Monday, November 22, 2010

Pre-season Ritual: The Ski Movie

Right around this time every year, with ski season just around the corner, I break out my VHS copy of the 1988 ski movie classic "Blizzard of Aahhhs." My wife rolls her eyes and heads for a different part of the house (reality: she settles in for her show in the family room, and sends me and my tape down to the basement playroom).

Despite the '80s soundtrack, skinny skis (by today's standards) and neon ski wear, Greg Stump, Glen Plake, Rasta Stevie and all the other characters in Blizzard are as entertaining and fun as they were twenty years ago.  If you love skiing, in my opinion this is THE must-see ski movie.

I'll still break out my copy of Blizzard of Aahhhs, but this year we decided to catch one of the local screenings of Warren Miller Entertainment's 2010 ski feature "Wintervention."  On Friday night we headed to Glens Falls to meet up with a group of 20 or so of our ski friends from Gore and West Mountain to catch the well attended screening at the Charles Wood Theatre.  Like all Warren Miller ski movies, Wintervention featured lots of extreme skiing in beautiful locations all over the globe.  The highlights for me were the sequences filmed in Antartica and Norway: remote wilderness settings with stunning scenery.

For avid skiers, the ski movie is an essential part of anticipating the coming ski season.  Although the local screenings of Wintervention are over now (Glens Falls and Albany were this past weekend, Saratoga Springs was earlier in the month), you can still catch a semi-local screening at Killington this weekend and a few other remaining locations in the Northeast.  Or you can just borrow my copy of Blizzard of Aahhhs.  But I want it back.

4 comments:

  1. Like at said at Ski Mad World, It's Fall: Ski Movie time :-)

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  2. "Despite the '80s soundtrack..."

    Despite? The soundtrack to Blizzard of Aahhh's is one of the many great things about that movie. Way better than the "ya bro" rap or out of tune screaming emo rock featured in many present day movies. :)

    One of the best ski movies of all time for sure. I don't really go for Warren Miller or even TGR or Matchstick these days. Too formula driven (though I guess this year's TGR is a little different direction).

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  3. Steve, I'm with you 100%, including the 80s music.

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  4. Headsup...as the first installment of Ski Mad World, I decided to present the opening credit of Blizzard of Aahhs. Greg Stump set up the state of the skiing and ski movies at that time.

    Here is a quote from Steep about Blizzard: "What would become the most influential American ski film ever made".

    About the eighties music, I know Steve is younger than I, you had to live the Eighties to appreciate it, especially the music in Stumpy wasn't the most commercial stuff.

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