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BY KAREN BOSSICK Some might have thought winter started on Monday when Galena Lodge logged 12 inches of snow. But, in reality, “Winter Starts Now.” Warren Miller Entertainment’s 72nd film “Winter Starts Now” will open at the Sun Valley Opera House at 7 p.m. tonight—Wednesday, Oct. 27. Two encore screenings will start at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, and 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29.
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Jim Ryan gets air in Sun Valley. PHOTO: Cam McLeod/Courtesy of Warren Miller Entertainment
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Tickets are available at https://warrenmiller.com/events/sun-valley-opera-house-0 Sun Valley—named North America’s top ski resort for the second year in a row by SKI Magazine readers—gets a pretty big chunk of turf in the 90-minute movie. Jim Ryan, who can lay across the groomers, two-time Olympic skier Kaylin Richardson and big mountain skier Madison Rose Ostergren take on Sun Valley, fast tracking down Sun Valley’s corduroy and threading their way through The Burn. The film spotlights Sun Valley Ski Patrol’s females, as well, in a segment that features Hannah Baybutt, Kristen Brevik and Nicole Jorgenson. That segment includes plenty of sunrise shots, the rush of throwing bombs into The Bowls, and a chase after the film’s three speedsters that ends in laughs over dogs at Irving’s Red Hots.
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Connery Lundin enjoys a day of heli-skiing in Alaska. PHOTO: Matty Hardy/Courtesy of Warren Miller Entertainment
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“We get off the lifts and it’s go, go, go,” enthuses Ryan. A handful of other Sun Valley talent, including Kim Schneider, Ben Parker and Karl Fostvedt, had a hand in editing and providing footage for the movie. The film takes viewers through the Rocky Mountains, on a voyage to New England and up the coast of Alaska as it features such skiers as big mountain skier Marcus Caston, freestyle skier Jonny Moseley, “Long Underwear” podcaster Amie Engerbretson and speed riding legend JT Holmes. It journeys to the highest peak in North America and to Mom and Pop ski areas, such as Jackson’s Snow King, that have stood their ground against the rise of mega ski resorts.
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Amie Engerbreten, a second-generation pro skier, kicks it up a notch at Squaw Valley—make that the newly renamed Palisades Tahoe. COURTESY: Warren Miller Entertainment
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It zeroes in on Alaska’s Prince William Sound, where the only fresh tracks belong to bears, and on lobster cracking in Maine. It features Steamboat Springs’ Howelsen Hill—the oldest continually operating ski hill in North America and a community hill that has served as the training ground for 96 Olympians. It depicts adaptive skiers slogging up 20,310-foot Denali to get turns on North America’s tallest mountain. And it features Jonny Moseley skiing the Moseley bumps at Lake Tahoe and an afternoon at Solitude just 30 miles as the crow flies from downtown Salt Lake City. And it features alpine carving—the perfect antidote for old dudes at Turner Mountain in Libby, Mont. The film has its prerequisite powder shots, marshmallow snow busting and big mountain skiing. But it also shows off the unexpected, like skiing on a skateboard or clipping the branches of a dead tree. “If we learned anything from last year’s most unusual winter, it’s that skiing and snowboarding and life in the mountains provide a release and a reprieve and a reminder of what matters most,” said Micah Abrams, vice president of Content for Warren Miller Entertainment. “Every year, we celebrate that moment when you can see your breath and realize that you’re only a few weeks away from your first run of the year.”
The annual film tour kick ed off in Orem, Utah on Oct. 20 and will make its way to more than 150 cities across the country before ending up in Dec. 11 in Portland, Maine. DID YOU KNOW? There are 48 films in the Warren Miller film library dating back to 1961.
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