The first screening of this year’s Reel Rock Tour will be hosted by Korea on the Rocks Initiatives on Nov. 8 with a look at Yosemite, the birthplace of rock climbing, as its main feature.

“Valley Uprising” explores climbing in Yosemite in the 1970s, which KOTRi founder Bryan Hylenski describes as the birthplace of modern climbing.

“The lure of Yosemite is something all climbers aspire to, so they spent a year putting together this history and documentary on how climbing came to be, and it’s something climbers are very excited about,” said Hylenski.

Describing it as a surprisingly touching film, he said that the film gave an in-depth look never seen before into the origins of climbing.

“We have never seen some of the personal home videos from some of the people that were there when they were doing what they were doing, which was revolutionary in our sport,” he said.

“When we climb these huge mountains around the world and we’re climbing up these huge faces, we are using gear that was developed by these guys back in that day.”

“They were taking rocks and shoving them into cracks and jamming them in with a sledgehammer and putting a strap around it, whereas now we have more advanced gear, which those guys created, called cams,” he said, referring to a fixture for climbing faces that contains a mechanism that grips more tightly when pulled on, such as when a climber falls.

“So seeing some of those old systems they had, which now are nonexistent, the way that they used them, the way that they broke them, the people that were injured at that time and all of the history of it are what people want to see,” Hylenski said.

The other film to be screened is “SLOW,” made by a foreign climber based in Korea.

“It’s an introduction to what it’s like climbing here in Korea as a foreigner, the different areas we go to, the relationships with the community, the Korean climbing community,” Hylenski explained.

KOTRi has hosted the Reel Rock Tour in several cities in previous years, but this year’s format has changed, Hylenski said. The organization will act as the distributor for other screenings in Korea, he said, running just one “flagship” screening.

He said that groups in Suncheon, Gwangyang, Daegu, Daejeon and Seoul were all considering screening the films, and they were looking for more groups to join.

There will also be a silent auction and raffle, with goods from KOTRi’s partner company Mammut, and two sponsors: climbing shoemaker Butora and the Rock Odyssey Climbing Club in Busan.

The event will start with climbing wall sessions at 11 a.m. at Dongnae Climbing Center in Busan. The films will begin at 6 p.m. and a bus will leave for an after-party in Haeundae at 10:15 p.m.

Entrance is 10,000 won in advance (8,000 won for KOTRi members) and 15,000 won at the door (12,000 won for members).

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)