geographic Hubbard Medal (presented to him by John F. Kennedy) for his role on the trip. More importantly, the expedition cemented his longstanding connection to and deep respect for the Sherpa culture of Nepal. Both Barry Corbet and Alex Lowe were Exum Mountain Guides who had strong connections to the Sherpa culture; indeed, Barry brought a group of Sherpas to Jackson Hole to climb the Grand Teton in 1963.
The Khumbu Climbing School seeks to lower the injury and fatality rate among the Sherpas who work and climb in the high Himalaya. Sherpas accept a high level of risk in their work: they have the highest fatality rate of any nationality while on climbing expeditions. The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation’s Khumbu Climbing School embodies formative attributes in Barry Corbet’s life: adventure, climbing, community, and a countenancing of injury remarkable for its unflinching honesty. Though a helicopter accident in 1968 left him partially paralyzed, Barry continued to live a life of athletic adventure while becoming one of the leading advocates for the disabled. The donation of the net proceeds from The Barry Corbet Film Festival to the Khumbu Climbing School will increase the safety of Sherpa climbers, as well as of Westerners on expeditions supported by Sherpa climbers, resulting in safer trips for all who climb in the Himalaya.
Tickets for The Barry Corbet Film Festival (available at Pica’s, Skinny Skis, Teton Mountaineering and Tobacco Row) are $10 each night. All shows will be held at the Mainstage Theater in Jackson, Wyoming. For information on The Barry Corbet Film Festival, including film schedules, see www.alpinist.com, or call Alpinist Magazine at 307-734-0600. Information on the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation may be found at http://www.alexlowe.org/