Anyone watch Return To Sender?

Depends what you're into. There isn't any park or urban. There is a ton of charging in natural terrain and insane spinning and flipping. Out of four principal skiers in the movie, 3 were nominated for skier of the year at IF3 (out of 5 nominees). That might tell you something. Sam Kuch has won Skier of the Year for his performance in both of the big film festivals so far this year. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Loved it it’s exactly the style I’m into
I wanna get into park rails more
but natural features have always been what’s in my heart

Do it. The skiing is probably the best out of any ski movie ever. It's my favorite movie I've seen this year. Sam is also insane and it's worth the $10 or whatever it is.

looks pretty sick not gonna lie, havent seen it yet but you cant really go wrong with a matchstick production...

What's the soundtrack like?

pinkcamo1000What's the soundtrack like?

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1FHabUw69kFCb6UoK4O7by

aidanaughtonyou cant really go wrong with a matchstick production...

Ruin and rose though

fatbastardDepends what you're into. There isn't any park or urban. There is a ton of charging in natural terrain and insane spinning and flipping. Out of four principal skiers in the movie, 3 were nominated for skier of the year at IF3 (out of 5 nominees). That might tell you something. Sam Kuch has won Skier of the Year for his performance in both of the big film festivals so far this year. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I've seen it too and I agree but if you enjoy big tricks in the back country this is the movie for you.

It's by far the most interesting ski movie with the best skiing in my opinion. That is if you like crazy tricks of natural features and big lines.

Saw it and to be honest, I wasn't overly impressed. The film quality and shots were badass, and there was plenty of impressive skiing, but it was super drawn out and had it's classic MSP humor in it, which is getting old. I feel like this was finally their chance to slim down a movie and just make it a ski porn banger for once, but they missed out on it. Just my opinion.

Great film, all backcountry so it does get old after a while. The ender was amazing though

Do it.

I thought it was absolutely sick. If you like watching people mix tricks off of cliffs into lines, this was insane. I also always love to see Squaw footage. I love inbounds footage at places like Jackson and Squaw. I will also say that all four of the main guys killed it. I had never seen Karl ski big lines, and he was awesome. Sam and Logan were nuts too. Abma was great, which goes without saying.

I will be buying this one on blu ray at some point too.

GMBSaw it and to be honest, I wasn't overly impressed. The film quality and shots were badass, and there was plenty of impressive skiing, but it was super drawn out and had it's classic MSP humor in it, which is getting old. I feel like this was finally their chance to slim down a movie and just make it a ski porn banger for once, but they missed out on it. Just my opinion.

I totally agree. Super impressed that they finally got rid of most of their old athletes, so nice to see some fresh blood in the big mountain scene. Lots of really good athletes out there that aren’t getting a chance because the same 10 guys are getting filmed into their late 30’s. And for gods sake stop with the slow paced humor and same exact 80’s hairmetal soundtrack they’ve had for 15 years.

But the skiing was amazing, super impressive. Glad to see Sam get some recognition, ridiculously nice kid, definitely the future. Guess the msp editing formula just gets old.

Just watched it. Best Movie I've seen in a while! Unreal skiing, well shot and i liked the structure. You won't regret it

Haven’t seen it yet. Definitely looking forward to watching it! It seems like Sam Kuch is the next Nick McNutt. Mad props to him for what I’ve seen so far, stoked on the exposure he’s getting.

pow314, so nice to see some fresh blood in the big mountain scene. Lots of really good athletes out there that aren’t getting a chance because the same 10 guys are getting filmed into their late 30’s.

I understand what you mean, but part of the problem is that there are more great skiers than there are spots in helicopters with the bigger film companies. Look at a guy like Kye Peterson, he has two of the best parts of the last 10 years, in All.I.Can and Numinous, but he does not even have footage every year. There simply are not many companies that take people to AK and places like that. Guys like Hoji and Abma and Sage are still among the best in the world, they are deserving of their slots. I just wish there were MORE opportunities for guys in the big mountain scene. I know there are things released online and instagram and other things, it is different from 15 years ago, but as someone who has watched ski movies since the early 90's the fact is that there simply are NOT many companies making movies. Over the last 25 years there have been far more surf videos made than ski videos. Every month Surfing and Surfer used to review new surf videos, in skiing Powder/Freeze/Freeskiing would review all the videos of the year in one issue.

Like I said, I love seeing the guys who have been killing it for a long time, I would just like to see more opportunity overall for big mountain skiers to get filmed. It was great to see Logan Pehota get a long part. He has had some video parts before, he killed it in Numinous, but a guy with that level of talent and some solid contest results has a tough time getting footage every year, which is a shame.

I thought Berman made a really good point about BC riders in one of the latest Level 1 podcast.

Basically said that its super easy to bring new riders to park or urban shoots, because everything moves really quickly trips can be very short and "mission" oriented and there's relatively less equipment needed (compared to BC)

Heli spots or BC trips however typically last a month, take tons of coordination and are just generally higher stakes. This means they like sticking with a familiar and smaller crew. Unfortunetly, from the view standpoint, this often means the same riders, similar styles etc.

I saw it last night. MSP has always made my favorite movies and I was excited as I thought this was gonna be them getting outta the funk they've been in the last few years.

I was disappointed. The skiing was super sick. They did show some shots more than needed tho. The soundtrack was horrible which probably did the most harm. I was not a fan of the in depth view into all athletes. They tried really hard to show they were all friends which came off as cheap. Also there was half as many trips as they used to do. Maybe they dont get the same funding they used to or the production team is getting busy with their adult lives? I think they need to take a tip from level one and get out before they become a licensed brand.

snowmosexualI saw it last night. MSP has always made my favorite movies and I was excited as I thought this was gonna be them getting outta the funk they've been in the last few years.

I was disappointed. The skiing was super sick. They did show some shots more than needed tho. The soundtrack was horrible which probably did the most harm. I was not a fan of the in depth view into all athletes. They tried really hard to show they were all friends which came off as cheap. Also there was half as many trips as they used to do. Maybe they dont get the same funding they used to or the production team is getting busy with their adult lives? I think they need to take a tip from level one and get out before they become a licensed brand.

I agree. Was way longer than it needed to be and they could've left out the cheesy MSP humor.

GrandThingsI thought Berman made a really good point about BC riders in one of the latest Level 1 podcast.

Basically said that its super easy to bring new riders to park or urban shoots, because everything moves really quickly trips can be very short and "mission" oriented and there's relatively less equipment needed (compared to BC)

Heli spots or BC trips however typically last a month, take tons of coordination and are just generally higher stakes. This means they like sticking with a familiar and smaller crew. Unfortunetly, from the view standpoint, this often means the same riders, similar styles etc.

100%.

I will have to check out that podcast. You can take a bunch of guys to Mammoth in May for Superpark and get a bunch of good footage without TOO much risk, and without too much time or expense.

If you take guts to AK for a month and get 10 days of filming that is insanely lucky. It is also insanely expensive. If you take an unproven guy to AK or BC for a trip and he gets a chance and does not produce good footage that is a HUGE financial waste. This was actually not quite as big of a deal when I started watching ski movies, because more of the footage was either inbounds at Jackson or Squaw, or Tahoe/Jackson/Utah backcountry. As things changed there was less and less of that type of footage, it was either AK or interior BC or coastal BC with cats and helis, which costs lots of money. I think that if there was more big mountain inbounds footage you would see more of the less famous guys. They might make it into an AK heli, or they might not, but filming a guy doing Schmidiots carries far less risk than taking someone to Haines for a month.

One of the things I really liked about Return to Sender was the inbounds footage. I love to see that. I hope to go to AK someday, and I should be able to. I left Tahoe more than a decade ago and I now make the kind of money where I could do that. What sucks is that the half decade I spent in Tahoe skiing 130 days a year was when I was skiing at my best, but I could not afford to go to AK. Now I ski 35-40 days a year and I'm not the skier I was back then, and it is within my grasp. It is an unfortunate catch 22, you can't afford to go to AK when you are at your best.

It's always rare to see new backcountry film guys because "new" and "backcountry" aren't really two things that go together that well. Skiing backcountry even just for recreation, let alone doing insane shit like what Sam does into pow and off cliffs, takes sooo many years to learn how to do. Figuring out what kinda features work for certain tricks, what you can land and what you'll wad out on, learning how to fight regular human instincts and chuck yourself off what seems like 100feet to flat while flipping and spinning some fuckin crazy rodeo 7 into a spine landing with 2000ft of mountain left in the line (that thing he 7'd that Markus Eder flat 3'd in ruin and rose). Even just getting around in deep snow if you've never had to do it before is super weird and so much work to be like, "oh hey lets just go over there and see what that spots like". That's kinda why you see all these dudes in their 30s that have the BC parts, cause it just takes a long time to learn how to do it. Plus, that shit is SO fucking extreme. Some of Kye's clips in Numinous are so extremely massive that the snow, your body, the terrain everything needs to be completely ideal so he can do that 60 foot switch 9 at the end. So some years I feel like it's fine if some dudes don't have as many clips in stuff. It's a long game, and doing corked ass mega sends is sooooo dangerous, and it's like a rare blessing if the conditions work out for you more than 5 times in a season. You'd also be surprised to see that even though it looks like pow in the video, the snows not always super great. Could have been no snow for 3 weeks and minus 20 and now everything is like 15cms of fresh on solid ass base. all the kinds of skiing right now are just insane. We're in a bit of a renaissance right now for sure.

idk if any of that made sense i've had too much espresso this morning.

dylansiggersIt's always rare to see new backcountry film guys because "new" and "backcountry" aren't really two things that go together that well. Skiing backcountry even just for recreation, let alone doing insane shit like what Sam does into pow and off cliffs, takes sooo many years to learn how to do. Figuring out what kinda features work for certain tricks, what you can land and what you'll wad out on, learning how to fight regular human instincts and chuck yourself off what seems like 100feet to flat while flipping and spinning some fuckin crazy rodeo 7 into a spine landing with 2000ft of mountain left in the line (that thing he 7'd that Markus Eder flat 3'd in ruin and rose). Even just getting around in deep snow if you've never had to do it before is super weird and so much work to be like, "oh hey lets just go over there and see what that spots like". That's kinda why you see all these dudes in their 30s that have the BC parts, cause it just takes a long time to learn how to do it. Plus, that shit is SO fucking extreme. Some of Kye's clips in Numinous are so extremely massive that the snow, your body, the terrain everything needs to be completely ideal so he can do that 60 foot switch 9 at the end. So some years I feel like it's fine if some dudes don't have as many clips in stuff. It's a long game, and doing corked ass mega sends is sooooo dangerous, and it's like a rare blessing if the conditions work out for you more than 5 times in a season. You'd also be surprised to see that even though it looks like pow in the video, the snows not always super great. Could have been no snow for 3 weeks and minus 20 and now everything is like 15cms of fresh on solid ass base. all the kinds of skiing right now are just insane. We're in a bit of a renaissance right now for sure.

idk if any of that made sense i've had too much espresso this morning.

Just because I'm a sucker for orange name posts...

Any particularly fun/interesting/scary stories of newcomers to the backcountry? How about riders you were impressed that took to the new terrain super quickly? Just curious

GrandThingsJust because I'm a sucker for orange name posts...

Any particularly fun/interesting/scary stories of newcomers to the backcountry? How about riders you were impressed that took to the new terrain super quickly? Just curious

lol ummmm....nothing really like scary, usually people that are new are timid. Andy Parry on a sled was great. Most people don't understand why they cant land stuff when they are in pow for the first time and stomp something completely bolts but fall over. The last video I put out the filmer I worked with is like a big MTB filmer guy and had only skied like 20 days in his life so I would set the boot-pack and carry the camera bag and stuff for him so we could get around. We shot the whole video like 500 feet from the resort boundary so we could make it work. Another fun fact LSM lived in Fernie for a whole year doing pretty much nothing but ski pow and have fun and then whammy 3 years later he's got like 3 parts in the Level 1 movie again skiing pow. I seen it comin a mile away

I really liked watching it for the skiing, but the narration really took away from the skiing IMO. MSP did make a sweet film with 4 bros and their bros skiing at a very high level. I just didnt need the narrator constantly telling me how sick Sam Kuch is, its like "I know, bro. I'm watching him right now he is insane' . Or Mark Abma is so old! Its a miracle he is walking, let alone skiing with all these boys!

Overall good movie though. Great skiing and interesting athlete segments. Karl and Logan really had standout segments IMO. Other than the narration I thought it was a great movie.

It was entertaining, I bit too long IMO.

Nothing really stood out, not something I need to see again.

chris.goodhueIt was entertaining, I bit too long IMO.

Nothing really stood out, not something I need to see again.

Definitely too long. Definitely could've shortened it, especially with only 4 skiers and by cutting out a lot of unnecessary narration/shots.

GrandThingsJust because I'm a sucker for orange name posts...

Any particularly fun/interesting/scary stories of newcomers to the backcountry? How about riders you were impressed that took to the new terrain super quickly? Just curious

I don't have firsthand knowledge, I was only a Squaw ski bum at the time, not connected to the industry, but Jonny Moseley went to AK for the first time with TGR in spring 1999. He had won the gold the winter before, but he was also well known around Squaw for destroying big lines and hitting huge cliffs. His AK segment appears in The Realm, TGR's release from the fall of 1999. He absolutely killed it, the buzz was that while everyone knew he was a truly great big mountain skier and one of the best skiers in the world, no one thought he would kill it that hard. But there were supposedly some funny moments. Allegedly he would be looking up at a face he wanted to ski and say things like 'I want to throw a 360 mute off that cliff' and the guides and other pros would respond 'that cliff is around 120 feet, you might want to find a different one' or something like that. That segment still holds up today, Moseley throws back flips off huge cliffs, straightlines AK peaks, and trades lines with Jeremy Nobis and Jeremy Jones. Moseley was one of the best ever, but it was funny to hear about the guides trying to get him to pull back. This is all hearsay, I had friends who knew some of the pros in Squaw well at that time, so I would believe the stories they told.

Everyone I know who has been there has said that the cliffs up there can be MUCH bigger than they look.