Cheers! Treating yourself to a Spritz or Hugo in the run-up to the event proper in Munich is not such a bad idea at all. The place is swarming with known faces, oh hey there, fancy meeting you here, what are the chances? Bit of a silly question, let’s be honest: you wouldn’t be here in the first place if you weren’t interested in outdoor films or somehow connected to the outdoor industry, say, working at an outdoor equipment company or as a journalist. The European Outdoor Film Tour (E.O.F.T.) premiere has become a fixed appointment over the course of the years joining the industry calendar of specialist trade fairs. While the latter represent a great opportunity to talk shop, the E.O.F.T doesn’t focus too much on business, rather on the element which is behind the reason that so many participants are still active in the industry in the first place: their passion for sport, the mountains, and for the great outdoors. That’s pretty nice, isn’t it? Yet the show must go on, and all the talking comes to a natural end when the gong rings, inviting the guests to sit down. The lights dim, and the magic can begin.

‘Mountains win’

David Lama is surely one of the best mountaineers of our times. On top of that, he’s also the face of the E.O.F.T. 2016/17. The event started with his film about the expedition to the as of yet unconquered Lunag Ri, reaching nearly 7,000 m, in Nepal. David was accompanied in the endeavour by American mountain climbing legend, Conrad Anker. This disparate duo – Conrad is more than twice as old as David – failed once they reached the mountain. Was it because of the wrong information provided by the camera crew when giving out coordinates on the mountain? Or was it a tactical mistake on their part? What is interesting about the current E.O.F.T films is that they don’t only deliver pretty pictures, but also discuss marginal elements and backgrounds which were always excluded from the script and the camera lens in the past. This represents an inward look at the role of media and how the creation of an idea or personal views burst into the foreground, breaking the aseptic and bland presentation of sport legends often seen in the previous entries. ‘What did we get wrong? We got too big for our boots.’ Perfect stars become relatable people. Conrad Anker encapsulates the feat with a pithy ‘Mountains win.’ Even another mountain expedition didn’t reach its planned destination, the highest mountain in Myanmar. But all mountaineers return back home safe and sound. One base jumper wasn’t that lucky. Another film talked about that event and this well-staged film, despite its tragic subject, will surely provide the audience with plenty of food for thought and inspire a controversial discussion on this difficult topic.

What’s more important: winning or losing?

Yet failure can be at the heart of an idea and motivation for new endeavours. In the near future, David Lama and Conrad Anker will head back to Nepal. ‘The team worked’, says David. This doesn’t sound like failure, even if the two didn’t quite make it to the very top of the Lunag Ri during their first attempt.

Winning or losing isn’t even an issue for mountain biker Harald Philipp. All he cares about is making a very personal experience and finding his flow and of course, finding a line. Crashing can be fatal which is why it’s not allowed most of the time. Yet the mentality and attitude is completely different. It’s all about having a good day and experience what a single individual can achieve. A similar approach is adopted by the larger-than-life crew tagging along with the Favresse siblings, a striking difference when compared to David Lama, who is more of an introvert. They became the stars of the evening during their E.O.F.T. premiere and, at the end of their absolutely recommendable film, performed a small jam session on the stage. They swept the audience of their feet and some may have woken up the next day to the tune of ‘Dodos delight’ in their head. The protagonist of the last film for the evening, Jérémie Heitz, didn’t succeed in his to-do-list by a hair’s breadth: he wanted to ski down fifteen steep descents in the Alps within two years. In the end, he managed eleven. The film is called ‘La Liste’. Why, if he didn’t complete the list in the first place? You don’t ask certain questions when seeing those pictures, his happiness, and his incredible skiing talent. If looked at it that way, failing can be fun. And, at the end of the film, the audience may be dabbing their eyes to wipe away the tears, filled with nostalgia, to the head to the bar for a nightcap.