UMCA 본문




UMCA  /   UMCA 2026

Ulsan Ulju Mountain Culture Award

The Ulsan Ulju Mountain Culture Award is awarded to those who have made exceptional contributions to the progress of mountain culture, such as nature, environment, climbing films and literature.

Bernadette McDonald

In a small farming town in Saskatchewan, there was a girl. Around the age of seven, she sat down at a piano. And there she discovered something — the joy of the moment when concentration became performance, and performance became completion. “The least I could do,“ she said later, “was play as well as I possibly could.“

And then the mountains came to her. She climbed at dawn, encountered bears, and crossed icefields with nothing but a compass. For her, the mountains were no longer scenery to be admired — they became part of her life.

In time, she became a storyteller. The girl who once played piano on stage became the one who, from behind the stage, chose the stories and turned them into books. As Executive Director of the Banff Mountain Film Festival for eighteen years, she introduced climbers, photographers, and mountain filmmakers to audiences every autumn, bringing their stories to the stage.

When she left that post, she picked up a pen herself. She became an author who carried onto the world's stage the stories long overshadowed by the familiar narrative of Western climbing heroes — Poland's Himalayan climbers, Slovenia's alpinists, and, eventually, the local climbers who had long stood in the shadow of expedition records. Her books were translated into many languages and reached readers around the world, and with them came a long list of honors, including the Boardman Tasker Prize.

The lesson she learned at the piano — how concentration and devotion led to excellence — shone on every path she walked, and shone brightest once she became an author. She moved from playing to storytelling, from the stage to the book. In her own words, it was a “beautiful cycle.“ And so Bernadette McDonald became someone who tells the world the many stories held within the mountains.

UMCA Citation

Bernadette McDonald, recognized as a visionary leader of 21st-century global mountain culture, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Ulsan Ulju Mountain Culture Award. For over four decades, McDonald has made profound contributions to the advancement of mountain literature and film worldwide. She played a pivotal role in developing the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival(hereinafter “BANFF”) into a globally renowned event and participated in the founding of both the BANFF and the International Alliance for Mountain Film (IAMF).

As an author, McDonald’s body of work—nine authored books and four edited volumes—has achieved significant international acclaim. Through meticulous research and an impartial perspective, she has chronicled the memories of mountaineers from diverse nations, elevating them into the realms of history and literature. She has given voice to those long overlooked—women, and mountaineers from Nepal and Pakistan—restoring their experiences to the record from their own perspective. She has invited reflection on the essence of climbing itself, probing the nature of risk, passion, and mortality. McDonald’s writings have significantly reshaped how experts and general readers alike perceive mountains and mountaineering.
Her efforts to share the experiences, passion, and inspiration born on high peaks— transforming them from the domain of a few into a shared legacy for all—carry profound significance for the world we inhabit today. McDonald's work has earned some of the most prestigious honors in mountain literature and culture, including two Boardman Tasker Prizes, the Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize, King Albert Award (for international leadership in the field of mountain culture and environment), and the Alberta Order of Excellence.

Mountain literature and film represent one of humanity's most vital and imaginative traditions — a treasured heritage born of the human encounter with the peaks. By bestowing the 11th Ulsan Ulju Mountain Culture Award upon Bernadette McDonald, the Ulsan Ulju Mountain Film Festival celebrates her outstanding contributions to broadening the horizons of mountain culture, enriching the lives and journeys of humanity in the 21st century.

UMCA Committee

  • Christine Kyung-mi Pae, (Chairman of UMCA Committee) Vice President of Korea Alpine Federation
  • Jae-shik Sohn, Honorary Chairman of Korean Alpen Book Club
  • Oh Young-hoon, Contract Professor, Kyungpook National University
  • Albert Lee, Chief of CAC Mountain Archives
  • Il-keun Chung, Chair Professor, Kyungnam University
  • Billy Choi, Member of the selection and programming Committee of BBK Mendi Film Festival

UMCA Exhibition

Date/Time Sep. 1(Mon) - 30(Tue) 11:00 ~ 18:00
Venue 2F, COA Art Gallery, Querencia, 1F, Experience House

UMCA Talk 1

FILM Still Alive - The Drama on Mount Kenya
Date/Time Sep. 27(Sat) 10:00
Venue Alps Cinema 2
Contents Opening (15min) + Film Screening (89min) + Q&A (60min)

UMCA Talk 2

FILM Mount Everest - The Last Step
Date/Time Sep. 27(Sun) 10:00
Venue Alps Cinema 2
Contents Opening (15min) + Film Screening (61min) + Q&A (60min)

MOVIE #TO_BE + Q&A

  • Date : 3 Apr (Sat) 10:00 ~ 11:30
  • Venue : Alps Cinema 2
  • Guest : Krzysztof Wielicki(Lead Character), Grzegorz Lipiec (Director), Maja Pietraszewska-Koper (Producer)

영화정보

푸르른 창공을 가르는 거대한 암벽, 그 위에 아름다운 점 하나. 눈 쌓인 알프스의 산들을 발아래 펼쳐놓고 손가락으로 암벽의 미세한 틈을 더듬으며 수직 상승하는 캐서린 데스티벨. 창공을 향한 더듬음, 그것은 두 손과 두 발이 한 걸음 나아가는데 온 삶을 바치는 ‘의식’이다. 한 인간이 전력으로 살아온 삶의 무게가 그 손끝에, 엄지발가락 끄트머리에 가볍게 얹혀있다. 겨우내 농축된 생명의 무게를 가장 먼저 가볍게 툭 피워내는 매화처럼 거대한 암벽에 아름다운 점을 찍는 캐서린 데스티벨을 만나보자. (이상은)

Stephen Venables Interview

“Thank you very much for nominating me. I feel very honored. And slightly embarrassed to be followed on from people like Diemberger and Bonington!”

1. How does it feel to come to Korea after 5 years?

I am really looking forward to returning to Korea, as I remember well our wonderful welcome and enthusiastic audience last time. But I am particularly pleased this time to be coming in the autumn, when your wonderful forests will look incredibly beautiful and it will be cool enough to enjoy some of your fine granite rock climbs.

2. How have you been doing since then? What kind of exploratory activities did you do during COVID-19?

When the big Covid-19 panic broke out in March 2019 I was aboard Pelagic Australis sailing back from the Antarctic Peninsula to Chile. I was only just able to fly back to Spain and then got the last flight from Spain to Britain. I then spent a very pleasant spring, enjoying beautiful weather in Edinburgh and doing little rock climbs in the royal park of Holyrood, just beside our apartment. Since the end of lockdowns, I have been enjoying the mountains and sea cliffs of Scotland and last September, with my colleague Skip Novak, I led a team on a ski traverse across the mountains of South Georgia.

3. What are you going to lecture about at UMFF?

I have not decided yet, but I will try to include some of the best moments from 50 years of mountaineering around the world. And I will certainly took a bit about the wonderful island of South Georgia, where I have made ten expeditions, and which is the subject of the film ‘A Southern Quest’.

4. Which mountain film have you seen that impressed you the most?

‘The Long Hope’ is a fairly recent film about Britain’s biggest sea cliff, on the island of Hoy, in the far north of Scotland. It is an immense precipice of very scary sandstone, with vomiting fulmars (a European sea bird) adding to the danger. The first ascent by Ed Drummond and Oliver Hill, in the sixties, took several days, and involved some precarious aid climbing. Five decades later, Scotland’s rock climber, Dave MacLeod managed to climb the route completely free, in a single day. it was an astonishing piece of climbing. What I liked about the film was its sense of history - using archive photos and interviews from the sixties ascent - combined with the excitement of Dave’s modern ascent. It was a well told story, full of human emotion.

5. How big is the audience for mountain films in the UK? Do people in the UK enjoy watching mountain films?

Good mountain films are very, very rarely shown on mainstream television here. However, they are popular with a specialist audience at film festivals like the Kendal Mountain Festival.

6. Climbing the East Face of Everest in 1988 is probably your greatest memory. This year is the 70th anniversary of Everest's first ascent, and there are over 150 Everest summitter in Korea. What does Everest mean to you as a mountaineer?

I feel a special connection with the 70th anniversary, because we were the official 35th anniversary expedition and John Hunt - leader in 1953 - was our Honorary Leader in 1988. He became a good friend and I also got to know nearly all the other members of the 1953 team and, although I never met Tenzing Norgay, I have got to know several of his relatives. So I fell a personal connection with the mountain and I have very fond memories of our own climb in 1988. We were not good enough to climb in pure alpine style, but by using fixed ropes we came back alive! I was lucky enough to join an outstanding team - just four people, unsupported, on the the biggest face on the world’s highest mountain.

7. What would you like to say to your fans in Korea who are waiting for you?

I am looking forward very much to meeting you!