Screenshot: Warren Miller
Skiing is undoubtedly becoming more mainstream. Slopestyle is in the Olympics; there is more money available for helicopter shoots and Planet Earth cameras; and amateur skiers can flood the internet with GoPro videos of their winter vacation. Street skiers represent a sort of resistance — they are in many ways the counterculture movement of free skiing, a sport that was originally the counterculture.
That being said, however “far apart” those two versions of the sport may feel, both are valuable as a comprehensive means of further evolving and ultimately pushing the pursuit to new heights.
Take the new Warren Miller movie Chasing Shadows, a reprisal of a tried-and-true formula that has long shown pioneering efforts in the way of both progression and travel. There will again be signs of progression in the sport. And they are going to travel the globe and explore foreign lands like Nepal. You’ll even see top athletes, renowned both for their video parts as well as performances in competition.
It’s going to be epic as ever, but represents a continuance of a trajectory started relatively long ago.
Then you have this year’s premiere urban skiing odyssey from TGR, For Lack of Better. Now that Stept is no longer releasing features, we should be thanking Clayton Villa and the other renegades for continuing the tradition. It’s going to be gritty and endearing, filled with painful obstacles and jaw-dropping jibs. Most of all, it will give us a glimpse into the life of an urban skier.
Chasing Shadows will take place on big mountains far removed from the urban environments that will dominate For Lack of Better. It will have helicopters; For Lack of Better will have winches. The athletes in the new Warren Miller flick will travel the globe while Clayton Villa & Co. drive down highways.
As mentioned above, they are both important. And they are both reflective of that inherent spirit to seek out the next adventure, whether it be a ridge or rail. If you watch one, watch the other.
