If we look at a small idea at Whistler. Just a few years ago WSSF grew into the highly successful TELUS WORLD SKI AND SNOWBOARD FESTIVAL. Well we have the potential right here to have a great fest as it grows and involves more varieties of fringe sports which can unite under one umbrella.Welcome to Pemberton games. This is our second year and we are uniting two great events www.xandes.com and www.pembertongames.com as sister festivals in Canada and Peru. ACRO is our showcase paragliding event , perfect for international media support and draw. Also we are including some Whistler events to give more variety to our visitors.  So,  stay tuned to this site !

Pemberton is becoming world renowned for some of the best mountain flying in the world and end of May brings some of the best conditions. There are 300,000  paragliders worldwide, with 60,000 pilots in countries like France and 13,000 even in tiny Czech Republic. Pemberton has some of Canadas best pilots in residence, including Jim Orava, Canadian 2009 Champion. See www.cayooshexpeditions.ca  .

Therefore I invite you and your associates to discover Pemberton, come ” explore the possibilities “ and help one day to create “our festival” or “ Our games” on a ground floor level. I wanted to utilise our setting and highlight the sport of paragliding as a true “media draw “ with which would highlight all other activities. That is how I wanted to welcome you to PEMBERTON WORLD MOUNTAIN SPORTS FESTIVAL and I set a date May 21-29 , with any main events To Be Announced over the Victoria long weekend. Pemberton and it’s world of mountain sports is available to you and I hope one day it will grow from it’s grass roots  into a larger festival.

Although my principal passion is flying, and have concentrated on guests from that discipline, I invite the Pemberton Community, the Lillwat Nation and department heads from the larger or principal sports, apart from paragliding to participate in my vision. These would include Mountain biking , climbing , white water kayaking and ski – mountaineering. Various events would be encouraged. Other spin-of sports such as speed gliding, skydiving, kite surfing, and alpinism are invited to explore their possibilities as well as that of what the area has to offer. .

Thanks to the hard work of the PVTA local support, and the addition of our new upper McKenzie Launch. Pemberton, in the future will be ready to host “ World Class Events ”. Also, the new trail system will be exceptional for future Mountain Bike , hiking and horseback events. I stress that beyond it’s seemingly “overwhelming impression, this was intended as a grass roots festival .

I was also hoping to provide a training venue for the prestigious 2011 www.redbullxalps.com and www.xandes.com where participating athletes have been contacted. We are also looking at “ sister city ” concepts with two other mountain festival towns in Peru and Poland to have representation and cross promotion of Mountain Culture and sport, on three continents, in a manageable and subtle way. These are Huaraz, Peru, Zakopane , Poland and Pemberton BC . All three are mountain towns, two have rich Indigenous cultures, one a Euro Mountain tribe, all three grow potatoes and have mountain festivals

Thanks to the internet and especially new social networking sites, promoting such events has become much faster and easier, and thus the rather short notice this year. I am confident that no matter what scale of the outcome, Pemberton offers such a wealth of activities for the visiting mountain sport enthusiast, no one will be disappointed if you plan a visit. So I welcome you to Pemberton and invite you to ” explore the possibilities ” for growing a festival from the ground up . This year again,  just expect beautiful scenery, a myriad of endless mountain sports and activities and a few small events,just check in on the schedule of evnts as they come on board. Below are some useful links for any local activities in the Pemberton area. Sponsorship enquiries are always welcome.

Thank you everyone who believed in The Pemberton World Mountain Film Festival or the www.pembertongames.com , especially our international visitors from Peru, The USA, France,Spain, Poland. It is people like Peruvian American Guillermo who drove out all the way from Miami, helped us film and document the event and work on his own documentary on our fest. Thank you Jessie for your amazing graphics, Pawel for your webmastering, Tonyas help with logos,  Steph, Justin, Gordy and Michelle. Thanks Simon for your fantastic photos and HD Cam promo videos. Also great thanx to Linda and staff at the SLRD and our new Pemberton Community Centre I hope to set the dates soon for next years fest , once we can co-ordinate with other sports better share event venues, and work towards being one entity under an umbrella. Many thanks to the students of The Ts’zil Learning Centre and Barb and Lisa for making their student films available from Mt Currie and The Lilwat Nation. Thanks Petr from www.Onsightgear.com for the prises . We will hold a local race for the rest of them as weather permits. Only this way we will attract bigger sponsors , prizes and in turn athletes for all the sporting disciplines. So please get in touch if you wish to take part with your product, sporting event or service.

Well , the first annual Pemberton World Mountain Sports Festival went off with a myriad of events. Although the recent Monsoon filled BC weather kept us from any cross country paragliding events , Pemberton again proved to keep visitors happy with a variety of alternative activities pleasing even the most fanatical of paragliding aficionados.

We kicked off the festival opening night with a highly successful SALSA night party at The Mexico Lindo Restaurant and packed a full house on Saturday Night of May 24^th. Then, the following Sunday night I thank you for the full house at my PARACINDERELLA film premiere . It still is a work in progress with a ways to go and I appreciated the feedback from many of you as we continue to edit.

Teds paratowing service on Lillooet Lake was quite busy throughout the opening weekend as weather did not permit flying off Mackenzie. Paraglide Pilots enjoyed their tows doing acro manoeuvres high above the lake , up to 3000 ft or 100meters over the water. This is an incredible way to safely practice SIV manouvers and learn what your glider can really do. On the speed gliding front Arnaud from Les Arcs, France did some great glides in the Blackcomb backcountry along with Brad and and Tonya. There was also a major national trials white water Kayaking event on the Rutheford near by and we hope to contact the organisers and co-host some events together next year. Same goes for the Nimby Fifty mountain bike Race which went off great see www.nimbyfifty.com . I hope we c an work closer with both these sports, perhaps share some film and presentation evenings and parties as there is a big crossover in our sports of choice.  I also hope to bring a climbing section to the festival as there aree some potentially great areas near Pemberton for this as  well as bouldering .

Captain Powder , or David Moe came up from Seattle and gave a wonderful presentation Tuesday May 26^th on his whole history with SURFER , POWDER and skiing with slides and a couple hilarious “retro films “. Wednesday Night we showed my SACRED FLIGHT fiulm from Colombia. Thursday was Jim Oravas presentation with great editing help from Janet Roddan, then a presentation from Arnaud carried over from Wednesday Night . Friday was our last night of presentations with Filip Jaglas presentation on the www.redbullxalps.com .

Saturday was the big day for the www.nimbyfify.com mountain bike race with whose organisers we would love to work with closer next year.  Over 200 riders participated , so kudos to that event ! As the weather still did not co-operate , we wanted to take a few of our visitors on a road trip, so  a dozen of us , or so ended up driving to Hedley. There we were hosted by Ann, Rod and the Gold Dust Pub. We hit karaoke night with a vengeance on Saturday night. Glenn was the real star of the show along with some talented locals . Because of this however we were a bit late for flying. Noah from Oregon and I managed to launch just as the wind was coming in . Pawel and crew hiked and waited at the upper Hedley launch till nearly dusk but both hiom and Filip from Poland managed to get a flight in . Hedley was the perfect Canadian Western experience for our Euro visitors espec ially. Thank you Hedley , again ! Hope to be back for the annual Thanxgiving FLY IN .

THE XANDES MISSION CONTINUES

Pemberton also brought many of us together to continue planning  the XANDES project . Although we did not have the XC experiences , we welcome Guillermo, Filip and Glenn to The XANDES project which Pemberton Games also nurtured.

XANDES is a paragliding, mountaineering and endurance race across Peruvian Andes similar in some ways to www.redbullxalps.com . The athletes will depart Huaraz between June and August, 2012 and climb and paraglide a previously chartered course of 500+ kilometres from Huaraz to Cuzco. There will be predetermined GPS turn points along the high Andean altiplano route in order to keep the athletes on a safe course near populated areas. The athletes will arrive in Cuzco in time for a press conference scheduled ahead of time. This is an exceptionally unique event, a first in South America and we expect a great deal of participation. Apart from the pure sport race the organizers’ goal is to create an awareness of the receding equatorial glaciers in Peru and its beautiful Cordilleras. The Reconaissance party will take aerial photos of the the higher Cordilleras en route and compare these to photographs from 50 years ago to show changes.

On August 18-22, 2009, an FAI demonstration of paragliding accuracy competition was held in Caraz , near Huaraz, Peru during the Inkafest (www.inkafest.com 2009 ) .This helped immensely to popularize the sport of paragliding in Peru along with the planned XANDES concept. A great deal of international media attended. The actual reconaissance for XANDES will continue in August  2010. More updates onhttp://www.flickr.com/groups/xandes/ The goal of that mission is to carefully plan and fly/hike/run the route and address all logistical issues of the event. For more background about organisers please refer to www.explorex.net and recent festival held in Pemberton BC , www.pembertongames.com . The Pemberton Games were in part organised to help create awareness of the XANDES planning phaze.  Although the race and logistics will have similarities to www.redbullxalps.com we hope to improve on some of the aspects of the race.

XANDES hopes to create a sustainable event in Peru for many years to come and thus help with eco-tourism in the country. The plan would be to hold XANDES every two years in between the XALPS event  thus capitalising on the same athletes participating, as well giving an opportunity to Peruvian and South American Pilots to participate in an event on their own continent. Footage for a documentary , youtube campaigns would be shot as well as stills and editorial for Peruvian and international publications.

XANDES Website : www.xandes.com

WHY US ?

The Team

Peter Chrzanowski  – Veteran award winning adventure filmmaker of 30 years with a long history with Peru and the Andes. Peter is spearheading this project . He is also a paraglide pilot since 1986 and one of the first pilots in North America. Peter’s life was saved in a ski-mountaineering accident near Huaraz in 1979 . Therefore he has a special passion for Peru and The Andes wishing to help ecotourism in the area. More on www.explorex.net and www.pembertongames.com . Peter is also an accomplished journalist and event organiser.

Pawel Boryniec – Polish/ Canadian Paraglide pilot, tandem pilot, instructor and IT / internet webmaster / streaming expert on the project. Pawel has accompanied Peter on many expeditions. Pawel was already part of first exploratory XANDES trip in January 2009.  See www.xplorex.com

Jim Orava – Canadian Paraglide Champion 2009. Jim has flown all over the world including Peru

and is considered to be the most knowledgeable pilot in Canada. He is also a great cameraman, professional stuntman , rigger and troubleshooter with credits from Hollywood features such as XMEN, ALASKA to work for broadvasters from Channel 4, BBC, DISCOVERY NETWORK.. Jim is a mountaineer, and an amazing all around athlete. HE also did the second Kayak descent of the Colca Canyon in Peru and knows the country very well. WEBSITE: www.cayooshexpeditions.ca . Also see

Jim Orava on Good Morning America .

Filip Jagla – XALPS athlete representing Poland in the www.redbullxalps.com . He has competed all over the world on the Paraglide Pre World Cup Circuit and has a great passion to join us in Peru. He is also a cameraman and photographer. Filip is also acting as a consultant to our XANDES team on how to logistically change and improve on the XALPS format.

Glenn Bitterman – Glenn is from Alberta, Canada. He is a paraglide pilot, tandem pilot, instructor and major flying aficionado. Glenn has a great deal of  experience as a consultant to major oil companies and often acts as the logistics expert or “ The Fix It guy “ from transportation to security problems in various remote destinations, from the Canadian Arctic to the tropics. Besides flying, Glen’s role would be to ensure proper communication and transportation co-ordination to make the XANDES mission a success. See web.

www.peaceparaglide.ca

Guilermo Martinez – Filmmaker, Director of Photography. video editor US, Miami based Guillermo is of Peruvian descent and joined us in Pemberton for our last event. He holds various filmmaking skills and has impressed everyone with his camera abilities and great shots. He is presently shooting and editing a documentary on his journey from Miami to Pemberton , BC as a preparation for XANDES. Guillermo works on regular commercial productions in Miami.

Simon Bedford – Great Britain/Canada ,Professional photographer , cameraman, video editor, adventurer. Simon takes amazing pictures. His portfolio rangesa from working concerts for celebritiues such as THE WHO to running a motion control studio for the BBC, to portrait photography of Canadian First Nations members. Simon has since moved to Canada and Whistler/Pemberton BC to persue his adventure photography passion and begin a photography school. He has had covers on mainstream  magazines such as BIKE. See Simons photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonbedford/page13 /

FRIENDS AND SUPPORT IN PERU

Ivan Canturin – Director of www.inkafest.com in Peru. Ivan has worked with Peter extensively over the years and offers all contacts and support from the INKAFEST festival.

Koky Castaneda – Accomplished Peruvian Mountain Guide, skier and mountainbiker familiar with a big part of the route. Koky has chartered the XANDES route for mountainbiking support for the paragliders. This can be done on another return to Peru in summer of 2011 .

Jenny Altamirano- Journalist for magazines including Rhumbos in Peru . Jenny is currently doing her masters in eco-tourism in Peru. She would handle all the PR, press releases and Spanish language publications

Benjamin Morales – Good friend and consultant . Former director of Instituto De Geologia y Minas in Peru and presently working with Peruvian Tourism. Benjamin was in charge of the whole Peruvian rescue and recovery mission after the huge 1970 earthquake in Huaraz, Peru.

Jose Infantas – Paraglide Instructor / Tandem Pilot based in Cuzco, Peru. Jose is very familiar with flying in the Andes in many of the locations we will be passing and hopes to join the XANES expedition.

CLUB DE MONTANEROS AMERICO TORDOYA – Peruvian Institute formed in honor of Americo Tordoya formed to promote mountaineering in Peru. Why the connection ? Amerigo saved Peter Chrzanowskis life in a mountaineering accident back in 1979.

CASA ANDINA –  Is a generous sponsor of both Inkafest and our first reconnaissance mission in 2009. www.casa-andina.com .

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

We are seeking a TITLE sponsor for the XANDES  event along with presenting sponsors and suppliers. Participating sponsors would receive creative placement in all films and media as well as access to all media as in video and photos proportional to their investment. Since the actual  race is not until 2012 the sponsors have two years to utilise our promotional  material and create an entire campaign around the project and their logo with our support. Besides shooting material for a full one hour documentary, the team plans a great deal of media exposure utilising magazine television shows, you tube campaign and traditional media. We are looking for seed money as well as in kind sponsorship to make this reconnaissance mission a true success story for the sponsor as well as our XANDES project. The sponsors involved would also receive placement and exposure in Peter’s “ work in progress “ documentary which may will continue in Peru , see : PARACINDERELLA

SUPPORT MATERIAL AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

Well everyone , the weather is looking great . There is lots going on this Canadian long weekend through the entire week, from kayaking on the Rutheford to paragliding and mountain biking . There are many great campgrounds besides Nairn Falls, with Owl Creek by a beautiful river and Strawberry Point, a twenty minute drive down along Lillooet Lake , one of the most beautiful spots in the world  (for me anyways). There will be  good Pemberton area maps available at Mexico Lindo Restaurant (Downtown Pemberton Hotel Bldg.) as well as New Community Centre and often someone there to help with directions. Mexico Lindo will be offering food specials, breakfasts etc. as well as act as the festival office withy internet access video reviewing screens, etc. The paragliding and mountain biking are in a close zone at MacKenzie Basin , a 20 minute drive up a forestry road from town. The best place to look at the paragliding , and learn about it is to come to the old Community Centre, through town , where school buses park. You can watch everyone land here and also grab shuttles up to launch . We encourage media to take us up on complimentary tandem flights. The scenery is amazing from up there, especially this time of year ! You can take photos from the air. As this is our first year of exploration, I hope more of our “fringe ” sports will come together in a more cohesive manner over the years as the festival grows. I am just glad there is so much going on in the valley during those dates, so that every mountain sport enthusiast has something to do. I also encourage to take part in any ski touring or ski activities on Blackcomb Mountain. Any ski tours and av presentations would be welcome regarding the LOST MOUNTAIN SOULS TOUR. Just get out there if you are keen to be part , get in the backcountry, ski some good lines, be safe, and prepare a presentation for next week, Saturday Night May 29th at Mexico Lindo Restaurant again, dedicated to  a fallen bro or sis in the mountains. As far as climbing just ask us . There are many spots around from Bouldering to exploring new hidden crags. If anyone wishes to step up and rep your CLIMBING sport in Pemby, just step up please. I have put together an event schedule of various evening events and film nights which I hope you will peruse (See events/links on website) . I look forward to meeting many of you as we grow with the PEMBERTON WORLD MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL and nurture a closer tied ” Pemberton Games ” network for years to come !  Event advance tickets 604-894-2340  or drop by New Pemberton Community Centre.

ADVANCE TICKETS TO ALL PEMBERTON GAMES EVENTS, SALSA, PARACINDERELLA premiere and EXTREME EXPLORATIONS FILM FESTIVAL AND SPEAKERS, can be purchased at NEW PEMBERTON COMMUNITY CENTRE, ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS , please call 604-894-2340 SEATING LIMITED SO GET YOURS NOW

I write you introducing a concept in the works. Although the winter Olympics will bring a lot of exposure to our beautiful Valley, it is really up to us to make use of the world recognition. Pemberton, with it’s abundance of mountain sports activities , makes us ideally positioned for such a fest to grow in the future.

If we look at a small idea at Whistler. Just a few years ago WSSF grew into the highly successful TELUS WORLD SKI AND SNOWBOARD FESTIVAL. Well we have the potential right here to have a great fest as it grows and involves more varieties of fringe sports which can unite under one umbrella.

Pemberton is becoming world renowned for some of the best mountain flying in the world and end of May brings some of the best conditions. There are 2 million paragliders worldwide, with 60,000 pilots in countries like France and 13,000 even in tiny Czech Republic. Pemberton has some of Canadas best pilots in residence, including Jim Orava, Canadian 2009 Champion. See www.cayooshexpeditions.ca  .

Therefore I invite you and your associates to discover Pemberton, come ” explore the possibilities “ and help one day to create “our festival” or “ Our games” on a ground floor level. I wanted to utilise our setting and highlight the sport of paragliding as a true “media draw “ with which would highlight all other activities. That is how I wanted to welcome you to PEMBERTON WORLD MOUNTAIN SPORTS FESTIVAL and I set a date May 21-29 , with any main events To Be Announced over the Victoria long weekend. Pemberton and it’s world of mountain sports is available to you and I hope one day will grow into a festival.

Although my principal passion is flying, and have concentrated on guests from that discipline, I invite the Pemberton Community, the Lillwat Nation and department heads from the larger or principal sports, apart from paragliding to participate in my vision. These would include Mountain biking , climbing , white water kayaking and ski – mountaineering. Various events would be encouraged. Other spin-of sports such as speed gliding, skydiving, kite surfing, ski mountaineering and alpinism are invited to explore their possibilities as well as that of what the area has to offer. .

Thanks to the hard work of the PVTA local support, and the addition of our new upper McKenzie Launch. Pemberton, in the future will be ready to host “ World Class Events ” .Also, the new trail system will be exceptional for future Mountain Bike , hiking and horseback events. I stress that beyond it’s seemingly “overwhelming impression, this was intended as a grass roots festival .

I was also hoping to provide a training venue for the prestigious 2011 www.redbullxalps.com and www.xandes.com where participating athletes have been contacted. We are also looking at “ sister city ” concepts with two other mountain festival towns in Peru and Poland to have representation and cross promotion of Mountain Culture and sport, on three continents, in a manageable and subtle way. These are Huaraz, Peru, Zakopane , Poland and Pemberton BC . All three are mountain towns, two have rich Indigenous cultures, one a Euro Mountain tribe, all three grow potatoes and have mountain festivals

Thanks to the internet and especially new social networking sites, promoting such events has become much faster and easier, and thus the rather short notice this year. I am confident that no matter what scale of the outcome, Pemberton offers such a wealth of activities for the visiting mountain sport enthusiast, no one will be disappointed if you plan a visit. So I welcome you to Pemberton and invite you to ” explore the possibilities ” for growing a festival from the ground up . This year just expect beautiful scenery, a myriad of endless mountain sports and activities and a few small events,just check in on the schedule of evnts as they come on board. Below are some useful links for any local activities in the Pemberton area. Sponsorship enquiries are always welcome.