Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center is known for its dedication to its mission to foster a lifelong love of nature. The center will often host events to help with this mission, and the Backcountry Film Festival is one of those events. Presented by Winter Wildlands Alliance, the festival contained 90 minutes of winter and skiing films dedicated to telling human-powered stories. The event was hosted both in-person at the Backdoor Theater and virtually through a digital program of the films.

The festival opened at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, 2022, with dinner at The Dynamite Shack, then continued at 6 p.m. with live music from the NoGo Gillbillies. At 7 p.m., the film festival started, with the first 45 minutes of the 90-minute event being shown. At 7:45 p.m., an intermission occurred, and at 8:15 p.m., the second 45 minutes of the festival were shown.

The films included in this year’s selection were, in no particular order: ASCEND: Reframing Disability in the Outdoors; Finding Gulo: The Movement to Save the Wolverine; Perspective: Fred Campbell; A Tribute to a Glacier; Alone Beneath the Northern Lights; Denizens of the Steep; Eastside Story; Finding Balance; Lot’zza Mia; REVERIE; Snow Rangers; Off-Piste Opus; The Approach; and Wild Ice.

Throughout the night, a silent auction was held for people to get the opportunity to win prizes. At the end of the night, starting at 9 p.m. and ending at 9:45 p.m., the prizes were collected.

About 150 people ended up attending the event, according to Jill Dreves, Wild Bear Founder and Executive Director, and the silent auction brought in about $6,000 for the organization. Locals from around Nederland and Boulder showed up for the event, and Dreves wanted to emphasize that the event was happy, positive, and a total blast.

If you missed the films on March 5th, you can still watch them on Vimeo from now until March 21, 2022. Just go online to https://www.wildbear.org/ events/2022-backcountry-film-festival/ and register for the virtual option.