Twenty years after unleashing Blizzard of Aahhh’s upon the world, Greg Stump returns to explore the history of ski films in a new release called The Legends of Aahhhs coming this fall. This historical look on the sport will be amazing and the 15 minute teaser is full of classic footy from Glen Plake and Scott Schmidt. Check Schmidt’s mid 80’s slashes on 220s!

Tantalus Range, Squamish BC by Jonaven Moore

For me, getting into the Tantalus was one of those sorts of things where you realize that for a long time you were looking for something and its been right in front of you the whole time. I’ve been kind of realizing this for a while in snowboarding, and have to thank my mom and stepdad for moving us to Western Canada 20 years ago. BC is blessed with mountains that are on par with anything, anywhere else in the world. It’s started to become starkly clear when I would go on a trip to Switzerland, or Russia or some other incredible destination snowboarding, and I would be so, so, excited on coming home.
The last couple of years for me have been about trying to get after some objectives that were closer to home. Stuff that I’d looked at for a long time, and just never quite gotten to. Well, its pretty much impossible to drive the sea-to-sky highway on a clear day and not look up at the Tantalus in awe. It is cracked ice, and jagged spires rising nearly out of the ocean that rival Alaska in every way. Living under them in the Squamish Valley only added to my once-removed intimacy with these mountains - I watched the sun rise on them nearly every morning that I woke up at home.

The last time that I was up there we rushed into a bunch of stuff with a helicopter and got our asses handed to us. One of my nine lives used up, and definitely one of Ryan’s. We had done two runs (one on Serratus and one off Tantalus) and on our third run on Serratus the whole thing fractured wall to wall (probably class 2.5 or 3) and thankfully ripped full path by itself, leaving us clinging to the top of a now icy mountain with our stomachs trying to climb out of our throats.
This time was the polar opposite of that trip. We had a bigger crew, were dropped off up there well prepared, with camping gear, and the intent to climb all of our lines on foot. The best way to feel anything out is to take your time going up it. You have to be really confident in something before your willing to spend hours climbing on it.

Likely, the coolest part of the trip for me was bivying at the top of Tantauls’ north ridge. I wanted to ride a line that I looked up at from my place, but the trick was that it got light starting at about 7am and by about 10 or so am you didn’t want to be anywhere near it - it would be getting too much sun and the avalanche danger spiking. The rumbling glacier itself only added to this, because though there was a bench to stop on, below was holes and crevasses that you wanted nothing to do with. I decided that the best plan for the line that I wanted to ride would be to climb up it in the evening, dig a bivy at the top of the line and spend the night. I’ve always wanted to wake up in the morning from a small perch, look over the edge at the line, get my stuff together, throw my backpack with my sleeping gear for a good tumble, and then ride down light to go get it.

This short teaser is much more than a snowboard video tease… its a piece of art created by Travis Robb. TR, as he’s known on the squamish wiffle course, has been pushing the envelope of snowboard documentaries for a few years now. TR’s at it again and The Storming looks to be some next level shit.

For those who enjoy a good race.

There hasn’t been much video production going on with the skiing side of things here in British Columbia’s west coast since the Heavy Hitting days. Quite strange considering most of the athletes featured in ski movies today live here, and tons of content is captured on our mountains year after year yet the filmers go off with the beauty shots they own and produce it elsewhere. What do we get, credit at the end of a movie? Thats not going to pay the bills… But things are starting to happen, there’s a few local projects in the works and a good one is on deck. Enter Dentrite Studios. Based in Whistler these guys have the skills, the style and the work ethic to succeed here at home. Without help from the corporate giant, they spent the past season working with the regions most underground, talented and calculated skiers, some of whom don’t even have sponsors. This is the real deal and I’m pumped to see the feature film this fall. Here’s the trailer for Out of the Shadows

This has to be one of the most beautiful videos I’ve seen on youtube… I wasn’t sure how to categorize this one, is it sports? Is it real? Here’s some words from the man himself, Guillaume Nery, “To clarify: this movie is A FICTION AND AN ARTISTIC PROJECT. I don’t claim to have reached the bottom of the hole (202m) without rope and fins, as the world record in no-fins discipline is 95m.. We made this movie to show another approach in freediving videos. We wanted to express the strenght of the elements water-earth-air and the sensations of freedom, harmony, exploration. Shot with a canon 5D mark II.”

Check out the moves in super slow mow, seems nuts to me

The 3D Experiment by Todd Jones originally posted at tetongravity

Thursday May 13th, 2010
Stevens Pass, Washington

James Cameron has predicted that 3D will replace 2D as the standard, mainstream format for film, television and online content in less than 25 years.

Cameron says, “Creating only good 3D content will be critical to swelling the market as bad experiences will make audiences wary of spending on 3D next time. They are being asked to pay a higher premium for a premium experience, so the quality always needs to be maintained.”

A few weeks ago a conversation about 3D technology took place in the headquarters of Teton Gravity Research.  TGR has always tried to push the limits of new technology. We shot the first ever commercial ski footage on the RED camera a few years ago when that came out. We worked with V.I.O to develop a functional action sports POV camera years ago.  Now it was time to start talking about 3D. We had one main shoot left for our new film Light the Wick. We spent the next few weeks going through a crash course in 3D filmmaking. 100’s of phone calls and hours of internet research later, we found a 3D technology partner who believe in our project and had the equipment to make it happen.

Five days ago, Josh Nielsen, Dustin Handley and myself loaded the rigs and drove 12 hours northwest to Stevens Pass to connect with Sammy Carlson, John Spriggs, and Byron Wells.  Jason Goodman from 21st Century 3D and his assistant Pedro met us with crates of gear. The plan was to exit the 2D world we have worked in for 15 years and enter the space of the third dimension. We began working through the technical and physical challenges we would face.  How do we move the rig around the mountain? How do we get the camera in the helicopter? What mounts can hold the weight of the camera?

We retooled different plates and mounts, worked outside the box and figured out how to make it all work.

Three days later, we have all breathed a sigh of relief. The experiment is working and the results are amazing. The shots are popping off the screen. This is one of the more exciting film projects I have been involved with in a long time. It will be amazing to see this segment on the big screen. I think people will experience something never before seen in the snow universe.

Our camera rig is about $500,000 put in a $2,700,000 heli. These are some expensive toys.

Here are some photos:

Todd Jones tuning in the 3D camera

Spriggs sessioning one of the features while being filmed from the heli

From Left to Right: Dustin, Todd, Pedro, Josh, and Jason.

This medium length edit is worth a watch