Whether it’s waiting out lockdowns and curfews or psyching up for a long-awaited powder day, a ski movie is just what the doctor ordered right now. This year’s visual buffet shows no lingering symptoms of COVID-19 shortening last season. There’s plenty of deep, steep and boundary-pushing footage. And buried in it all are even a few nuggets of wisdom.
Future Retro
Who better to take a look back at the impact of ski movies on the culture of the sport than Warren Miller. Future Retro, the 71st flick from the grandaddy of production companies, combines legends like Scot Schmidt and the Egan brothers with segments starring the next generation. True to form there’s plenty of travel—Alaska, Switzerland, Iceland and Antarctica—and one liners too.
Follow the Forecast
The dream ski trip is to follow the snow where ever it is falling. That kind of flexibility is hard for most of us to pull off, but we can live vicariously through the antics of the Blank.Collective in Follow the Forecast. A binge of deep powder, pillow lines, insane big mountain backflips and Canadian one liners, it follows an all-star cast as they chase storms across North America.
Make Believe
What does it take to become a professional skier? Teton Gravity Research’s Make Believe demonstrates it’s more than skill. Starring many of their regulars, including 14-year-old phenom Kai Jones, the movie shows that hard work, dedication and willingness to defy convention leads to great things. And beautiful ski porn.
Huck Yeah!
Camaraderie is a huge part of skiing and lack of it is one of the hardest things about the lockdowns and pandemic fear. Matchstick Productions Huck Yeah! serves as a vicarious outlet or inspiration to plan the next trip. Either way it gently reminds us of all that friends bring to ski adventures—and life—while blowing our minds about what’s possible on two sticks.
Nothing
Ski, snowboard, no-board, it’s all sliding. Nothing, a short film from Level 1, whispers that more unites us than divides us…at least when it comes to deep snow. The playful riding on boards and skis might inspire a team change and will definitely have you planning a trip to Mount Baker, Washington and Hakkaido, Japan.
Solving for Z
Sliding beyond the ski area boundary comes with an assumption of liability, even if it’s not printed on a ticket. There’s a chance you or one of your friends won’t come home. In Solving for Z, a joint production of Patagonia and Teton Gravity Research, we step inside the mind of mountain guide and big mountain skier Zahan Billimoria as he makes the calculations on the daily.
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/2Kw0cIJ
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