Steep: Glorifying extreme risk taking?

"I just want to get some exercise, have fun with my friends, ski powder, look at some beautiful scenery, and soak in the hot-tub afterwards."

Freakin' Brilliant!!! My take on it exactly!!!


"The smiles and the bottle after a fantastic day at Fairy Meadows"

Interesting interview in the January 2008 issue of Backcountry (p. 34):

Beacons, Burials, Boneheads
Avy Specialist Niko Weiss Sounds Off
By Ryan Stuart

[...clip...]

Q: We need to change our mindset then?

A: Yes, but we also have to change the way the message is delivered. The Canadian Avalanche Association did a social behavior study with their online avy course. They found that a huge number of respondents thought it was acceptable to be injured or killed as a result of their backcountry behavior. That tells us the sport is changing, and more and more people expect they are going to get caught in a slide.

Q: Why is that?

A: It's a result of the sensationalization of backcountry skiing by the media. The gear is so much better and so much better marketed. Movies make avy terrain look like no big deal. Gear manufacturers spend hundreds of millions on promoting extreme mountain sports in avy terrain. But how much is being spent on the safety side? A million maybe. The safety side is not keeping up. The manufacturers are not doing their part. Companies like Teton Gravity Research are the ones making it worse, and they're the ones that can make it better.

Q: How so?

A: Safety will only be successful if it is part of the culture. The only way you're going to influence people is if you get their idols to present the message. You get athletes to do a documentary of all the preparation and training they do--the skills they have--and you get them to tell about their near misses. You put it all together and make it part of the movie. But you can't call it a safety video. No one will watch a safety video.

[...clip...]

Interesting interview in the January 2008 issue of Backcountry (p. 34):

And a good job Steep did of reminding the viewer of the dangers, eh?

The avi footage in Iceland is sobering, especially given that it did not seem to be on an extremely steep slope.  Also the experienced guy cartwheeling down the run in Alaska after missing his first or second turn.

Here's another educational video:    revver.com/video/310519/a-dozen-more-turns/   for those who have not seen it yet.

The contrast between my own personal take on the movie and what's expressed in the reviews (there are a bunch) linked from here:
movies.go.com/steep/d914981/documentary

are pretty striking. It seems most reviewers have trouble empathizing with the experience of being in wild places and focus exclusively on the risks associated with those who push the envelope. I don't presently intend to ski lines as committing as many of those shown, but I can understand why, sans adrenaline, you'd want to.

STEEP is showing at the crest "cheap" theater up here in Shoreline if anybody else could not justify 9.75 to see it at the biggie theater. I suppose its worth 3 bucks, eh?

well the crest got my 3 bux...good diversion...reminded me of the big wave surfing film that stacy peralta made "riding giants"