Warren Miller's Dynasty

I love that it's still warm enough during the day to wear shorts, and yet I've already received an email in my junkmail box telling me about the new Warren Miller movie. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks about skiing even when the only snow around town is the little dirty pile outside the hockey rink.

Photo: davegidley on Flickr

This the 60th annual Warren Miller movie, and judging from the previews, promises to be just as great as the previous 59. The preview shows highlights from BC's Monashee Mountains in the Kootenays, China, Norway (which looks stunning & reminds me of last year's shots in Finland), Washinton, Idaho, Alaska, and some other US destinations. And I love that there is a lot of big mountain footage; hopefully we'll see lots of the same in the full-length version. The info I've read says that Jonny Moseley will be the narrator again (see my comments about his semi-boring narration last year). But with the stellar line-up of skiers and destinations, I'm sure it'll still be amazing.

You can check out the trailer yourself at www.skitheworld.com , the Canadian distribution company. They've also listed tour dates for major cities, but Whistler still shows no scheduled showings. However, have no fear; I contacted the Ski the World.com staff and they've assured me that there will be screenings in Whistler near the end of December. After all, leaving the Whistler bubble and driving down the Sea-to-Sky to Vancouver for anything ski-related just seems wrong!

Where did Warren go? - A short review of Warren Miller's new movie, "Children of Winter"

A few weeks ago, two of my girlfriends and I went to the new Warren Miller movie, "Children of Winter", at the Queen Elizabeth theatre in Vancouver. I'd gone to the movie screenings before, but always in Halifax. First thing I noticed that was different? There were lots of reps from companies and ski hills set up in the lobby. In fact, everyone who went got a 2-for-1 ski pass for Whistler-Blackcomb!

After wandering around the lobby for a while and entering every contest we could find, we went into the theatre and took our seats. The other thing different from Halifax: in Vancouver, it is apparently a tradition to take all the papers you were handed, turn them into paper airplanes, and try and hit the stage with them. Seriously, I have never seen so many paper airplanes in my life!

After a few successful flights and a lot of nasty crashes, the movie started. I'm a huge ski movie fan, and I was so excited to watch this one. But one thing that bugs me - when did Warren Miller stop narrating the movies? This film was narrated by Jonny Mosely, who is an amazing gold medal-winning Olympic athlete and who really helped elevate the sport of freestyle skiing. But you know what? He's kind of dry to listen to...

Anyway, the first half of the movie was good, with some nice powder scenes and some good park skiing. And then there was this (very long) segment with Jason Biggs (yes, the actor from American Pie), one of the guys from the Barenaked Ladies, and a few other musicians. It showed them hanging out in a ski town in New England, chilling, enjoying the winter, and playing random concerts at small ski-town bars. At first, I thought it was kind of cool. And then the segment kept going and going and going... give me some big mountain skiing!

And then what I was waiting for. My favourite part of the whole movie. A few guys, including Derek Foose (who was at the Vancouver screening), went to Iceland and toured around by boat. They would look up into the mountains, spot a sick line, hike up all day, and ski back down to the boat. Wow. I was just blown away! Wouldn't we all love to do that!!

So there you have it; my personal, very biased, quite short review of the movie. Now, who's ready to go skiing?!?

*Photo credit: me! Skier: M. Beliveau