Salt Lake City, UT – I first met Jason West in a very Wasatch sort of way. Driving up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a ski day at Solitude, I picked up West who was hitchhiking after a backcountry run on Kessler Peak. We spent the rest of the drive chatting and comparing the relatively good lives of a pro telemark skier and a ski magazine editor.
Why do I mention this? Because Because it typifies the life of a Powderwhore, and because West is one of the athletes featured in “Breaking Trail,” the 2011 ski film offering from Salt Lake City-based Powderwhore Productions. Best known for their string of telemark ski films, however, the Powderwhores have broken out of their tried and true mold this winter to also feature alpine tourers and even snowboarders in this season’s offering, creating what the production company has classified as “A Backcountry Film.”
“Breaking Trail” still lacks the gratuitous resort shots that appear in ski films from the bigger names in the business. What you’ll find instead are glorious, powder-filled untracked steeps, pillow lines and tree runs in the backcountry, shot primarily in the Powderwhores’ Wasatch Mountains backyard but also in locations around the world including Colorado, British Columbia, Idaho and Scandinavia, where producer Noah Howell boards a sailing yacht with Ice Axe Expeditions to access lines dropping directly into deep blue fjords.
Accompany Will Cardamone to his family’s backcountry cabin in Colorado where he hosts friends for a powder session in his own backyard. Tag along with Utah Avalanche Center Forecaster Brett Kobernik as he digs pits before shredding the Wasatch backcountry on his splitboard. Howell and other athletes join famed extreme skier Andrew McLean to descend the frightening northeast face of the Pfeifferhorn in Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon. While the running time is a little short at 1:04, the quick pace between sequences keeps the viewer engaged…as if the over-the-head face shots aren’t enough.
“There are no shots of helicopters filming other helicopters or hankie-clad 16-year-olds hepped up on energy drinks spinning to rap music,” says Howell. “And you won’t win a Jeep if you come out to a premiere. You will find a mixed bag of highly talented and dedicated individuals who enjoy hiking out into the unknown in search of turns and adventure. All this captured by two video hacks carrying as little as necessary in order to travel fast and light.”
Athletes featured in “Breaking Trail” include: Jake Sakson, Noah Howell, Andy Jacobsen, Will Cardamone, Paul Kimbrough, Drew Stoecklein, Andrew McLean, Jason West, Forrest Shearer, Brett Kobernik, Doug Stoup, Kim Havell, Bozo Cardozo, Griffin Post, Spencer Cordovano, Taylor Stoecklein, Adam Moszynski, Darcy Conover and Ane Enderud. In addition to Noah Howell and brother Jonah, cinematographer credits include such notable ski industry names as Tom Day, Absinthe Films and Teton Gravity Research.
The film tour for “Breaking Trail” stops at locations around the western U.S. and kicks off next Wednesday, Sept. 28 for three straight nights at Brewvies in Salt Lake City. Tour dates, tickets, DVDs and digital downloads are all available at www.powderwhore.com. Watch the trailer:
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