AndreyaZvonarHi BigPurp. I disagree. I found it ostentatious and think that the skiing fell short of everything from La Liste 1. Furthermore, it fell into the trope (normally seen with TGR) of European/American skiers going to distant/third-world countries as a way to commercialize the production, as well as the trope of "mountains are unknown and dangerous". In all, it glorified poor decision-making, lucky escapes, and Red Bull athletes as pioneers. Don't forget that Mika will never be able to ski normally because of his accident - yet somehow, one is meant to leave the theatre being inspired? If not inspired, at least stoked? If you think the goal was to educate (as opposed to just showcase good skiing), I would argue that through the above glorification more harm will come than good. I left the video with disdain and bitterness towards how lightly a life-changing spinal injury was portrayed.
With that being said, I think La Liste 1 is one of the best ski movies of the past decade, both in terms of story and in terms of raw skiing. Probably the best big-mountain skiing I have seen since SethMo. The crew is dope and Sam A. is undoubtedly the unsung GOAT of the industry.
I agree that the skiing if you take only the skiing was more impressive in La Liste 1, but taking into consideration the location and unknown quantity, the skiing is incredibly impressive. I think that the crew and everyone seemed very respectful toward the locals, but I wasn't on that trip, so I don't know. I agree that the decision-making may not have been the best, but I don't see how better decisions could have been made given the lack of knowledge. I think they might have been able to realize that the conditions in Peru were not good. They went for an objective, realized it was unattainable given the knowledge and conditions, and backed off. By backing off, they skied more attainable objectives in the Kakorams instead of waiting to try to ski the 6000 meter objective. I feel for Mika, a spinal chord injury is my worst nightmare, and I agree that I did not feel uplifted seeing him ski at the end, but instead, I felt sad that he was injured. Skiing is worth living for, it's not worth dying for or by extension being permanently injured that way. We all take risks, and the risk on that(skiing an ice field at 50+ degrees) was too much. I think that the footage of Sam A skiing that spine and then seeing it all having slid just a short while later is a great leap forward in the education of what skiing is like at these elevations on that kind of snowpack. I could see how you view it as ostentatious, but if the reason you feel it was ostentatious was that they pushed it too far unsafely, and someone was injured as a result, then I think that you could apply that same logic to every ski movie where people are pushing boundaries which is what almost all of them want to be. Watching someone try a new trick in a SLVSH match is dangerous too, and someone could get paralyzed that way, or killed. Same with Big Mountain lines in AK, or anyone skiing risky lines really.
