Skiers have reason to rejoice this winter: a lot of snow on the mountains — the largest cover in at least 20 years. For those who live for the thrill of a steep run on good powder, it is heaven.
Armchair ski enthusiasts can experience that thrill in a movie theater now. Steep, a film about the history of extreme skiing, features the sport's most serious devotees — like Glen Plake: "As soon as I got out of jail, I went skiing. Soon as I got out of broken legs, I went skiing, that's where I had to go to make it all right again."
Plake also was featured in the 1988 ski movie Blizzard of Ahhs, which inspired a new generation of skiers — like Ingrid Backstrom, who is profiled in Steep.
Backstrom is one of the world's best extreme skiers, and, as they say in the movie, "she rips." "Freeskiiers," as they're known, race down steep mountains that can only be reached by hiking or by helicopter. Backstrom has taken home several first-place titles in freeskiing competitions in recent years.
Liane Hansen talks with Backstrom, who is on location in Haines, Alaska, and Scott Gaffney, the creative director for Matchstick Productions — and the man who discovered Backstrom.
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