by 4FRNT
Dec 2017
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1.5K views
This is the culmination of a multi-day filming session on The Turnagain Pass with skiers Joshua Randich and Wiley Miller. For a week in early February, we bet against all odds to score south facing spines, an aspect most consider off limits come spring. Few crews have ventured to AK to see what the locals are all about until now, and with a bit of luck and determination, our crew bagged what are some of the longest, most exposed, yet easy to access lines one can find just a few steps off the road.
"There are two types of Alaska ski trips you read about in ski magazines. There is the heli trip, where skiers hunker in a fishing village or backcountry lodge for weeks on end, “drinking it blue† waiting for weather windows in which they can safely fly to nearby summits and flash down formidable skiing lines in 15 seconds. And there is the hardcore backcountry camping trip, where adventurers rough it on a remote glacier, digging out tents when it snows and bagging peaks and checking off descents when it’s clear. Both sorts of outings, almost always, come to fruition in the springtime.
This is a different Alaska skiing story, one that takes place in the shadows cast by the North’s long nights, where locals drive old pick-ups to the trailhead, skin and climb for hours to ski film-worthy lines, and return in the dark, speaking hardly a word of what they just accomplished." - Derek Taylor, Freeskier Magazine
Principal Cinematography : Austin Ramaley
Additional Footage : Josh Randich, Wiley Miller, Matt Sterbenz, David Knutson
Editing : Jake Strassman
