Author Archives: Jill Adler

2013 Ski Porn Ushers In Winter

Growing up, Warren Miller stole the show as the harbinger of the ski season. Today, take a number. Have Go Pro and buds, and make a ski movie. More than 30 ski films will debut this winter. Here’s a look at just a handful of ski porn to watch for.

The Flicks-

Premiering this week in Salt Lake City, with appropriate sponsor fanfare, comes the 64th installment from Warren Miller Productions. Ticket to Ride takes athletes like Tyler Ceccanti, Keely Kelleher, Elyse Saugstad, Kaylin Richardson, Sierra Quitiquit, Jess McMillan, Andy Mahre, Pep Fujas, Tommy Moe and Rob Kingwill to the far reaches of snow at Big Sky, Mont., Greenland, Kazakhstan, Iceland and the Eiger.

 

Sorry, Utahns, there won’t be any epic pow sections sponsored by Ski Utah or Visit Salt Lake this year. Nor will there be those awesome free lift tickets to Canyons Resort Utahns have become accustomed to. Seems like the association with Vail Resorts has far-reaching effects. The good news is that Snowbird continues to sponsor the eight-night engagement with 2-for-1 lift tickets for all attendees and REI members get a free vintage Warren Miller download. The tour begins with an athlete press conference this Friday Oct. 11 and pre-film circus of vendor booths like Chaos Headwear tossing out and selling WME custom hats and poster signings outside of Salt Lake’s Abravanel Hall beginning at 6 p.m. An official after party at The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, follows the premiere.

Get your Ticket to Ride World Premiere tickets at REIs in Utah, ArtTix and Abravanel Hall box office. The movie replays on Saturday then moves to Orem and Ogden Oct. 15-17, and Park City Oct. 18-19.

MSP

Matchstick Productions took a severe detour from the usual faceshot frames to craft a ski documentary worthy of the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC. McConkey premiered October 5 in Shane McConkey’s home town of Squaw Valley, Calif., the ride continues in theaters nationwide through November and will be available for download on iTunes and Google Play starting October 8. “This story of an extreme BASE skier named Shane McConkey is serious, eye-opening stuff, the kind that allows you to forgive the Red Bull-commercial overtones. Those watching this movie have come away simply being moved by the guts and the athleticism, not to mention McConkey’s wrenching personal story,” wrote Los Angeles Times critic Steven Zeitchik. 

MSP will be back with the usual jibber dude antics next year with Days of My Youth.

TGR

Teton Gravity Research claims their latest- Way Of Life– is not only about the search for snow but how their athletes view the world. Do we really care? Ultimately, it’s about watching Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Sammy Carlson, Dash Longe, Todd Ligare, Angel Collison, Ian McIntosh, Dylan Hood, John Spriggs and others dart around Jackson Hole, Alaska, Austria, British Columbia and Mammoth Mountain, Calif.

 

Sherpas Cinema

Into the Mind hails from the filmmaker of the multi-award winning, All.I.Can. Canadian Dave Mossop is one of the few who’s both passionate about skiing and education. The film school graduate (University of Victoria) gets creative with an “Inception“-like exploration of dreams and death. It may sound over-the-head for most ski film addicts but don’t sell yourself short. There’s always room for thought amid the scenes of the sport athletes live and die by. “You can have the greatest single moment you can ever possibly have on Earth, or you could die. The film is really a meditation on the moment of choice you have before you potentially kill yourself in the mountains,” says Mossop.

 

Shades of Winter

Girl power is alive and well with the all-women ski flick Shades of Winter. Austrian skier Sandra Lahnsteiner’s third film follow freeriders like Rachael Burks, Caja Schoepf, Matilda Rapaport, Lorraine Huber, Keri Herman and Grete Eliassen as they throw down from Japan to Haines, Alaska.

 

Powderwhore

Utah’s homegrown ski moviemakers unveil their ninth backcountry opus with Elevation. Proving there’s skiing beyond the Wasatch, Andrew McClean, the Provo brothers, brothers Andy and Jason Dorais et al head for the Tordrillo Mountains, Alaska, the Cascades, and the Tetons. The flick is full of earn-your-turns propaganda but there’s no denying the energy and joy in their journey.

 

4FRNT Media

By 14, CR Johnson was winning local ski competitions in Tahoe and quickly making a name for himself. He entered the freeskiing world, friending the likes of Tanner Hall and other skiing icons. But in 2007, his career came to a screeching halt when, during a film shoot at Brighton Resort, he fell and was struck in the head by Kye Peterson. They were filming a sequence in which skiers rapid-fired off a jump. CR was wearing a helmet but was still knocked unconscious. He recovered and found the support of 4FRNT on his struggle back to the slopes. In honor of the final production year of the CRJ Signature Series skis comes CRJ: The Chronicle Of A Freeskiing Icon.

“CR Johnson was an inspiration to anyone who ever stepped into a pair of skis,” said 4FRNT film manager Austin Ramaley. 

Watch the whole film here-

 

Poor Boyz

Poor Boyz founder Johnny Decesare, along with Joe Schuster, Julien Regnier, Karl Fostvedt, and Sean Pettit go Tracing Skylines from the Alps’ Haute Route to Detroit. It’s really all about jibbing anywhere you can find it but there’s a whole generation of teenagers that will cheer for this sort of thing.

 

The rest of the pack:

Field Productions Supervention

Chaoz Prod. Head Straight

PVS Company Time

Sweetgrass Prod. Valhalla

The Radbots Brother Nature

Junkies on a Budget Sartori

Vital Films Insight

Stept Mutiny

Vproductions Alpha

Life Steez Media Earthshine

4BI9 All Damn Day

Level 1 Partly Cloudy

Legs of Steel The Lost

Headbud Daily Bread

Wordup Media Concrete Jungle

Unicorn Picnic Prod. Pretty Faces

 

Beware of Bambi

Fall is here and, oh, how cool is it to spot wildlife alongside the road near your favorite mountain playground? Moose, deer, fox, even bears. You pull over to shoot a shot with your iPhone. But what if you don’t see Bambi before he jumps in front of your car to commit deer suicide?

According to stats from the Insurance Information Institute, there are 750,000 deer/car dances annually that result in at least 120 deaths a year (not sure if that’s human or four-footed). Even if your body gets out unscathed, the average cost to repair the fender bender is $2800.

Don’t get caught off guard. Here are some important tips to help you save a life.

  1. Don’t ignore those deer crossing signs. They’re there for good reason. Deer return to those spots year after year. These are usually places with woodlands, streams and golf courses.
  2. Be alert at dawn and dusk. Vision is already impaired. Don’t mess it up even more by eating, dialing or doing your makeup. More than 60 percent of all deer collisions happen between 6 a.m.-9 a.m. and 6 p.m.-10 p.m.
  3. High beams on. You’re more likely to spot animals in your periphery.
  4. Regularly eye the road from one side to the other.
  5. Slow down on rural roads. More animal-car collisions statistically occur on two-lane highways.
  6. There’s usually more than one. The Animal Protection Institute reported that 70 percent of accidents happen with the second animal.
  7. Honk your horn. Slamming the brakes may spook a deer right into the path of another car. When you honk it’s like telling them to get out of the road.
  8. Don’t brake if a hit is inevitable. There’s a better chance of you driving over the deer than if you slam on your brakes, the front end dives and the animal goes crashing into your windshield. Even better, brake then let your foot off right before impact. That way the nose of your car will actually lift up even more before impact.
  9. Try not to swerve. You see it in the movies all the time. The deer is left standing and you’re in ditch, wrapped around a tree. Better him than you.
  10. Be extra careful from October to December. Not only are more deer moving about but breeding season is Oct.-Jan. Males are oblivious to anything but mating. Also, hunters can scare them out of the woods and into traffic.
  11. Don’t rely on deer whistles and reflectors. There’s no statistical proof they work. That said, I had a set of Bell Deer Warning whistles on the front of my Hyundai Santa Fe and never hit a deer. For $7, they couldn’t hurt.

The Snow Cometh!

By Jill Adler

Lake effect snow in September?! After a seriously rainy month, the temps have dropped and that rain turned to snow EVERYWHERE in the west this week. The reports started rolling in yesterday from Colorado to California and it was only a matter of hours before the bullwheel started turning here in Utah.

2013 was Utah’s hottest summer on record and now predictions for winter point to – dare we say it?- above-normal snow and cold. Thursday’s swift storm blew in when a stream of moisture west of Hawaii met a low pressure over Alaska. The mountains could see more than 10 inches by Friday so if you didn’t get your predictions in for all of those “guess the first snowfall” contests you better do it now.

You have until 5 p.m tonight to enter Park City Mountain Resort’s annual snow contest. Let them know when you think the first storm of at least 6″ hits the mountain (um, today?); the closest date and time wins two free lift tickets. Park City’s Washington School House Hotel is a bit more generous with their contest timeline. You have until September 30 to guess.

PCMR plans to open November 23 but if this weather keeps up you might want to bust out the costumes and ski for Halloween at Brighton or Solitude.

Ready or not; here comes winter.

Here are some things that go through my head when the first frost hits:

NO! I need to buy wheels for my snow tires.

Should I still get that bikini wax?

Damn, I wasn’t going to start my pre-season conditioning until October.

Did I get my Alta pass?

Where are my ski socks?

I guess we should put away the window AC.

And finally…Hasta la vista, Tank tops! Hola, Life is Good PJs! The super soft, long-sleeve, cotton Snowman T and flannel bottoms are my perfect inspiration for dreams of snowflakes and faceshots. Yup. Life is good.

POC Helmets Are Cool Contest


Photo courtesy Sherri Harkin.

I entered. Have you? Now, I normally enter everything I can get my hands on- Disney travel, gear raffles, photo contests. Anything that doesn’t involve spamming all my friends to vote for me. I hate those kind of contests. They’re idiotic. If you have a great entry it shouldn’t matter how many friends vote. Plus, I keep my FB friends to those I truly want to keep in touch with and share photos with and who get my raw personality. Having 5k “friends” means you don’t know how to be a friend.

Anyway, back to contests. Mostly, I enter for the swag. Occasionally there’s an inspiration that needs support. POC Sports teamed up with the High Fives Non-Profit Foundation’s #HelmetsAreCool photo contest and this is one I can truly get behind. No matter who tells you that helmets are awkward, restrict vision, reduce hearing, etc., it’s a known fact that being alive is cool and helmets keep you alive. Hence, helmets are cool. Just listen to Sally Francklyn speaking at the premiere of the new ski flick “Valhalla” in Denver last weekend.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/74574939]

Happening now, photos uploaded to Instagram with the hashtag #HelmetsAreCool will be entered to win a prize pack from POC Sports on October 10. The winner will be announced the following day via the High Fives Foundation and POC Sports respective Instagram accounts.

“The High Fives Foundation’s B.A.S.I.C.S. Program Service emphasizes safety and awareness while participating in action sports,” Roy Tuscany, executive director of the High Fives Foundation, said. “We are on a mission to document and show how and why the best helmet technology is invented. We took a quick trip to Sweden to shake hands and dig into the culture at POC Sports. Now, we want contest participants to show the world why they’re an advocate of helmet usage by posting and sharing their photos with us on Instagram.”

Simply upload a cool photo of you (properly) using a helmet while enjoying your favorite action sport and you’ll be in the running for an amazing prize pack from POC Sports. Be sure to tag #HelmetsAreCool.

Follow the High Fives Foundation and POC Sports on Instagram at:

· Instagram.com/Hi5sFoundation

· Instagram.com/POCSports

High Fives Foundation is a Tahoe-based, national 501.c.3 non-profit organization dedicated to raising money and awareness for athletes who have suffered a life-altering injury while pursuing their dream in the winter action sports community. The Foundation has helped 43 athletes to date since its inception in 2009, more information visit www.highfivesfoundation.org.

Sundance Hikes Ticket Prices

There’s no way to sugarcoat the news. Sundance Film Fest ticket prices are going up…33 percent. The $20 ticket charge for films that may go straight to Netflix has more than a few Park City locals miffed. “That’s called gouging,” Tom Richardson posted on The Park Record Newspaper’s Facebook page. “Just ridiculous. We should just wait till they come to the Park City library when they’re a lot cheaper.”

Sundance organizers added $5 to the face value of last year’s $15 ticket in order to offset their operating costs. They seem to be keeping the increase on the down-low though. You would have had to visit the website to notice. The hike comes on the heels of a summer press announcement that the 2013 Festival generated an overall economic impact of nearly $70 million for Utah.

Individual tickets won’t go on sale until January but with the busiest time at the box office starting with the locals-only purchasing period.

Linda Pfafflin, a Sundance associate director, told the Record that it’s been seven years since the last increase. “The funds generated from this adjustment will help us meet rising costs associated with putting on the festival,” Pfafflin said in a prepared response. If it’s any consolation, a waitlist ticket will still be $15.

In comparison, tickets to screenings for the Toronto Film Festival are $21 and those for the Telluride Film Festival taking place this weekend are $25. Sundance organizers say they price tickets competitively but that news won’t take the sting out of those already hard-to-get Sundance tickets. So why pay $20 instead of waiting for Netflix? You’re paying for the experience, the filmmaker question and answer sessions and the chance to spot a celebrity.

Sundance 2014 runs Jan. 16-26. www.sundance.org/festival/tickets.

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