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