The Great Falls Ski Patrol is preparing for its biggest fundraiser of the year as the Banff Mountain Film Festival returns to Great Falls on January 9, 2026.

For the 40 to 50 volunteer patrollers who provide medical and rescue response at Showdown, the event remains essential to supporting their training, equipment, and readiness.

Justin Grohs, with the Great Falls Ski Patrol, explained the patrols role and the need behind the fundraiser, saying, Were a volunteer organizationto help with medical and rescue response to the skiing and boarding public at Showdown.

But even as volunteers, they still face ongoing expenses. We do have quite a lot of expenses as far as maintaining our training and our readiness - medical supplies, toboggans, so forth and so on.

The Banff Mountain Film Festiva

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