In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes…and Warren Miller Ski Movies.
With winter around the corner, the Warren Miller Entertainment team (WME) will once again kick off the season with its 69th installment. The new ski and snowboard film, Face of Winter, however, will be different. It won’t be simply a recycling of traditional ski porn. This one- the first produced since the iconic Miller’s death earlier this year- promises to tug on our nostalgic ski heartstrings.
Photo cred. Warren Miller Co.
FOW celebrates the man who became known as the father of ski bums. Miller cultivated the skier mentality, the industry, and the places and people he met along the way. He was 93 when he passed in January 2018 and through those years he not only witnessed the impressive growth of the ski industry but documented the best athletes in the world who led the charge. He covered through film, art, books and articles, outdoor pursuits and water sports like surfing and sailing in addition to his passion for snowsports.
He produced more than 500 films that spanned six decades and inspired countless men, women and children to ditch normalcy and seek a life of extreme adventure; myself included. He set the tempo with tales like braving 100 days in Sun Valley, Idaho, living out of a teardrop trailer on $18 bucks.
Warren Miller Ski Films Leave Their Mark
“I will say that without Warren Miller I wouldn’t lead the incredible life I do!” freeskier Amie Engerbretson told the film crew at Teton Gravity Research, one of the first film production companies to follow in WME’s footsteps. “Warren inspired my grandfather, my father and myself to pursue a life of skiing, chasing mountains and making films! He will live in my heart forever!”
The Warren Miller name became synonymous with the sport of skiing but Miller himself was also a World War II veteran, a ski instructor and ski racer, an accomplished surfer, and a champion sailor. He also provided entrepreneurial training to thousands of kids nationwide, emphasizing hard work, ingenuity, and creativity.
New and veteran athletes have come together in Face of Winter to pay tribute to the man who started it all. Jonny Moseley, Marcus Caston, Seth Wescott, Forrest Jillson, Kaylin Richardson, Dash Longe, Anna Segal, Michael “Bird” Shaffer, and featured athletes of the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team, including gold medalist, Jessie Diggins visit some of Warren’s favorite places from Engleberg to Chamonix, British Columbia to Alaska, Chile, Iceland, New Zealand and more.
“The film is for anyone whose life (whether they realize it) was impacted by Warren Miller,” says WME Managing Director Andy Hawk. “We are all the face of winter—from the athletes to the audience to the locals in far-off destinations or even at our home mountain. Warren recognized this, and this year’s film celebrates that.”
I will admit that I’m hesitant to see this year’s WM flick. It’ll be interesting to see how the other resorts fared and the footage gathered last season after the crappy snow we all had in North America. But it’s not because I think the snow will look meh. It’s because of the void that is left by the ski storyteller. I hate crying in public and I know I will.
I grew up on Warren Miller movies. They launched me into each ski season. And it was that infamous quote – “If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be one year older when you do” – that moved me to Mammoth as a junior in college, Aspen after graduation, Park City after Aspen and I finally booked that bucketlist trip to Hokkaido, Japan, this coming January 2019.
As long as WME keeps making these ski movies, the spirit of the ski bum will live on but this season’s edition can’t help but be more poignant than ever.
Warren Miller Ski Film Screenings
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Face of Winter, presented by Volkswagen, will premiered worldwide in Portland, Ore., on October 12 before heading to Utah on Oct. 17. Screenings will then sweep across the U.S., from the Pacific Northwest to the East Cost from October to December. Click here for tour dates and detes.
BTW< If you are attending in Utah, this year’s screenings will be at the Rose Wagner Theater rather than Abravanel Hall. The $23 tickets also include a BOGO day pass to Jackson Hole and $50 off a Mountain Collective Pass. [But if you already have the Mountain Collective (comes with a Snowbird or Alta season pass) you already get half off in Jackson.]
“I didn’t become a teacher for the kids; I did it for the ski pass,” might soon be the reasoning if we happen to see a swell of new teachers in our schools in the future. That’s because Angel Fire, New Mexico, is making ski-industry history with a sweetheart deal for educators. Read more
People always ask me what’s my favorite ski resort. It’s Jackson Hole, Wyo.. I love our Utah resorts but seriously, nothing compares to that cowboy mountain. I made the pilgrimage to Jackson Hole this March. I use my PSIA instructors’ Steeps Camp as my motivation but I don’t really need it. My roadtrips to Jackson are something I look forward to annually; and every year as I drive toward that monumental resort in the Tetons my heart races and I wonder what the snow will be like, whether I’m in shape and would Corbet’s be an option.
Corbet’s Couloir looked gnarly on this trip. In other words, not doable. The rumors swirled of this crazy competition a few weeks prior where men and women hucked themselves into this infamous couloir. These athletes had decimated the run, leaving nothing skiable for us amateurs; that was just fine by me.
February 1, 2018. Nearly 25 hardcore skiers and snowboarders (seven were women) amassed beneath Jackson Hole’s aerial tram for the start of an incredulous comp. They would be launching off a massive cornice into Corbet’s Couloir- a legendary shot most riders avoid. But these competitors wouldn’t ski it like most experts or even like most Freeride World Tour skiers. Each athlete had two runs to throw down for a winner-takes-all format for cash and crown. It was go big or go home time.
I’ll admit that I peek over the edge of Corbet’s on every trip; usually I spout some excuse like, “If we had better light,” or “the snow is hardpack” and then shimmy away. There are few days (and times in that day) when Corbet’s is perfect. But it does happen….and then I give it a shot. But to allow for optimal conditions for the first ever King and Queen of Corbet’s, Jackson wasn’t taking any chances. They cordoned off the chute for three days and prayed for snow. Only eight inches fell during that time and the wind buffed it to a stiff bouncy crud. Still, men and women backed up some 20 feet, then straight-ran off the lip.
Karl Fostvedt and 23-year old Caite Zeliff walked with $8k each and bragging rights for years.
P.S. To all of you men who might want to judge the difference between the men and the women- You try it then talk. The fact that there are women ready to charge off that top is HUGE regardless of tricks and style points. They hauled ass all the way to the bottom carrying as much speed as any of the competitors. Frankly, I’m surprised and stoked there were ladies stepping up to compete at all. I’ve skied into Corbet’s three times in my life and there’s no way I would and no way I would hit it like these brave babes.
The 2017/2018 ski season in Utah draws to a close. By April 15, only Snowbird will still be open for daily skiing …we think. Here are the most updated Utah ski area closing dates:
Alta Ski Area – Sunday, April 15 (reopen: April 20-22, 27-29 and May 4-6)
Beaver Mountain – Sunday, April 1
Brian Head Ski Resort – Sunday, April 15
Brighton – Sunday, April 22
Cherry Peak – TBD
Deer Valley Resort – Sunday, April 8th
Eagle Point – Sunday, April 1
Nordic Valley – CLOSED
Park City Mountain – Sunday, April 8
Powder Mountain – Sunday, April 15
Snowbasin Resort – Sunday, April 15
Snowbird – TBD
Solitude Mountain Resort – Sunday, April 15
Sundance Mountain Resort – Sunday, April 1
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As mentioned above, you’ll be able to ski Snowbird into late spring. There are a few other resorts that will try to stay open as long as they can:
MT. BACHELOR, ORE. closing May 27, 2018
Springtime at the area just outside of Bend, Ore., can run anywhere from winter pow to corn to spring slush bumps. End early so there’s less chance for a twisted knee and plenty of time for a few of Oregon’s mouthwatering craft brews. If you had a mind for a multi-sport day, head over to Smith Rocks State Park for rock climbing or whitewater kayaking on the Deschutes River.
MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN, CA closing May 28. 2018
Top to bottom skiing, apres music in the Village and hot springs at sunset. This place still lures Los Angelenos on the weekends.
Whistler/Blackcomb B.C. closing May 21, 2018
Whistler has glacier skiing year round. So even though they will close in May, the party continues when they reopen in June and July for skiing up high and world-class mountain biking below.
Arapahoe Basin, CO closing June 3, 2018
Skiing spring slush is just an excuse to partake in the biggest parking lot tailgate party in the ski industry; costumes, beer bongs, grilled meat, loud music and partial nudity. what more do you need?
Squaw Valley, CA closing May 31, 2018
Water ski at sunrise and sunset; snow ski in between. There’s also golf, mountain biking, rock climbing and river rafting on top of the ranging apres ski deck scene.
It’s the suckiest news in all the land. No significant snow storms in Park City, Utah, till February?! Those are the rumors anyway. We might get a smattering of that Park City snow here and there but let’s face it; Utah had the driest holiday period in, like, forever. I can’t remember teaching on such limited terrain. There are runs that shouldn’t even be open right now because there are more rocks on them than snow. Unfortunately, people are so desperate, they’ll ski anything. I spoke with a local rental shop manager I spoke with a local rental shop manager and he said that they are so busy repairing people’s skis they can’t even tune their own rentals. They just check them in thrashed and send them back out with the next guest.
Park City has a meager 21” base and, if we are to believe some forecasters, we’re at least a week… or four!.. before that base climbs. It’s the lowest snowpack in 30 years. The thinned out crowds still arrived for Christmas break and, golly gee, that was so much fun to put them all on a handful of runs instead of spreading them out across the mountain.
Photo by Steve Mayer
There’s just not enough snow to keep up with the terrain demand. Oh, but how we love the local mountain reports that claim we have “packed powder” to try to entice gullible travelers. After the groomers (on manmade snow) are skied off by lunch or sooner, we have HARD PACK, hacked up moguls with rocks in between, hard pack, thousands of riders slipping and sliding into each other, and hard pack. Don’t get me wrong, a trip to the mountains is still 100 times better than Christmas week at Disneyland or a day at the office but if you are an advanced or expert skier keep your lift ticket money in your pocket (hooray for the Epic Pass, right?).
Appreciate Manmade Park City Snow
It’s a whole different story if you are a beginning skier and only need the same two bunny hills for five days. You don’t need anything more than some space, a patient instructor and comfortable ski boots. Plus, with this gorgeously warm weather it’s an ideal time to learn to ride. Just know that the “greatest snow on earth” is anything but right now despite what the local PR hype machine is spinning out- “2 FEET of Snow Fell this Holiday Weekend”? Um, that was 24 inches period…in nearly a month; on a 20” base, in Little and Big Cottonwood canyons; not Park City.
Perhaps all of the Sundance Film Festival folks will rejoice. Our temps have been hovering around a balmy 40 degrees. Filmmakers can strut their high-heeled stuff on Main Street without freezing their buttcheeks and wear flimsy designer neck scarves. According to local meteorologist Brian McInerney, it probably won’t be snowing those last two weeks of January.
Where Does The Snow Stand
We’re at about 62 percent of snowpack. Last year, more than 40 storms brought us up to 200 percent snow pack. Not so much this season. High pressure has set up camp over us, California and Colorado, while storms roll north around the Cascades, Montana, Wyoming and British Columbia. Which begs the question- do I roadtrip to Jackson Hole and ski freshies or head south to Vegas and rock climb? The earth shifts its orientation to the sun in February so that could mean snow. February?! Apparently, it looked this dismal in 1976 and then they had a banner February. Ok, I can hold out. A girl can only dream.
The bigger picture, however, is the scarier one. Our winters are getting shorter. They are starting later and ending earlier. “When you do get a storm, they will be more intense followed by long periods of high pressure,” said McInerney on KPCW radio. This dipole pattern means there’s a big-ass high pressure over the western U.S. while the central and eastern part of the country is getting hammered with snow and record low temps. “It’s because the jet stream is becoming more elongated, like a big, sine wave. Before, it used to have little wiggles. Each little wiggle would bring a storm maybe every four days,” explained McInerney. “Now the pattern has set up where the high is positioned over the west and the low is over the east. And then if you keep following the teleconnections out over the Pacific, there’s a warm pool of water in the Western Pacific that they think is causing the stagnant pattern.” Well, then, can someone please get the hell out there and stir things up?
“Not only are we warmer, but when you look at the trends, we’re going to see more of these in future weather events throughout the years,” said McInerney. “We used to have 250 parts per million when we look at CO2 levels in the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that doesn’t allow heat to escape in the nighttime hours. It reradiates back into the earth’s atmosphere. It was 250 and now we’re at 400 parts per million and it’s going up. It’s the most CO2 we’ve had in the atmosphere for roughly 800 thousand years.”
Local municipalities are doing a decent job trying to get carbon neutral but that’s small potatoes overall when you have countries like China spewing emissions. “The whole world has to act in unison to kind of clean this up and figure this out. I think the last thing we’ll be worried about at this point is why aren’t we skiing powder? We’re going to be trying to figure out how to get water.”
So, do your snowdances, wash your cars, pray for snow and stay positive. It’s going to be here eventually. Otherwise, what’s the alternative? Year-round mountain biking and rock climbing I suppose.
What To Do While You Wait For New Snow
Enjoy The Scenery-
Pack up your camera in the Tenba DNA 13 and head out for a brilliant photo day. The gorgeous bag fits a mirrorless or DSLR body with 2–5 lenses plus accessories. Designed for year-round use, the oversized front flap and sewn hinge weatherproofs your delicate gear. It also comes with a removable and reversible WeatherWrap cover, tons of pockets, an adjustable security strap to keep it from sliding while you bike or hike and a ton of other features.
It’s easy to find a local photog to hire as a guide and mentor for the day. Just start asking around.
Go Tubing-
A sure way to kill an hour or two- and you only need water and ice- is to hit the tubing track for high speed hijinks. Most resorts have at least one tubing hill.
Get Cozy
It’s still cold at night at a ski resort. Slip into your favorite jammies like these from Lazy One . These brushed cotton and Lycra pants and tops are durable, whimsical and oh-so soft.
Acorn Slouch Boots with berber fleece cuffs, cushion insole and rubber outsole will keep your feet and ankles warm whether you snuggle up to the fire or traipse outside for the wood.
Play Games-
It’s not practical to pack a bunch of board games unless those games are from Outside/Inside. Make a big pot of spaghetti, turn the TV off then challenge your family to a showdown of Magnetic Darts or mini Backpack Cornhole . The Campground Dartboard set comes with roll-up board for two games in one.
Drink!-
Whether you want to drown your weather sorrows or celebrate the buds and family reunion, seek out some smooth souvenirs from local brewers and distillers. Maybe it’s a six-pack of Wasatch Brewery’s Polygamy Porter or bottle of Jackson Hole’s Wyoming Whiskey. It’s all about cultural immersion, right?
