Ticket to Ride

June 13, 2014 at 3:05 am | Posted in Film Review | Leave a comment
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Another year, another Warren Miller ski movie; winter is here; the ski season is almost upon us – in the southern Hemisphere.

Two standout segments: the incredible cheesy ninja segment; and the young lady skiing down a mountain in Greenland dressed in a pink one-piece swimsuit (all the way to a hot tub)!

This year’s movie is much like previous movies – ‘guys’ and ‘gals’ doing amazing things in amazing snowy places. Though I am noticing a growing theme: patriotism and climate change. This is the second year in a row with some footage featuring returned service men and a growing recognition of climate change. Of course climate change negatively affects snow sports – so just like hunters make for reasonable conservators, so skiers (and snowboarders) are keen to preserve snowy climate systems. Maybe if enough snow sports people band together, we can make a positive contribution to the climate change debate.

Flow State

June 16, 2013 at 9:03 am | Posted in Film Review | Leave a comment
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as always, the beginning of the ski season – in New Zealand – is marked by the screening of Warren Millar’s latest ski epic. This year it was named Flow State.

It is packed with the usual amazing snow scenery and ski-and-board action. Well it is normal by Warren Millar standards the rest of us just dream.

The heli-ski action is just amazing.

This year there is more footage from the perspective of the skiers and boarders – the cost, size, quality of helmet / chest mounted cameras coming down, coming down, and yet going up.

This year was also a first in two other aspects: patriotism and global warming. It looks like the ski resort of Vale was originally the training base for the 10th Mountain Division during World War II. One Nordic / Alpine skiing sequence was only possible because the winter pack ice had retreated from the Nordkinn Pennisula, and they were able to sail a yacht up the fiord.

..Like there is no tomorrow

June 10, 2012 at 9:33 am | Posted in Film Review | Leave a comment
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I went to Warren Miller‘s 2012 movie – .. Like there is no tomorrow – the other night. As usual, very inspirational stuff. As usual, it marks the imminent arrival of the ski season.

We revisit skiing in Kashmir – where the lifties carry semi-automatic weapons!

There is lots of heli-skiing.

Skiing on Mt Washington – two guys skin up to the top of a big big bowl.

We go to Alaska.

There is some amazing stuff – like the Norwegian guy who’s parents own a ski lodge, and has his own snow plow, and has his own international freestyle competition.

The skiing and boarding in the back country is just – wow!

We even visit New Zealand – where I live! Though the accents seemed a bit contrived. And I must correct the film: according to Te Ara there are 40 million sheep in New Zealand – not 30.

The segment I found most inspiring was watching the retired Olympic skiers tackling the back country. Their style and form was effortless and graceful.

Trip to the Playground

June 10, 2008 at 4:02 am | Posted in Film Review, Sporting Event | 1 Comment
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I wish !

I went to see Warren Miller’s latest film and I wish I could ski a quarter as good as these guys; I would settle for just skiing in some of these locations.

June 8, 2008 by


Film Hanger

Paper Hanger Blog
Wellington
New Zealand

Playground

This film is all about have extreme fun in the snow – ski, board, parachute, inflatible ride-on, and ski-do.

Like the Warren Miller film – Off the Grid – I saw last year, there is no plot, its just about getting down the sloop and having fun; an endless search for the ultimate powder sloop, and having the ultimate ride down it.

The film is like southern California meets snow – the dialogue was laid back and poetic and incomprehensible (in a nice relaxed sought of way). Bode Miller’s interview was something else – pure hedonism. It just shows that extreme and /or hardout skiers/boarders are a tribe apart. Jonny Mosley’s narration gave the film a restrained can do attitude – can ski down near vertical slopes, can do a ‘whisky flip’, can do a ‘helicopter 720’, can jump 100’s of feet into a snow bank, can …

The best snow moments for me: the loop-the-loop on the ski mobile, the ski mobile discent down a powder slope, the 250 foot base jump into powder, the helicopters flying parallel with the steep slopes ! and Ski Dubai. The latter is an indoor ski facility that seems bigger than my first beginner slope !

The best people moments for me: interview with Gretchen Bleiler, interview with the Burton Smalls Team (boy snowboarders), and the guy who blowpipes a dart into his friend’s rear.

Overall, I found the film too long: hard as it seems, there was too much action! 120 minutes of non-stop extreme snow sport is too much !!! 100 minutes would have been enough !!The incredible became the norm. I wish there was a little bit more people stuff; I really appreciated Gretchen Bleiler sharing some of her life story. Also, maybe next year, we will see a little bit more of Europe.

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