Jackson, Wyoming – January 15, 2008 – The Alpinist Film Festival announced today that it will host a tribute to Jackson Hole’s many winter Olympians on Snow Night, January 17, 2008, at the Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, WY. The winter Olympians will be introduced by Resi Stiegler, the youngest of the hometown heroes. Resi participated in the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Italy; in December, while racing on the first leg of a World Cup giant slalom in Lienz, Austria, she suffered season-ending injuries from a crash.
Jackson Hole is home to a large number of winter Olympians, from Resi to her father Pepi Stiegler, who competed in the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, CA. They range from Hannah Hardaway, who competed in Freestyle in the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, UT, to Alpine Skiing legend Tommy Moe, who competed in 1992 in Albertville, France, again in 1994 in Lillihammer, Norway, and lastly in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. (Moe won the Gold medal in the Downhill and the Silver medal in the Super G in 1994.)
The 1992 Albertville, France games are well represented in Jackson Hole: in addition to Moe, Erich Wilbrecht (biathlon), Nancy Johnstone (biathlon) and Jim Curran (Crosscountry) also competed in the games.
Nancy’s husband Hans Johnstone competed in the 1988 Calgary, Canada, games in Nordic Combined. Martin Hagen competed in the Biathlon 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria; in 1980 in Lake Placid, New York; and in 1984 in Sarejevo, Yugoslavia. In the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, Jackson resident Pete Karns competed in the Biathlon; he also coached the Biathlon team in the 1976 Games in Innsbruck, Austria.
Resi Stiegler’s father, Pepi, is one of the most remarkable skiers in history. Pepi competed in the 1960 Olympic Games in Squaw Valley and the 1964 Games in Innsbruck, winning the Silver medal in the Giant Slalom in Squaw Valley, and the Bronze in Giant Slalom and the Gold medal in Slalom in Innsbruck.
“We’ve wanted to pay tribute to our winter Olympic heritage in Jackson for years,” said Alpinist Film Festival director Christian Beckwith. “With Resi’s help, we’ve finally pulled together the opportunity. We believe it will be one our community will appreciate. It’s also a great way to kick off this year’s AFF.”
The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival will feature its signature Snow, Surf and Stone nights January 17-19 at Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, Wyoming. A fourth evening, The People’s Choice Ceremonies, will present the People’s Choice award-winning films from the previous three evenings at the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson. Winners of the individual evenings receive a gift certificate from Patagonia worth $750. The Grand Prize winner receives an additional gift certificate worth $1,500.
Tickets for The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival are $18 for the Snow, Surf and Stone nights and $20 for the People’s Choice Ceremonies. Tickets and additional information can be found online at www.alpinist.com/film_festival. To date, every event in The Alpinist Film Festival’s three-year history has sold out.
About The Alpinist Film Festival
The Alpinist Film Festival celebrates the adventure lifestyle across disciplines and generations with three nights of film in skiing, surfing and climbing. The Festival’s mission is to advance the art of cinematographic storytelling as it underscores the unity among the adventure lifestyle communities. A portion of every year’s proceeds are donated to charities that help preserve the places of our inspiration. Because one of these places is our planet, beginning in 2008, the Festival will purchase carbon offsets to counteract its carbon footprint.
About Alpinist Magazine
Hailed by Italian climbing legend Reinhold Messner as “The best climbing magazine in the world today,” Alpinist Magazine is an archival-quality, quarterly publication dedicated to world alpinism and adventure climbing. The pages of Alpinist capture the art of ascent in its most powerful manifestations, presenting an articulation of climbing and its lifestyle that matches the intensity of the pursuit itself. Alpinist has been awarded three Maggie Awards, for Best Quarterly/Consumer Division, Best Overall Design, and Best Electronic Newsletter, and was featured in a seven-page article in Outside Magazine (“The Purists”) in March 2005. The magazine’s editorial and publishing offices are based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and online at www.alpinist.com.