Manitoba ice climber's debut film ascends to Vancouver film fest lineup

Manitoba ice climber Ray Hope has reached new heights.

“Prairie Ice Farmers,” a short film Hope directed, has been selected for the 2024 Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

The film follows a group of ice climbers who have created a vibrant community in the heart of the Canadian Prairies as they live and breathe the thrill of the climb.

Ray was inspired to direct the film based on his own passion for climbing.

“I started 10 years ago. I was on a trip in Japan and did some climbing there, and it just changed my life,” he said in an interview on CTV Morning Live Winnipeg.

Ever since, he and his wife Jackie have taken yearly trips to the Canadian Rockies to mountaineer.

During the COVID pandemic, the Hopes were grounded in Manitoba, unable to travel to the mountains to do what they loved.

To pass the time, they got into filmmaking, turning to their gravity-defying passion for inspiration.

“We thought the story about the ice climbing in Manitoba was very unique, and we thought that story should be told, and we wanted to tell it,” he said.

The film charts the rise of passionate climbers who created St. Boniface’s 60-foot ice tower, and the community that rose up around it. It also travels to the Kenora area, where that region’s unique topography has been engineered to create a frozen playground for climbers.

The film took three years to complete.

Hope submitted it to the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival, and was tapped for its lineup.

“To be selected is quite an honour.”

It is set to premiere at the event on Nov. 12.

The film is also part of an online program, allowing folks to watch it from home for a fee. Details can be found on the festival’s website.

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagacé