Street Skiing in Nelson, BC
December 1, 2011 4:32 PM   Subscribe

Street Skiing in Nelson, BC. Gorgeous cinematography of skiing down the snowy climbs and alleyways in city of Nelson BC. Watch the sparks fly. [Vimeo]
posted by dobie (38 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Shot by Dave Mossop of Sherpas Cinema, and starring JP Auclair, one of the most legendary freeskiers in the world.
posted by dobie at 4:33 PM on December 1, 2011


Well done, if a bit heavy on the setting shots and light on the actual freeskiing.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:44 PM on December 1, 2011


I'm not sure what it is about this kind of video that makes me think "camera commercial".

It is pretty, though. Don't get me wrong.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 4:47 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Fantastic. They dragged out the teasing intro, not really showing the skiing, for about as long as I could take. But once they actually started showing the moves it totally paid off.

Although it would be cool to see a rougher, less stylized version.

And the ending was great.
posted by auto-correct at 4:50 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I remember when I used to like skiing.
posted by Gankmore at 4:54 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Rossland/Trail would be a better choice for this. Nelson is really quite flat by comparison.
posted by davidpriest.ca at 5:04 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I live in Nelson. That bus goes right by my house, and now I keep looking for a guy with skis.
posted by sauril at 5:04 PM on December 1, 2011 [3 favorites]


It is cool to see something new in the ski porn field.

I know Nelson is cooler, but the film does claim to show Trail, not Nelson (though at least the bus was shot in Nelson). All the establishing shots are certainly of Trail (featuring giant smokestacks).
posted by ssg at 5:05 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I totally skii'd every winter in the city when I was growing up, because it's a really quick way of transportation when roads are iced up. Much faster than even a bike in the summer because there's fewer people and cars. Good times!
posted by rainy at 5:27 PM on December 1, 2011


Well BC ski videos certainly have a bit more polish than the snowboarding ones I'm familiar with.
posted by Hoopo at 5:43 PM on December 1, 2011


I know Nelson is cooler, but the film does claim to show Trail, not Nelson (though at least the bus was shot in Nelson). All the establishing shots are certainly of Trail (featuring giant smokestacks).

Yeah, I was wondering about that, too, when I saw the stacks. Such a pretty winter scene, you can almost smell the lead in the air.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:55 PM on December 1, 2011


I could do that but I don't want to.
posted by Zagabog at 6:21 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


One of the neat things about Canada are all of these little cities and towns, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, neat and tidy and interesting little oasis's in the middle of the deep forest, nestled in a craggy mountain range, on a forgotten shingle shore, on an island in a river.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:24 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


neat and tidy

Clearly, you've never been to Trail, a town based on one huge smelter.
posted by ssg at 6:31 PM on December 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


A weekend in Prince George or Fort St. John will cure you of such romantic notions.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:36 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


No, compared to New Bedford or Gainesville, they're still neat and tidy. Maybe not Norweigian North-Coast neat and tidy, but still... better'n Lowell.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:46 PM on December 1, 2011


I was just as amazed to discover that BC has these grim industrial towns nestled in some of the most beautiful scenery you'll ever see.
Mine is a minority view I'm sure but I really like this juxtaposition of the messy and the pristine, the modern and the eternal. The Lafarge concrete plant at the mouth of the Bow Valley on the Alberta side of the Rockies is another nice example of this.
posted by Flashman at 6:49 PM on December 1, 2011


The video is amazing btw. Thanks for posting.
posted by Flashman at 6:53 PM on December 1, 2011


Most towns in the BC interior used to be grim industrial towns. Some of them have lost the industry they grew up around, but some of them are still grim. Pretty much every town in this area was based on timber or mining at the beginning.
posted by ssg at 6:55 PM on December 1, 2011


Actually this is one of the best sport videos I've ever seen.
posted by Flashman at 6:57 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I literally went slack-jawed, open-mouthed as this thing opened up. What an insane, beautifully gutsy guy, what a great photographer.

Almost didn't click in here—"oh yeah, another video, ho-hum." I'm sure glad I did.

Thx for posting.

an' I like dirty little towns, too
posted by dancestoblue at 7:08 PM on December 1, 2011


I quote my six-year-old son:

Woah.

Woah!

WOAH!


Woah, indeed, little dude.
posted by bpm140 at 7:19 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Who's got the outtakes?
posted by bricoleur at 7:34 PM on December 1, 2011


Well done. Nice to have a limitless budget for rock skis, and an unlimited vertical drop via the edit suite, but the creativity here supercedes any such minor quibbles. Its a dream run, stitched together from the fabric of reality in an enchanting new way.

(For the geographically and reading challenged, this pastiche is actually inclusive of 3 different Kootenay towns, as is stated in the link ... And it all goes down on the streets of Trail, Rossland and Nelson in crappy, grey, wet, gravelly conditions.)
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 8:08 PM on December 1, 2011


Fucking. Awesome.
posted by eddydamascene at 9:11 PM on December 1, 2011


Unreal.

There is truly nowhere else on earth like the Kootenays, from the gritty little industrial towns (Trail, Castlegar) to the New Agey hippie towns (Nelson and most points north up the Slocan) to the Doukhobors and Quakers and many other freak-flag fliers in their little enclaves. This thing somehow caught the tone of the whole strange Kootenay trip in four minutes.

Un-fucking-real.
posted by gompa at 10:06 PM on December 1, 2011 [6 favorites]


I honestly thought all Canadians commute to work this way.
posted by dhartung at 10:21 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Very well done. I may have to get that movie.
posted by gen at 12:27 AM on December 2, 2011


I think I prefer my ski porn a little more vanilla, a little more champagne-powder-and-blue-sky.

But this has got grit, I'll say that for it.
posted by nat at 3:14 AM on December 2, 2011


I hardly ever click on videos. I'm glad I clicked on this one. Sauril, please tell me that bus really says UPHILL as its route.
posted by theora55 at 4:47 AM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Awesome video, but holy moly, Wadsworth constant is in full effect.
posted by kcds at 4:53 AM on December 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


Looking forward to second view. First time through was a long time wondering if the skiing justified the choreography.

It did. Wow.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:14 AM on December 2, 2011


Damn . . . that's rich.
posted by eggman at 7:18 AM on December 2, 2011


Gorgeous video, really enjoyed it. The sparks coming off his skis when he went over the asphalt made me wonder about the equipment.
posted by marginaliana at 7:30 AM on December 2, 2011


please tell me that bus really says UPHILL as its route.

It sure does.
posted by ssg at 11:17 AM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


For those talking about location: the film starts in Trail, ends in Nelson, and I think there's some Rossland in the middle.
posted by CCBC at 12:12 PM on December 2, 2011


Accidently shot 2 weeks too late with a post on this. Here's more if anyone is interested.

This scene (which has been making the rounds virally [previously]) is excerpted from All.I.Can, winner of the Banff Mountain Film Festival 2011's Best Feature Length Mountain Film award, The Montreal IF3 Film Festival 2011's awards for Best Documentary and Most Innovative Visual FX, Best Ski Film at Adventure Film Festival - Boulder and Best Film of the Year at Adventure Film Festival - Copenhagen, and consensus "super-gnar movie".

The product of over a decade of collaboration and two years of intensive travel by high school friends and film autuers Malcolm Sangster, Dave Mossop and Eric Crosland, it has been lauded by ESPN as "the best movie in skiing" and declared the "new benchmark in ski movie cinematography", if the laundry list of awards wasn't convincing enough. Behind all that beauty is a pretty good environmental message too.

Sherpa Cinema is known and respected for its innovative time-lapse photography and expert use of soundtracking (put to use hilarious, on occasion). They're also well-known for their film "The Fine Line", created in partnership with the Canadian Avalanche Association -- and in memory of four close friends they lost senior year of high school -- to promote avalanche safety education in an engaging, stimulating fashion, as well as their short, related educational series AvySnacks.

Should you wished to be teased: three more clips.

Should you wished to be wowed: R3TURN, a 3 part series that takes "Winter Is Coming" to a whole new level.
posted by Chipmazing at 12:12 AM on December 14, 2011 [6 favorites]


I hardly ever click on videos. I'm glad I clicked on this one. Sauril, please tell me that bus really says UPHILL as its route.
posted by theora55 at 5:47 AM on December 2 [1 favorite +] [!]


Theora, as ssg says, it sure does. That's an area of town which is, unsurprisingly, uphill from downtown and the lake.

Thanks for the background details, Chimpmazing.
posted by sauril at 8:21 AM on December 14, 2011


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