My Pro Ski Bum Tour of North America 22/23

[charlesj]

I sort of fell into something kind of perfect. Was planning on skiing 20-30 days with Ikon Base and Indy Pass. Then I was offered a dream gig: get paid to document the hell out of the ski season on the road and someone else will edit it. Serialized adventure weekly starting around turkey time. My 2004 AWD minivan with 250k miles is where I normally sleep but the production company assures me they will cover heated places to sleep periodically. I will be skiing in Alberta, MT, ID, UT, CO, NM, SD, MI, WV, NC, NY, MA, VT, NH, ME and Quebec. Maybe Tahoe, Maybe PNW. Tuckerman for sure in April.

Normally I work behind the camera. Talent are the people in front of the camera. That's not a place I am drawn to but I am passionate about skiing and can yak ad nauseum about the minutiae. I will ski with (and shoot footage of) some very good skiers and some kids, interviews with lift ops, brewers, ski techs, makers of fine outerwear, bootfitters, salesfolk, orthopedic surgeons, servers, ski racers, tele skiers, back country snobs, maybe even a snowboarder.

So the yet to be named project (help!) will consist of some awesome skiing footage (if you are as good as you said you are,) yakkety yak with self and others and beauty shots/lots of time lapse. Have been adept with skis and cameras for many decades hopefully I can be interesting enough on camera to pull this off.

Most mags obsess about their quivers of skis. I'm more concerned with camera and lens quiver right now

[SKIP IN7RO]

So the yet to be named project (help!)

Travels with Charlie

[charlesj]

Ha! That general idea came up already!

Was thinking

Spry Nomad Goes Skiing Again

Curmudgeons Usually Ski Alone

No One Wants to Ski With a Masshole


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[~mikey b]

FKNA




you will come to California

[charlesj]

Probably


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[Djongo Unchained]

The Motherland didn't make the cut, huh.

Hope you reconsider...

[AK47bp]

Ha! That general idea came up already!

Was thinking

Spry Nomad Goes Skiing Again

Curmudgeons Usually Ski Alone

No One Wants to Ski With a Masshole


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“Charles in Charge”






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[charlesj]

The Motherland didn't make the cut, huh.

Hope you reconsider...

of course WY is on the list. See you there I hope

[snowaddict91]

Sounds like a dream season. Make sure to plan some turns in the flyover states on your way through to round out the experience.

[TurxSki]

...Normally I work behind the camera. Talent are the people in front of the camera...I am passionate about skiing and can yak ad nauseum about the minutiae. I will ski with (and shoot footage of) some very good skiers...will consist of some awesome skiing footage...Have been adept with skis and cameras for many decades, hopefully I can be interesting enough on camera to pull this off.

Are there any examples of stuff you've been involved with previously, out in the webland?


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[MakersTeleMark]

The Last of the Expense Account Ski Bums, starring Ron Fomo.

[doebedoe]

Sounds rad. Fucking congrats.

Give me a holler if you want to minivan camp in CO, grill out with patrol on the sunny cabin deck, or go for a ski tour.

[Djongo Unchained]

Good, didn't see it on the list. Give us a heads up when you plan on arriving and we'll pony up some camera courage and persuade some clucks to launch some hucks.

[charlesj]

Sounds like a dream season. Make sure to plan some turns in the flyover states on your way through to round out the experience.

I certainly will ski the flyover, I understand there is a lot of it between the mountains of East and West. Have skied a lot of the western MItten but haven't been to Bohemia in 15 years, never skied MN, WI, IL or IN. I will not drive from Jay or Whiteface until the Rockies without sampling some of the petite hills along the way. I prefer bigger mountains but I would rather ski a hill than not ski, hell I'd rather xc than not ski.

I grew up skiing 100 days a year mostly at Happy Valley in Alfred NY. It had 300' vertical and the school bus dropped me off there 5 days a week. On weekends the family would ski at the bigger hills of Upstate NY, sometimes VT. Among other things I want to capture the contrast between big mountain world class resort and the mom and pop local hills. I am very psyched about some of the more modest places on the Indy pass I have never skied.

[charlesj]

Are there any examples of stuff you've been involved with previously, out in the webland?


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Much of my work has been corporate stuff that isn't very exciting. I have worked on a few indy movies, editing the *video* in Breaking Up (Crowe and Hayek's first US movie,) shot and edited *video* in Chain of Desire, was camera operator for Empath one of the first HD features. In the mid eighties I worked on all 13 episodes of New Monkees (yes, it existed). Did you possibly attend the Arco Forum at JFK School of Gov't @ Hahvuhd 40 years ago? Did you see C-Span coming out of New England 30 years ago? Interesting and boring academic media from MIT in the 90s? Was a video engineer at NESN (New England Spahts Netwuhk) for a few years a long time ago. Did you see bad local cable commercials on Boston's South Shah 30 years ago? Some adjunct teaching and at the Int'l Film and Television Workshops at Rockport ME. The feathers in my cap are dusty, the brightest feathers were probably art and music video related. Had something at MOMA once. Won something prestigious from the American Film Institute a long time ago. Made a big freaking complicated art installation once because I had a great space and a few bucks.

to answer your question: I will post some links in the not too distant future

As far as skiing film/vid I dabbled as a kid with Super 8 film, In the 80s I shot some good stuff at Tuckerman Ravine (mostly time lapse) have shot a lot of dynamic stuff skiing close to other skiers. Usually this stuff never saw the light of day. As much as I like working with cameras, practicing my craft and acquiring good footage I frankly prefer skiing. I think I will have time to do both this season.

[charlesj]

doebedoe, djongo et al I will surely give you all a heads up

[Danno]

Yeah, happy to meet and ski with ya in Colorado.

[Mudfoot]

You list 14 states and 2 Canadian Provinces with 20-30 days of skiing from pretty much coast to coast. Your math appears to add up to way, way more time traveling than skiing, unless you have a private jet. I have some experience with extended Canadian, CO, MT. UT, ID, Ikon tours and can tell you that ski, drive, ski, drive, ski, drive weeks on winter roads gets old pretty fast and made me feel like often I was just missing the good skiing at many of the areas we hit. I respect your ambitions and you will undoubtedly produce fodder for a great movie and articles, but you are biting off one hell of a winter on the road. Maybe I'm just getting too old to go hard core anymore. Looking forward to your dispatches during the season. May the snow gods favor your endeavor with storm chasing luck and clear skies when you need them.

[charlesj]

Can't wait to meet and ski with you mags. I think I can keep up with most. Part of this project will invariably be about skiing and aging, a subject with which I have a great deal of familiarity. In addition to historic descents and radical adventures on mountains I want to talk with other elderly skiers about how they/we keep going into our 60s and beyond. Need to get your children and grandchildren skiing and verbally expressing the extreme joy they have skiing. Exploring how people who are passionate about skiing find the balance with all that other stuff that matters is on my agenda too. The serialization of this project will provide the opportunity to explore all sorts of things that are at the heart of skiing or out on the periphery. I want to delve into how the sport has changed over the past half century, the gentrification, the consolidations, the loss of many small local places, the shorter seasons that are a result of climate change, heated chairlifts (wtf?), boot plastics, ski shapes, slopeside dining, the love/hate of the locals for the out of towners, Ikon/Epic ire etc

[charlesj]

You list 14 states and 2 Canadian Provinces with 20-30 days of skiing from pretty much coast to coast. Your math appears to add up to way, way more time traveling than skiing, unless you have a private jet. I have some experience with extended Canadian, CO, MT. UT, ID, Ikon tours and can tell you that ski, drive, ski, drive, ski, drive weeks on winter roads gets old pretty fast and made me feel like often I was just missing the good skiing at many of the areas we hit. I respect your ambitions and you will undoubtedly produce fodder for a great movie and articles, but you are biting off one hell of a winter on the road. Maybe I'm just getting too old to go hard core anymore. Looking forward to your dispatches during the season. May the snow gods favor your endeavor with storm chasing luck and clear skies when you need them.

What you are saying has crossed my mind. This weird adventurous/arduous gig will involve some long haul driving and living on the road for an extended period of I have done some of this in the past but not all season long and certainly not driving the vast distances in the West. It is easier (shorter distances) in the East. I am not overly fond of driving but I have some friends to stay with in SLC, Banff, New England.

To be clear, because I wasn't before, I *was* planning on skiing 20-30 days but that was before this as yet unnamed project started to come in to focus. I expect to ski more than 60 days, possibly 80+ if knees last.

[m2711c]

stop by at McCauley Mountain when you pass on through the Upstates, i’d be happy to show you around.

the 70+ crowd skis for free, so there be plenty of old fucking chargers hanging out, drinking uc and still rippin’ the fucking lines for you to talk to about how to keep on keeping on...

great example of a local place still hanging on after 64 years.

[SkiLyft]

Sounds like a great trip, If your rolling with an Indy Pass make sure you hit up 2Funky and I if Silver Mountain is on your list in Idaho. Fun slack country at a quirky privately owned hill.


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[charlesj]

Very interested in the Indy places across the country for the terrain, people and the more traditional old school vibe

[XXX-er]

there is or was some party guys in western Canada who traveled around to the various resorts blogging everything with their phones, I believe they got comped for a lot of things and as near as i can tell it was good advertising for tourism

and the name of it was Snow something that I can't remember

Edit: try snowseekers.ca

so I watched these guys around the resort and they had the phones out constantly producing content

" Check out our website to get inspired and be educated while visiting a destination via our website, array of video, mobile and social media content. Let us know about how your travels are going by using our #IAmASnowSeeker hashtag.

Working together with tourism groups, tour companies, resorts and associations, SnowSeekers is using innovative means to keep you informed about the snow. Being avid snow fans ourselves, its our mission is to deliver timely, relevant and inspiring content to help plan your winter adventure in BC and Alberta. "

[snowaddict91]

I certainly will ski the flyover, I understand there is a lot of it between the mountains of East and West. Have skied a lot of the western MItten but haven't been to Bohemia in 15 years, never skied MN, WI, IL or IN. I will not drive from Jay or Whiteface until the Rockies without sampling some of the petite hills along the way. I prefer bigger mountains but I would rather ski a hill than not ski, hell I'd rather xc than not ski.

I grew up skiing 100 days a year mostly at Happy Valley in Alfred NY. It had 300' vertical and the school bus dropped me off there 5 days a week. On weekends the family would ski at the bigger hills of Upstate NY, sometimes VT. Among other things I want to capture the contrast between big mountain world class resort and the mom and pop local hills. I am very psyched about some of the more modest places on the Indy pass I have never skied.

I'm excited to hear where this project goes, I too grew up skiing tiny hills and still can enjoy it when I'm home in OH.

If you find yourself rolling through SW CO give me a shout and we'll link up for some turns.