Snow is finally gathering in the mountains, Denver has seen its first lightning strikes, and two ski resorts, Arapahoe Basin and Keystone, with a third winter park, opened online on Monday.
But for many snowboarders and snowboarders, the season doesn’t really start until the opening of Warren Miller’s annual film. This year’s edition, Day Maker, concludes, as its predecessors have for generations, with the narrator’s cheerful declaration: “Winter is starting now”.
“Daymaker,” episode 73 of the series that invented the skate movie genre, opened Thursday at Parker’s PACE Center. It will be played at 20 additional locations in Colorado until December 4. As usual, the two main venues are the Boulder Theater from November 10-12 and the Paramount Theater in Denver from November 17-19.
The film takes viewers to the landscapes of Alaska and British Columbia, Utah’s Snowbasin Resort and Idaho’s Sun Valley. There’s the fun part of grass skiing – yes, summer ‘sledding’ on grass with specially designed skis – filmed in Wengen, Switzerland, as well as a lovely visit to the modest ski resorts of northern Greece.
Viewers will also enjoy the customary combination of grinding lines of dust along the steep slopes of the Alaska Range, bouncing off puffy pillow lines, flipping plants, flips, and rotating aerial maneuvers. The Deepest Powder in this year’s film takes three young skiers to British Columbia’s Monashee Mountains for a ridiculous Mustang Powder ride.
The Colorado segment of “Daymaker” takes viewers to Snowmass for a meeting of the National Brotherhood of Skiers, made up of dozens of mostly black ski clubs, which dates back to 1973. NBS also offers support to young black skiers to help them join the ski and snowboard team.
“There are many great skaters and snowboarders vying to become the first black Olympic champion in figure skating,” says storyteller Jonny Mosley, 1998 Olympic champion, in this segment. “But if the medal goes to the best title, 11-year-old Ava ‘Happy Knees’, Keenan of Vail, will take it away.”
Keenan, who has just turned 12 since her trailer was filmed, is shown pounding emperors with rapid-fire emitting legs, like pistons being finally set. Praise Moseley, who has been narrating Miller’s films since 2008. Moseley won his gold medal with a cool new trick for grabbing a 360-degree mute switch.
“My happy knee helps people see who I am as a pole skater, happy,” says Keenan in the film. “I want to thank Johnny Moseley for the 360 ° mute capture feature because if it weren’t for that, no one would be doing it right now. So thank you. “In the narrative, Mosley replied,” You’re welcome, Ava. “
In a phone interview this week, Keenan said it was “cool” to be in a Warren Miller movie at such a young age.
Keenan, a Denver native who moved in with Phil when she was 10, said, “It’s not the people who see me in the movie that turn me on.”
Another skateboarding movie worth seeing this season is Magic Hour, the latest from Teton Gravity Research. The clips were shot in Montana, the Chugach Mountain Ranges and an Alaskan coast, and four mountain ranges in British Columbia.
Many snow riders, particularly those looking to climb mountains, will find the scenes shot in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park to be a highlight. Skiers and snowboarders are shown tumbling madly along the steep and narrow slopes of Grand Teton, Central Teton, South Teton and other nearby peaks after climbing on their own. These scenes are thrilling, inspiring and breathtaking in their beauty.
“Magic Hour” toured Colorado for the last week of September and the first week of October, but the digital release will be out next week.
