Beckman Auditorium [photo credit: CALTECH]
The club’s annual screening of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour — the 25th year of a tradition that began in 2001 — takes place Tuesday, March 3, at Beckman Auditorium. The event arrives during the global tour’s 50th anniversary season, following the November 2025 festival in Banff, Alberta, where the celebration of mountain culture has drawn filmmakers, climbers, and adventurers since 1976, according to the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The Caltech Alpine Club has hosted the Banff tour every year since 2001, with a single interruption in 2020 when the Caltech campus closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the club’s website. The tradition has outlasted leadership turnover, budget cycles, and a global shutdown — returning each March to a round white auditorium a block south of Del Mar Boulevard.
A standard World Tour program features between six and eight short films drawn from more than 400 entries submitted to the annual festival, according to the Banff Centre. Subjects range from adaptive mountain biking and Arctic expeditions to alpine skiing and environmental conservation. The specific film lineup for the Pasadena screening had not been announced as of this writing and is subject to change, according to the Caltech events page.
Doors open at 6:00 p.m. with a pre-show reception on Beckman Mall that includes complimentary snacks, beer, and a chance to meet local sponsors — organizations that include climbing gyms and search-and-rescue teams, according to the Alpine Club. The main show begins at 7:00 p.m. and runs approximately 2.5 hours, including a 30-minute intermission with a raffle drawing, according to the event listing.
Every ticket comes with one free raffle entry. Attendees can earn three additional raffle tickets by picking up a sponsor passport at the reception check-in table and collecting signatures from at least four sponsor tables, according to the event page.
Tickets cost $10 for students with a valid ID — who may purchase up to two at that rate — and $20 for non-students. They are available in person at the Caltech ticket office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, by phone at 626-395-4652, at the Beckman Auditorium box office on the west side of the building after 5:00 p.m. on show day, or online at the non-student rate. A small processing fee applies to credit card purchases, according to the event listing.
One hundred percent of net event proceeds go directly to the Caltech Alpine Club, according to the event page. The club uses the funds to organize outdoor adventure trips, host speakers, provide free outdoor gear for Caltech community use, and subsidize professional outdoor safety courses, according to the listing. The club’s stated mission is “to foster the Caltech outdoor community by encouraging mentorship, responsibility, inclusivity, and radness,” according to its website.
The Alpine Club counts approximately 200 active members — about half graduate students and 10 percent undergraduates, with the rest drawn from postdocs, faculty, staff, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory and community members, according to the club’s website. Membership is free and open to anyone, including non-Caltech affiliates.
Parking is free after 5:00 p.m. in the parking structures along Wilson Avenue, including both north and south garages. A parking lot north of Beckman Auditorium 332 South Michigan Avenue is also available, according to the event listing. The World Tour’s presenting partners are Rab and Banff & Lake Louise Tourism.
For more information, contact Abigail Keebler at akeebler@caltech.edu.
