So coronavirus cancelled your ski season, and you’re stuck at home for the foreseeable future. Unless you’re one of the lucky few* who has immediate access to touring, you’ve probably got a lot of free time on your (recently washed) hands. Sure, you could use the time to learn a new hobby, work out at home or at least wash your socks. But if you can’t stop thinking about skiing, we’ve got your fix. Here’s some of our favorite free ski videos to feed the stoke machine and keep your spirits high.
Many people have called Eric Pollard´s Drawn From Here the movie of the year.
Eric Pollard’s Drawn From Here was a highlight of this year’s film season, chronicling not only the ski pioneer’s injuries and comeback, but also his visionary approach to both skiing and art, and how the two influence each other. Pollard’s artwork is featured in our 2019 Book of Ski Stories. Other standout personal projects this year included Sammy Carlson’s Over Time, Brady Perron and Phil Casabon’s Nuance, and Tanner Hall’s Ring the Alarm.
The Collective showcases the talented Faction team in their various elements from the steeps to the streets.
As far as film companies, Level 1 Productions currently has their first nine years of ski films up on Vimeo for free. Matchstick Productions also has a collection of their ski movies on Vimeo. Faction’s The Collective and This is Home are both available online for free, and Teton Gravity has collected their best free online content here. And don't forget the Legs of Steel/Völkl team effort 121, or Chris Benchetler's groovy collaboration with the Grateful Dead, Fire on the Mountain.
Swerve into the future with The Bunch´s El Nour.
The X Games Real Ski edits that dropped earlier this week are pure, undiluted, blistering street heat. Seriously, who opens an urban segment with a dub 12? Speaking of street, The Bunch swerved El Nour onto our servers last week, and have several of their older films online as well. If swervy skiing isn’t your thing, you can get your old school (2009 is old school now?) afterbang dose from Simon Dumont and Tom Wallisch's recent throwback edit, Resurrection. For hard street and backcountry skiing with a documentary flair, check out Ahmet Dadali's Euro VanVentures.
Take a trip up the Aiguille du Midi with Nikolai Schirmer in his latest webisode.
From the Youtube world, Nikolai Schirmer’s channel is a source of constant freeride stoke. For the ski-mountaineering inclined, Cody Townsend’s The Fifty documents his attempt to climb and ski all 50 Classic Ski Descents in North America. Aymar Navarro’s South Lines film and series showcases South America’s best freeride. Even though he’s a snowboarder, Xavier de la Rue offers safety and efficiency tips for riders operating in remote mountain environments in his How to XV.
Kiernan and Deven Fagan go head-to-head in the semifinals of the Utah SLVSH Cup.
And of course, there’s always the ridiculously simple, endlessly entertaining SLVSH, who are currently wrapping up a young-gun SLVSH Cup in Utah.
Join a motley French crew on an extraordinary Himalayan adventure in Zabardast.
If you like big mountains, high speeds and off-the-radar adventures, check out some of my personal favorites, including Jeremie Heitz’s La Liste, Pakistan adventure diary Zabardast, the bikepacking sufferfest Ice and Palms, and Tof Henry’s Born in Chamonix.
Nothing fills an afternoon at home quite like Candide Thovex´s various exploits on film.
No list of movies and edits would be complete without Candide Thovex. From his feature-length film Few Words, to his internet-breaking One of Those Days videos, and that time he decided skiing on snow was just too easy, no one else commands our attention quite like him. In fact, you should probably disregard everything else here, and just watch some of the old Candide Kamera edits if you haven’t seen them before.
*Note: If you’re one of the lucky few who does have immediate access to touring, please be exceptionally careful. As medical services are currently overwhelmed, you don’t want to be that asshole who breaks his arm in the backcountry, and takes a doctor’s time and a hospital bed away from a potentially dying coronavirus patient.