EAST COAST SICK

Meathead Films is out to prove that if you can ski the east, you can ski anywhere

by MARC SCHULTZ

The ski film industry is fraught with breathtaking scenes from the Rockies, the Alps, the rugged southern Andes and other places as spectacular as they are remote.

Geoff McDonald and his Meathead Films crew are making just such films, but they are not travelling all over the world to get their footage. Born From Ice, Meatheads’ third major release, is dedicated to showcasing the best skiing in the Northeast. From Mount Mansfield, Vermont to Cat-skiing in Newfoundland, Meathead Films is showing what the Northeast really has to offer. The Meathead ethos is to demonstrate that 20-foot cliff drops, deep and fast rooster-tail powder turns and knee-deep tree skiing are all available right in our own backyard.

The focus of McDonald’s film is the “freeskiing” movement‚ the new wave of grab tricks, park jumps and rail slides. But the Meathead team show all aspects of the sport, making it clear that backcountry skiing isn’t just an activity practised out West.

Based out of Burlington, Vermont, McDonald and his partner Christopher James use a group of skiers, most of whom are from Vermont, though a couple of Montrealers, Jason Ghikadis and Simon Thomson, have been working with the Meatheads as well. The Mirror spoke to McDonald on the phone at his office in Burlington, a couple of weeks after his film had shown to a packed theatre at Concordia.

Mirror: Is making films on the East Coast your full time job now?

Geoff McDonald: Yeah, there’s very little time off. We film all winter, promote it in the fall and start all over again.

M: What’s different about Born From Ice from your previous films?

GM: There are many new up-and-coming skiers in Born From Ice who weren’t in our previous films. BFI breaks down into location segments featuring the athletes at each location, such as Jay Peak and Mad River Glen in Vermont, and Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. It’s also the first movie to ever really expose skiing in Newfoundland to the rest of the world. That region has endless opportunities. And we used a special dual layer DVD format to produce the movie this year—it allowed us to pack close to four hours of footage onto one side of one DVD. So BFI has over three hours of bonus features.

M: Did you use to watch Warren Miller films and think, “I can do better”?

GM: Well, I don’t know if I thought I could do better. I just wanted to showcase the East Coast. There is so much stuff to discover.

M: When do you start filming for each new movie and how long does it take to go from raw footage to being colour-balanced, scored and ready to watch?

GM: We start filming as soon as the snow starts to fly, but the backcountry only starts to fill in around mid- to late-January. During the winter, we start planning out all the music and the artwork. But our season is a little shorter than it is out West so we need to make sure to take advantage of the good days. It takes a little under a year to get the whole thing finished so we can release it in the fall and get everybody stoked for the ski season. Then we do a really extensive tour of almost 50 dates.

From Stowe to Les Chic-Choc

M: What would you like to see happen to Meathead Films in the years to come?

GM: Well, I’m not doing it to make a ton of money. I really just love skiing and going out filming. We’re planning on filming in the Adirondacks, New York this year, which has never been done before, so it should be pretty exciting.

M: Is the East Coast skiing scene underrated?

GM: Definitely. There’s so much stuff to discover each year. In the last film we went to les Chic-Choc, Quebec. There was lots of great skiing in the trees, so that was pretty good.

M: What are some of the best powder spots on the East Coast?

GM: There are tons of places but Stowe, Mad River and Jay Peak are good spots. I mean, we live in Burlington. So on a powder day you need to get up early to get the snow.

Tough conditions, tough skiers

M: Would you agree that East Coasters might be just a little bit sicker than other skiers, since they need to learn how to deal with the icy turns and hard landings?

GM: Well that’s the thing we’re trying to get across. You know the saying: If you can ski the East you can ski anywhere. And we try and show all the conditions here. There are overcast days and tough conditions—not just blue sky all the time.

M: Do you see any aspect of snowboarding’s influence on freeskiing as being really positive?

GM: Skiing was really in decline in the ’80s as snowboarding gained in popularity. I mean, the snowboarders were allowed in the park before the skiers were! But then with the revival of freeskiing there’s a real market out there. Boston, New York and Montreal form one of the biggest skiing markets in the world. It’s really just a question of getting more people to know about us.

M: Jason Ghikadis & Simon Thomson are two skiers from Montreal, how did they become a part of the Meatheads crew?

GM: I met them at a competition in Stowe a couple of years ago and I saw them going really big off the jumps. So I introduced myself and told them about the films I wanted to make. We met up at Jay Peak and ever since then they’ve been skiing for us. They’re the best skiers we have filming with us right now.

To check out scenes from Born From Ice and other Meathead films, visit www.meatheadfilms.com