In honor of the Powder Awards that took place last weekend, we thought we would reflect back on some of our favorite ski films this last fall. Ski premiere season is our second favorite time of year, after the actual ski season of course. Nothing gets you more stoked for skiing than going to a premiere with your friends and a bunch of strangers that are just excited about getting back to the slopes as you are. Every year the ski movies get bigger and better with skiers riding steeper lines, dropping bigger cliffs, and telling amazing stories along the way. Between the production of an all-girls ski movie, to Cody Townsend dropping one of the craziest lines ever up in Alaska, this year was no exception. Here are five of our favorite ski premieres that came to Salt Lake this fall. If you didn’t have the chance to go to the premieres, it is definitely worth purchasing or viewing these movies online.
TGR’s Almost Ablaze – Almost Ablaze won Movie of the Year at the Powder Awards, and it was well deserved. From its award-winning powder scene in Jackson Hole, to the classic big mountain skiing in Alaska, Almost Ablaze was full of some crazy skiing. Being the first woman to land an opening segment in a TGR film, Utah native, Angel Collinson, started out the movie by dropping big lines in Alaska with some of the boys. This famous segment earned her this year’s Best Female Performance Award at the Powder Awards. Like every year, TGR featured some amazing big mountain skiing in places like Alaska, Jackson Hole, France, British Columbia, and the Tetons. Plus, the 1984 winter Olympic sight of Sarajevo, where TGR filmed Olympic gold medalist, Joss Christensen, skiing the remains of the old Olympic venue. Full of personality, skiing that will make your jaw drop, and a killer soundtrack, you don’t want to miss out on this ski movie.
-TGR’s Almost Ablaze crew accepting their Powder Award for Movie of the Year Award.
Unicorn Production’s Pretty Faces –Walking into the Pretty Faces premiere was something else. Girls came dressed from head to toe in bright pink and purple colors (some even dressed up as unicorns). Pretty Faces, an all-girls ski film, showed the world that just because you’re a girl, it doesn’t mean that you can’t ride like the boys. Lynsey Dyer, producer of Pretty Faces, wanted to inspire girls to follow their big mountain dreams and show them that they are more than just a pretty face. And this movie definitely accomplished that. Pretty Faces was a game changer for the female athletes in the male-dominant sport of skiing. These women were dropping big lines, whether they were on a pair of skis, a snowboard or a snowmobile, they are fearless. A movie that features amazing stories, great skiing, and a lot of dancing, we loved Pretty Faces!
Matchstick Production’s Days of My Youth – This movie was two years in the making, and with Redbull involved, it was bound to be great. Days of My Youth was filmed in locations all over the world, from the mountains of Peru, to our very own, Snowbird, Utah. It follows skiers like Cody Townsend, Bobby Brown, Michelle Parker, and more, on their quests to find the biggest and greatest lines across the globe. And sure enough, they found those lines. Cody Townsend sent one of the craziest lines ever seen in skiing up in Alaska through a massive vertical slot canyon. A line that earned him five awards at this year’s Powder Awards, one of them being Best Male Performance. Days of My Youth shows how skiing can shape you as a person and the struggles and joys that come with the sport. This is a must-see this season.
TGR’s Jeremy Jones’ Higher – Yes this is a snowboard movie, and yes we did say ski movies, but we couldn’t list off our favorite premieres without mentioning Jeremy Jones’ Higher. If you want to watch a snowboard movie that has you sitting at the edge of your seat with excitement, this is the one. TGR follows Jeremy Jones on his life-long journey of becoming the big mountain boarder that he is today. Once a snowboard racer on the east coast, now Jeremy Jones finds himself traveling to places like Alaska, the Tetons, and even the mountains in Nepal, always in search of something bigger, steeper, and higher than what he has snowboarded before.
Level1 Production’s Less – Showing a more playful side to the sport, the movie, Less, is about the simple aspects of skiing that make it fun. Sometimes you don’t have the money to take you to on crazy ski trips around the world, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t ski something epic anyways! Less is all about Urban Skiing. But don’t think that because this movie doesn’t have any segments in Alaska, the skiing is any less awesome. With skiers like Khai Krepela, Wiley Miller and Shay Lee, Less puts on a great the show, and throws down some amazing skiing. In this case, Less is more.
