This Jan. 25, 2012 photo shows professional skier and Protect Our Winters board member Chris Davenport in Denver. Davenport says skiers and snowboarders are like a tribe of like-minded people vested in protecting the mountain snows that they spend vast amounts of money to play in. "We’ve talked about creating a voice," he said.
Ski athletes pose for a photo with Matchstick co-founder Steve Winter after Matchstick accepted a Powder Video Award. The production company has won 12 Movie of the Year awards and has been nominated for four Emmys over its 30-year existence.
A full house cheers for the camera at a premiere of a Matchstick Productions ski film in Seattle, WA.
Videographer Scotty Gaffney films skier James Heim for a Matchstick Productions film.
All 30 ski-film posters Crested Butte-based Matchstick Productions hang from a wall at the company's office in Crested Butte. Matchstick has been making ski and outdoor films since 1992.
Skier Rick Armstrong, back, and film producer Steve Winter film part of a ski segment in Jackson Hole circa winter 1993.
Shane McConkey, aka, Saucer Boy films in Valdez, Alaska in 1996 with Matchstick Productions. MSP co-founder Steve Winter is in the background. The company is celebrating 30 years of film making in 2022.
Steve Winter, co-founder of Matchstick Productions in Crested Butte. Matchstick is celebrating 30 years of making ski and outdoor films in 2022.
Powder fans devoured the eye candy ski films deliver for decades. Segments like Shane McConkey ski-BASE jump off The Eiger, Cody Townsend ski the infamous 'The Crack' and Chris Davenport and Jonny Moseley 'plink' Aaron McGovern off his line, tomahawking him to the bottom, amazed viewers and inspired younger skiers to step up their games in the process.
Four-time Emmy nominated and 12-time winner of Video of the Year, Crested Butte's Matchstick Productions (MSP) captured those moments and have been presenting them to ski movie buffs for the past 30 years.
MSP's 30th film, 'Anywhere from Here' premiered Friday, Oct. 6 in Crested Butte, marking the company's 30th anniversary. It hit Front Range venues Tuesday, starting at the Oriental Theater in Denver.
Matchstick founders claim it has been 'saving skiing since 1992.' One of the original members, Crested Butte resident Murray Wais, can attest to the company's novel approach to making ski films.
Growing up in suburban Seattle, Wais said he spent many days on lakes and rivers, fishing and recreating, wanting to live life in a rural place surrounded by natural beauty. In the late 1980s at Wenatchee Valley College, Wais fell in love with being outside. Heading into the 1990s, Wais found himself in Colorado on assignment.
The rest is ski history.
"I came to Crested Butte, Colorado on assignment for Powder magazine to cover the second annual Extreme Skiing Championships (in 1993) and my business partner Steve Winter invited me to work on a film," Wais said. "I was reading 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac at the time and I thought why not live a life full of passion, adventure and wonders."
After Wais finished his assignment with Powder, Winter brought him on board. Released in fall 1993, 'Soul Sessions & Epic Impressions' became MSP's first film.
In 1996, skier and filmmaker Scott Gaffney joined Winter and Wais — completing the legendary trio of core partners who created the legacy Matchstick has been building ever since.
All 30 ski-film posters Crested Butte-based Matchstick Productions hang from a wall at the company's office in Crested Butte. Matchstick has been making ski and outdoor films since 1992.
Making ski films is not the same as making Hollywood-style films.
"Our creative is always somewhat limited because really what we are doing is showing skiing and music," Wais said of the process. "We don’t have acting and the only real tension we bring to a story is the excitement to go ski and the incredible athletic ability of the skiers."
Demonstrated in ski films like 'Global Storming', 'The Hit List', and 'Rise and Ruin,' MSP focused on a theme they felt they could thread through the whole film. The naming process is rather informal too, Wais said, but something they have a lot of fun with while taking it serious.
Winter 2010-11 saw massive amounts of snow in the Pacific Northwest and 2011's film 'Attack of La Niña' was named in part because of the deep accumulations. Quotes from the film like, "I don't know why it snows so much, it's just magic," and "(My) roller bag doesn't roll so well in the pow," resonate with skiers and fill the space for the movie's name.
But not all filming locations are created equal. Wais and Matchstick favor places like Alaska, Japan and British Columbia, Canada, due to the consistent snow levels and deep powder.
"Our director likes to make sure first and foremost wherever we are going has a decent base of snow. This makes it so hard to plan and is quite maddening, however it does make things safer and more fun," Wais said. "Personally, I really like filming in the mountains from Seattle, Washington to north of Anchorage, Alaska. The storms just slam this region year after year and there is so much wide open space, so much beauty."
Ski athletes pose for a photo with Matchstick co-founder Steve Winter after Matchstick accepted a Powder Video Award. The production company has won 12 Movie of the Year awards and has been nominated for four Emmys over its 30-year existence.
When in doubt, ask for help
Lining up a last-minute excursion to chase a storm challenges the film crew and can be daunting.
"We generally rely on ideas from pro skiers (sometimes), and ideas percolate up through our global network and get brought to the table. It’s a real team effort and also involves a lot of input from the skiers," Wais said.
This Jan. 25, 2012 photo shows professional skier and Protect Our Winters board member Chris Davenport in Denver. Davenport says skiers and snowboarders are like a tribe of like-minded people vested in protecting the mountain snows that they spend vast amounts of money to play in. "We’ve talked about creating a voice," he said.
One such skier, whose name is synonymous with MSP, is Aspen resident and professional skier Chris Davenport. 'Dav' became a household name among the skiing community in 1996 after winning the U.S. Extreme Skiing Championships in Crested Butte. Davenport saw himself grow by being in films created by Matchstick and others in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It helped him grow not only his brand, but the sport's popularity along the way, too.
"The turn of events for me was winning the World Extreme Skiing Championships in '96. All of a sudden I was not only world champion, but I started having some sponsors behind me that could help pay for segments in the movie," Davenport said. "And so not only would Steve and Murray from Matchstick call and say 'hey, we would love to film with you', but I could also bring some budget to table."
By fall of 1996, Davenport was 'all in' in trying to be a pro skier, cementing his place into MSP's echelon of filmography. He even appeared in front of the Matchstick cameras skiing at Crested Butte in winter 1996-97 (Pura Vida), his first film with the company.
"My memories of those years are a little bit fuzzy and I don't know if it's because we were having so much fun or if I've done too much of that stuff, but I knew I just loved being on the set of a film shoot. I love being out in the mountains with the film crew and other athletes and trying to get creative with our skiing to make the best film segment possible," Davenport said laughing.
Film companies like Matchstick succeeded because the athletes they work with help them succeed, and vice versa, Davenport said. By going the extra mile, dropping the extra line for the shot, athletes gained exposure and sponsorships along with other opportunities through the films. These actions also led to skiers connecting with other skiers and film makers, like Dean Cummings, Shane McConkey and Seth Morrison.
A full house cheers for the camera at a premiere of a Matchstick Productions ski film in Seattle, WA.
Promoting the film in the fall can be just as much fun as watching the film — and Davenport and Wais have different, yet plenty, of experience in being out with crowds while showcasing the film.
"I have probably been to more than a few hundred ski movie showings over 30 years. Every show is super fun, as people are just happy to be there sharing their love for a sport," Wais said. "It’s always a good time, however as you can imagine, it's hard not to obsess around how the film is being shown, the audio mix, the mc (master of ceremonies) presentation, all the little things ... details can make you cray."
Before the practice of digitally advertising the film became the mainstream way to harness viewers, an analogue approach was the norm, Davenport said of being on the Pura Vida film tour in 1997 — his first of many.
"I don't recall how many stops on the movie tour I went to that first year, and athletes would show up and sign posters, throw out swag, and be on stage getting the crowd fired up, and so it was always a big scene for ski fans to go to these movies and meet their ski heroes," Davenport said.
All skiers know the feelings of excitement when the opening scene projects onto the theater screen. Davenport said as he began touring longer and further away from the local shows in 1998-99, he felt "like rock star" while out connecting with fans.
"The Matchstick team, the athletes, and the sponsors who were onboard were very good at creating a fun, party-like atmosphere that celebrated all the cool things about skiing," he said. "It made for a great night out. Skiing as a sport has always been about community, about bringing people together, and I always like to think that my best friends are my ski friends."
Videographer Scotty Gaffney films skier James Heim for a Matchstick Productions film.
Helping each other create the product
Mountain towns usually exude the idea of community. Having a film company approach a resort in order to film a segment on-mountain falls into that category.
One such partnership MSP has is north across the Elk Mountains in neighboring town Aspen. The resort-host of ESPN's Winter X-Games, being infamous for "skilebrity" sightings on mountain and gained notoriety for segments of the film 'Aspen Extreme' being shot on mountain, Aspen/Snowmass is familiar with working with production companies, like Matchstick.
Skier Rick Armstrong, back, and film producer Steve Winter film part of a ski segment in Jackson Hole circa winter 1993.
"The origins of each shoot I’ve been part of hosting over the last 18 years at Aspen/Snowmass have always been a little different with one key piece remaining consistent — the long-standing relationships within the industry," Deric Gunshor, managing director of Event Development and Events and Partnerships at Aspen/Snowmass, said. "We have worked to build and maintain connections with each production company, the brands that support them and athletes as their careers evolve."
As the 2000s came to a close, Aspen's film shoots came through a lot of progressive terrain park builds, designs its operations teams collaborated with athletes on, Gunhsor noted. Travis Rice's 'Community Project' shoot featured scaffold drops on Buttermilk, and his 'Art of Flight' film was made feasible because the mountain operations team understood and built Travis' vision.
Matchstick's more recent work with the resort — albeit a more current working model — was that of 'story telling.'
"In recent years, the films have oriented more around storytelling with MSP’s feature on Klaus Obermeyer," Gunshor said. "Those segments are really driven by the long-term relationships between our teams and being able to seamlessly tell stories that are important to both of us."
Similar to , Aspen/Snowmass experiences the same challenges Murray and MSP film crews do when production is on mountain.
"There are always details that require pretty detailed coordination with our teams between marketing, events, patrol, trails, snowmaking, food & beverage and often many others," Gunshor said. "The rewarding part comes in seeing the segment on-screen (big or small) and being able to have been part of creating it."
When Matchstick wants to film on Aspen's slopes, however, the practice of just showing up with a film crew and a handful of athletes on a powder day is long dead. Resorts have regulations and film shoots are driven mostly by two factors — one, the United State Forest Service guidelines and ski area operating permit, and two, the production's impact on day-to-day operations.
"If they want to shoot the last week of April when we are closed, it can have less regulation, but comes with other complicating factors. However, if the idea is to shoot in the middle of the season and they require terrain closures or use of snow cats or snowmobiles, then it can get complicated quickly for a production to comply with our operating regulations," he said.
Steve Winter, co-founder of Matchstick Productions in Crested Butte. Matchstick is celebrating 30 years of making ski and outdoor films in 2022.
Social media, short-format videos and self-branding are here to stay. But will old practices of creating ski films make a revival?
"We will continue to create inspiring films, creative commercials, and whatever else," Wais said. "We are super happy to keep trucking along having the times of our lives and sharing that with the world."
"The evolution of ski films kind of went from great story telling in the early days with Warren Miller talking about locations, Dick Barrymore and even Greg Stump with films like 'License to Thrill' had story telling," Davenport said. "And then we sorta digressed, maybe into more a ski-porn format, where it was just action, action, action, and I distinctly remember at some point in the early 2000s a lot of the athletes were like 'let's do more storytelling' instead of action shots. Let's go behind the scenes."
"The last few springs have been different for more reasons than the changing landscape of ski films, however, it is clear that the trend is not only towards more storytelling and narrative-driven projects, but also shorter form releases," Gunshor said. "Our team has definitely gone in this direction in collaboration with our athletes as well as brands. We have supported Alex Ferreira’s unique content franchise (Hot Dog Hans), done some great bike park content in the summer, and worked with Torin Yater-Wallace on some custom features for his channels."
Shane McConkey, aka, Saucer Boy films in Valdez, Alaska in 1996 with Matchstick Productions. MSP co-founder Steve Winter is in the background. The company is celebrating 30 years of film making in 2022.
"I think we bring a sense of community to CB," Wais said. "I mean I know it sounds stupid, but we help spread the vibe of getting outside and getting after it, of living a healthy life and pushing your personal boundaries. I think we contribute to that positivity and hopefully inspire people to get after it, live with passion and do kick-ass things for themselves and others around them."
"I'm a big fan of ski history and kind of where we came from, and literally I'm dumbfounded that it has been 30 years of Matchstick already," Davenport said. "It feels like they should be celebrating that somehow this fall. Maybe I should give Murray a call?"
The case against a snowboarder who collided with and caused the death of a legendary Colorado skier, is finally moving forward after two delays.
A 10-year Colorado journalist, Jonathan Ingraham started in photojournalism and photo editing in magazines with Mountain Magazine. After a 3-year stint in Twin Falls, Idaho, he returned to the Front Range to produce digital content in his home state.