Film shows how B.C. skiers go green
Revelstoke pros challenge themselves to go green as they reveal environmental journey in new film
Revelstoke-based professional skiers Greg Hill and Chris Rubens make their living on snow-covered mountains, so as you can imagine, climate change is something they are very concerned about.
With that in mind, the pair decided it was high time they walked the walk — or, rather skied the ski — and reduced their own carbon footprints.
Their environmentally enlightened journey is documented in the new film The Curve of Time from North Vancouver-based director Jordan Manley and Switchback Entertainment.
“They (Hill and Rubens) wanted to give themselves a challenge and show people it is possible to make changes in our personal lives. That was kind of the impetus,” said Manley.
The film is one of three B.C.based movies that will be part of the 11-film Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival fall series Nov. 7-10 at the Rio and Centennial Theatres. The other two films (Imagination and Tsirku) both come from Whistler-based Sherpas Cinema.
The pair’s journey is set in a sort of time capsule, with the Hill and Rubens today addressing their 2050 selves.
“This is a record of how things are and what we are trying to do to keep it that way,” Rubens tells the camera and his future self.
The pair’s biggest changes come in the form of travel and food.
In 2016 they collectively took 37 helicopter trips and flew internationally 17 times. The new and improved Hill and Rubens this year did 12 helicopter trips and two international flights.
The ski footage was shot close to home in the Monashee Mountains around Revelstoke. The other footage follows the pair on a tour of six volcanoes (think Mount Rainier and Mount Hood) in the Cascade Range from Washington state to California. That trip was done via electric car and by good old-fashioned hiking power.
“It’s taking a critical reflection and saying, ‘What are the parts of my life I can reduce my energy consumption going from there?’ ” said Manley. “For them they had that ability to make that change because of how much they travel. But they also have looked at their diets and made big changes there.”
The pair have said goodbye to meat and embraced a vegetarian diet. And surprise, surprise they feel just fine.
With the 23-minute movie out in the world, the hope is it inspires people to make a change or two in their lives.
“What I think Greg and Chris are doing and what they inspired me to try and do is just tinkering with this model that we’ve got,” said Manley, about the adventure and ski industry.
“There’s not too much critical analysis about how much energy we use to go and do these things. So I think it is really cool that Greg and Chris, within a year, were able to halve their carbon footprint.
“They’ve worked hard and seen how it could actually be fun for them if not a little bit uncomfortable,” added Manley, about the skiing duo’s dropping of luxuries like snowmobiles and big ’ol trucks.
They of course still have to travel a bit for shoots and product testing, but as of late they have turned their eyes to their own backyard and reengaged with the Revelstoke area — an area that attracts many international powder seekers.
“They can fulfil a lot of their media needs (photos for magazine and videos et cetera) in and around Revelstoke,” said Manley.
Through this film Manley hopes viewers will be inspired by the pair’s early stages of change and even comforted and encouraged by those first steps toward living a life with less.
“I’m hoping their message is a little more relatable to the average person even though their jobs may not seem like the most relatable thing,” said Manley.
The Curve of Time is showing on ■
Nov. 9 at the Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver. This film along with three others (Follow Through, Apex Predators and Song for the Nomad) are part of the Ski Show 2 package. Also on that bill are guest speakers Martina and Tania Halik. The B.C. mother and daughter will offer up Coast Mountain Epic, a multimedia presentation about the pair’s five-and-a-half-month-long ski traverse of the Coast Mountains of B.C. and Alaska.