Monday, February 4, 2008

Will Legend of Ahhhs make it to the silver screen?

It's been almost 20 years since the debut of the ski film that changed the way we as skiers and riders truly viewed "ski porn." From the depths of almost absolute obscurity, Greg Stump has re-emerged and will put out his first film in 10 years, "The Legend of Ahhhs." Unfortunately there will be no new skiing or riding footage, but instead, this will be more of a documentary about the business of revolutionizing the ski movie industry. With the help of old friends, Glen Plake, Scot Schmidt, and Mike Hattrup, Stumpy has stepped up to the plate after several years of part-time work, so to speak.
And after watching "Siberia" a few weeks back, I know why he did this. No. Of course I don't know why, but I have a better idea of why he stopped making ski films. First, I think he thought he'd done all he wanted to do in the ski film industry with the completion of a "Fistful of Moguls," (Some of which was shot in the Blue World, FYI) the passing of Craig Kelley may have been one of the biggest factors. Anyone who has seen Siberia know that there really isn't a lot of ski or snowboard footage, which really hurt Stump financially, but again, if you've seen it, you know why. The mountains they went to ski were for the most part unskiable. Every slope was avalanche prone and Stump feared for the lives of Schmidt and Kelley. There is a one camcorder-shot scene where Schmidt skis out of the slough of an avalanche, barely making it to safety. A few years later, Craig Kelley was lost to an Avalanche in British Columbia.
Not that Stump does have his other share of demons, he surely does and it's evident by the drop off in his work and his "compound" in Idaho known as the Vortex, but there is no doubting the artistic brilliance of this man. It may have taken some of his friends to drag him out of a stupor to make this film, but it sells and is a success, Stump will come full circle and prove that he was a flash in the pan for that one solid decade.

1 comment:

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