Call me biased, but I still think this is the best film out there about skiing the Grand Teton, because it conveys all the difficult decision making that goes into such a descent.
Produced by Doug Coombs, Doug Workman, Andrew Chapman, John Griber, Rick Hunt, Jason Winkler and David Gonzales in 2005. We had help from numerous others. A labor of love among friends, this was our attempt to convey the adventure and camaraderie of skiing a difficult route on the Grand.
We presented it at the Banff Film Festival in 2006, after Doug’s untimely death.
Every day spent skiing with Doug Coombs was a great day. The days spent making this were no different.
Unsung heroes: John Griber, who doesn’t appear on film, but shared the descent with Doug Coombs and Doug Workman, on a snowboard, making the first snowboard descent of the Otterbody Route, while carrying a brick sized HD camera on his chest, and filming. Burly! Unsung hero 2: Rick Hunt, who climbed and descended a 5.6 route on Teepe Pillar with Dan Starr and I, carrying an old-school HD cam and pro tripod – probably 60 pounds – in his backpack. Burly. Unsung hero 3: Andrew Chapman, for all the hours he spent on this elegant edit.