Alpenglow Winter Film Series Seeks to Inspire

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Series Draws Community for Storytelling

Written By Kyle Magin

Tales of glorious, endlessly light days and terrifically foul weather in the remote wilds of Baffin Island’s high country transfixed a crowd of hundreds at Squaw Valley’s Olympic Valley Lodge in early November.

Tahoe-based explorer/climber Dave Nettle walked them through a series of well-shot slides depicting his trip to the untouched Canadian dreamland, which is devoid of darkness in summer and packed with big wall climbs rivaling the majesty of Yosemite Valley in physical approximation, if not in the popular imagination.

The crowd hung on his every word—from the young, bro-types who finance bluebird skiing by buzzing to-and-fro in a cab each night to the older ladies you might see carving delicate lines down KT on a given winter’s day. They came together over beers and the pleasure of vicarious adventure to celebrate the kickoff of Tahoe City-based Alpenglow Sports’ Winter Film series, now in its eighth year, the brainchild of Brendan Madigan, who owns the outdoor retailer.

“It’s been a fun ride, that’s for sure,” says Madigan, whose event raised $1,650 that night for Disabled Sports USA-Far West through donations and a raffle. “More importantly, it’s been a rewarding one. We just had no idea how big it would become.”

Far from filling hundreds of seats at Squaw, the series originally opened with interesting locals or locally-connected people telling their visual stories to a small crowd at Tahoe City’s Sawtooth Ridge Café. The shows now draw up to 500 people per night (there’s one monthly), necessitating Squaw’s generous donation of the space at OVL, Madigan says.

“I approach it from a pretty strong community angle,” says Madigan. “We have some central community issues here in Tahoe, there aren’t a lot of good places to gather. We’ve looked to fill that void and provide the community a really fun night.”

The slate of the Winter Film Series’ remaining 2013-2014 events reads like a Tahoan’s adventure wish-list; on Thursday night Mountain Hardware climber/alpinist Freddie Wilkinson, who has established first ascents on mountains in three different continents, tells his story to a crowd at OVL at a free event that will benefit Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue. In January, Salomon skier Kim Havell, who has established a number of ski descents (including skiing on all seven continents), continues the aspirational adventure-sharing theme from there.

“Our goal is to inspire and motivate the community,” Madigan says. “I may never make it to Baffin Island, but it’s awesome to see what these people are doing.”

For Alpenglow’s upcoming events calendar, click here. All events are free and include a raffle to benefit a local nonprofit. For more on Alpenglow, click here.

Tags: featured

Category: Natural World, Outdoors, People