Everyone has seen the dramatic photos and movies of extreme skiers jumping off cliffs. Where did this adrenalin rushing sport begin? The history of extreme skiing is depicted in the movie “Steep” by Director Mark Obenhaus where he documents the history of big-mountain skiing, by mixing archival footage, interviews and a fresh footage of beautiful powder snow skiing.
"Steep" documents extreme skiing the way "Riding Giants" did surfing and "Dogtown and Z Boys" did skateboarding.
"There's a wonderful tale in how a band of skiers left the confines of the resort and went into the back country and invented a sport," Obenhaus said. "What to me said we could make a film about it is when we found there was a beginning."
The beginning of extreme skiing for Obenhaus was in 1971, when an unknown skier named Bill Briggs climbed alone to the summit of Grand Teton, above Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and skied 6,000 feet to its base in an epic, five-hour descent. No film footage of the feat exists - only a handful of aerial photographs, taken the day after, show Briggs' tracks and prove his tale.
From there, "Steep" travels to Chamonix, France, where "The Blizzard of Ahhhs" directed by Greg Stump made Glen Plake a legend. The film’s broadcast to the American audience awakened Americans to what was going on and created an appetite for extreme skiing," Obenhaus said.
Next, “Steep” follows Doug Coombs to Alaska, where unique conditions make unbelievably steep terrain skiable, and where Coombs created a new Mecca for heli-skiing. Coombs died in a skiing accident in La Grave, France, in 2006, not long after Obenhaus interviewed him.
"It's very clear in the film that there are sacrifices, huge sacrifices, in this sport," Obenhaus said.
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