San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
4 films with Tahoe ties go beyond usual skier flicks
Last month’s barrage of storms has broken Lake Tahoe’s ski season wide open, delivering historic depths of snow on the region’s peaks and enticing skiers and snowboarders across California.
But there are more ways than one to connect to Tahoe’s world-famous skiing culture, even some for those who aren’t planning to visit the mountains.
Now is the time of year when the annual crop of ski films arrives — in festivals, on tours and available to stream online. And this year’s harvest offers an eclectic mix beyond the scope of the stock stoke flick, with stories of loss, companionship and personal triumph. In this selection you’ll find a fresh look at a historic Tahoe tragedy, an episodic quest to conquer North America’s classic ski lines and more.
Following is a short list of four new films and one new series tied to TahoeTruckee skiers, snowboarders and filmmakers.
‘Tales from Cascadia’ (50 minutes)
Scratching the itch for pure excitement is “Tales From Cascadia,” a 50minute feature replete with eye-popping visuals of big-mountain free skiers shredding the Pacific Northwest’s famous Cascades. The skiers carve pristine chutes, huck cliffs and navigate powder stashes between the charred matchsticks of the region’s recently-burned conifer forests.
The mountains there have “more jagged, shrub-infested rock formations than you can shake a ski pole at,” the narrator says, by way of introduction to the range.
The film, which won the top award at this year’s International Freeski Film Festival in Montreal, features Tahoe pro freeskier Josh Daiek sending cliffs, backflipping through enormous air and charging sketchylooking lines down craggy slopes.
“You’d be insane not to tag along on one of his adventures,” the narrator says.
Later, when Daiek lines up his tips at the top of a particularly treacherous couloir, the narrator second-guesses himself: “Did I really say to tag along on all of his adventures? Maybe not all.” “Tales from Cascadia,” from Canadian film company Blank Collective, is available to stream free on YouTube.
‘Mountain Revelations’ (60 minutes)
On a more contemplative tip is “Mountain Revelations,” an hourlong feature from industry stalwart Teton Gravity Research.
Three mountain athletes, led by Truckee snowboarder and climate activist Jeremy Jones, ventures deep into Alaska’s remote Chugach Mountains on a mission to ride in the June offseason. But rather than lead with drone shots of the three men carving turns, the film eases into its true focus, which is the way mountain time fosters camaraderie among people of different backgrounds.
Joining Jones is snowboarder Ryan Hudson, who grew up often unhoused in San Diego and stands out as a Black professional in an industry driven by a clientele that is, by and large, high-income and racially homogenous. Also involved is Rafael Pease, a pro snowboarder and social activist born in France and raised between Chile and Texas who says he didn’t see snow until his teenage years.
“All of us that have made the mountains such a part of our life, it’s because they heal us, it’s where we work out our issues ... and it’s such a good place to really get to know people and get a really tight connection,” says Jones, by far the senior member of the group.
In between exploring a pocket of gorgeous snowy Alaskan peaks, the three men sit in camp, sharing personal stories and discussing social issues over beers. The overall effect is more thoughtprovoking than adrenaline-pumping.
“Mountain Revelations” is on a screening tour this winter. Check out the Teton Gravity Research Films website for details.
“Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche” (96 minutes)
A tragedy that still looms over the Tahoe ski community is an avalanche that killed seven people at Alpine Meadows ski resort in 1982.
On the 40th anniversary of the disaster, local filmmakers Jared Drake and Steven Siig peel back the layers of trauma through interviews with survivors and the people who came to their rescue in the aftermath of the slide.
What they create is not a simple retelling of a brutal event but a meditation on life lived at nature’s wild edge among forces beyond control. The film has garnered awards at film festivals around the country.
For screenings, check out the film’s website, www.buriedfilm.com.
‘Magic in the Mountains’ (79 minutes)
Just months after the resort formally known as Squaw Valley opted to change its name to purge itself of a harmful term comes a documentary that looks back on the resort’s earliest days.
Leaning on a trove of archival footage, St. Louis production company Coolfire Studios brings to life the meetings and moments that led to the unlikely selection of Squaw Valley to host the 1960 Winter Olympics. The games were and remain a key link to the resort town’s proud ski culture and history.
The film pays special attention to the role of Walt Disney in advocating to bring the games to the valley and features interviews with former Disney executives, relatives of the resort’s founders, athletes and historians. It’s a surprising and insightful story of a familiar place that has captured skier’s imaginations for 60 years.
“Magic in the Mountains” is available to rent on Vimeo.
“The Fifty” (Season 3)
This winter marks the third year of one man’s quest to climb and ski the 50 most classic ski lines in North America, and you can tune into the adventure for doses of mountain madness any time you like.
Several years ago, when Tahoe City freeskier Cody Townsend sat down to write out his next expedition proposal, he landed on a megaobjective to climb up and ski down peaks across the continent. He has been knocking them off in bunches each year since — as conditions allow — and filming the whole undertaking.
Rather than try to organize all that footage into a single feature film, Townsend has been releasing shorter episodes on each step of his journey. This season, he’s published six segments — ranging from about 15 minutes to 25 minutes each — from mountains across the West. What makes “The Fifty” unique as a series is how it contrasts Townsend’s meticulous planning process with unforeseen obstacles that inevitably arise in the course of his excursions.
“The Fifty” is available to stream free on Townsend’s YouTube channel.