Review, Powderwhore’s "Breaking Trail"

In a day and age when everyone and their brother are making ski movies, short edits and weekly webisodes about what they have been skiing, Powderwhore has released yet another movie that was birthed in the Wasatch and travels around the world in search of great ski terrain and the characters that rip the slopes. Over the years, Powderwhore has been known for highlighting telemark skiers as they ride the unfathomably deep Utah powder, while getting the most insane face-shots you have ever seen. Once again, the boys deliver with this year’s film, “Breaking Trail”, which will get you and keep you stoked to rip the pow yourself.

This year’s film starts off with a segment highlighting the skiing of Paul Kimbrough, with some commentary by his father, Tom Kimbrough. Tom used to be a ranger here in Grand Teton National Park, and quite the story teller, so I find it interesting to see and hear him talk about the old days and how his son is progressing as a skier. Of course, exaggerated pole plants, delayed telemark turns and big jumps accompany Tom’s narrative and keep you tuned in if you’re more focused on skiing stoke than the words of a proud father.

More epic pow shots, nasty tumbles and small avalanches keep you pumped-up as Jason West skis in the following segment. Jason is an alpine skier, which for the Powderwhores to include in their movie is a step away from the norm and adds some nice flavor to their historically tele-proud videos. The backcountry slayage continues with some Colorado powder (yes, surprisingly there is powder skiing in Colorado) and Will Cardamone showing us how the pro-freeheelers do things. Hippy, fairy-tale-like music keeps your head bobbing through more hip dragging slash-turns and is classic Powderwhore if you’ve been following their films over the years.

More alpine turns, horse supported ski-tours and flat-brimmed bros fill the next 10 minutes and probably would have been better if the sun came out and allowed for a bit better footage. I could have done without the shotgun blasting fire bits and at times, it just seemed like the characters were just trying too hard to entertain us. The segment ends with sweet descents of some beautiful lines in the mountains of Idaho and I’m pretty sure some folks will quickly be firing up Google Earth to find and start planning their own mission to ski them as well.

An interesting mix of alpine and telemark freeriders, along with skinny, whippet toting ski mountaineers really puts your mind in a frenzy in the next clip, and highlights how everyone has their own style of skiing and line selection while checking out some great British Columbia and Utah powder. I really like the groovy, funky music that backs up some of this footage and shows un-current my own music selection really is.

Speaking of funky, I really enjoyed the profile of Brett “Cowboy” Kobernik from the Utah Avalanche Center, which tells the story of probably one of quirkiest avy-geeks you will ever find and the passion for powder turns he has is something we can all appreciate. A nice history of the Voile splitboard follows (Brett was one of the early designers), which shows how open minded and user friendly the Powderwhore tele-skiers are getting in their old age. More split-boarder stoke comes at the end of the video and makes you wonder who’s got the more soulful turn…telemarkers or snowboarders?

Probably my favorite character in the whole movie though is Jack Saxon. Jake is a young and small framed tele-skier that just rips on the slopes. But, my favorite thing about Jake is his humor and goofy personality that is nice and refreshing in an industry filled with attitude and skier-studs. I look forward to watching Jake progress and grow as a skier and I hope good things happen for him down the road.

It’s fitting that “Breaking Trail” includes some ski exploration in Norway, which I am most jealous of. The combination of long, blue sky days, ski runs that end at the ocean and the remoteness of the mountains in the northern reaches of the country are the what backcountry skiing means to a lot of us. It’s short, but sweet, and I thank them for giving me a taste of what I hope to experience hopefully sooner, rather than later. “Breaking Trail” is a great ski movie, so check it out here if you get a chance.