Adventure in Adrenaline
Bridger Production's Latest Hits Local Screen.
Jackson Hole News

After years of chasing powder hounds down precipitous chutes, after logging hundreds of hours slogging into pristine bowls with camera in tow and after recruiting some of Jackson's top ski and snowboard talents for his films, Mike Emmer thinks it may be time to take his movies on tour.

It's only natural, said Bridger Productions owner Emmer, that the tour should begin in Jackson.

"We've been here for a long time now, and the skiers and riders in the film are all locals," Emmer said. "It just seemed like we had to have our opening here."

If hometown screenings go well, Emmer will take his latest flick, Adrenaline Adventures, to the greater skiing public.

In this critic's mind, ther's no doubt that Emmer's Jackson shows will play to packed houses. After all, Bridger Productions previous video releases like, Freedom on Skis, have become favorite off-slope choices for local powder hounds. And most snow-sliding freaks are ever-ready for new footage of tricks, turns and requisite multi-story plunges off cliffs.

In Adrenaline Adventures, Emmer provides all of that — plus.

Following the tried-and-true formulas of Warren Miller and Greg Stump, Emmer gives us plenty of powder, fantastic talent (here with locals Rick Armstrong, Doug and Emily Gladstone Coombs, Halsey Hewson, John Griber and Stephen Koch), and a few exotic destinations.

But what sets this film apart from the growing pool of ski flicks is Emmer's committment to displaying all skiing disciplines.

Armstrong, Coombs and Gladstone Coombs rip it up on alpine boards. Emmer lets them take us on a tour, not only of the Hole, but of Red Mountain and Verbier. They pound through treed slopes, schuss down rock rimmed chutes and, of course, carom off cliffs and cornices.

Griber puts on a great demonstration of just how much fun snowboarding can be in Jackson. His fast, sweeping turns and powder-filled boof moves are enough to make even the staunchest of skiers think about testing a board.

For those seeking something more extreme, there's fantastic footage from Russia's Mt. Elbrus, where Stephen Koch shares his Seven Summits snowboard quest.

Where Adrenaline Adventures really shines, however, is in the telemarking department. World Championship bronze medalist Hewson steals the show, and Emmer apparently revels in that, giving us close-ups of Hewson's technique — faraway shots where you wonder if he's on pins or alpine boards and groupschussing scenes that prove telmarking isn't slower or less graceful than other techniques — and some of the best extreme telemarking footage ever recorded.

While other filmmakers rush to embrace snowboarding and shoot occasional shots of telemarking, Emmer makes no distinction between disciplines.

Couple that commitment with cutting edge digitized fade-outs, a few stylized, early '80s-style freeze frames and a bout of John Bayley's reggae wailing at the Mangy Moose, and you've got what promises to be a local hit at the very least.

Perhaps Emmer should start packing his bags. He may be going on tour.

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Take the Plunge
Bridger Productions' new adventure film, Controlled Gravity, helps viewers succumb to the force.
Jackson Hole News, January 8 - 14, 1997

Makers of Controlled Gravity, the third cinematic effort by Jackson Hole-based Bridger Productions, begin their bare-bones script with a definition of the subject.

Gravity: "The pull on all bodies within a sphere's field toward the center of the sphere."

The filmmakers hope the force will be strong enough to pull more than a few bodies into Teton Village's Walk Festival Hall at 8 p.m. Friday when their hour-long, global ski and snowboard excursion screens for the first time.

A portion of Friday's ticket sales will go to a fund that friends of Jackson Hole skier-mountaineer Jimmy Zell are raising to help pay medical expenses that resulted from critical injuries he suffered in a November paragliding accident.

The premier of the third, and best, Bridger film is the culmination of two years' work by the production company, one of a growing number of Jackson Hole producers that capitalize on their location to bring ski action, as well as kayaking and mountain biking, to viewing audiences.

Controlled Gravity is a panoply of skiing action segments set in some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the Western Hemisphere. The film crew's reach spans the rocky spines of North and South America, from the impossibly jagged spires of Las Lenas, Argentina, to the fringe of British Columbia's Pemberton ice fields.

Unlike too many ski films, where self-indulgent producers put themselves and their antics up front, the emphasis in Controlled Gravity is on the action. No sophomoric horsing around. No end-of-day hot tubbing and beer guzzling.

Bridger's Mike Emmer and Jason Winkler are men of few words and lots of action.

"The one thing that we tried to do with this movie was to stay away from the shenanigans, the fooling around," said Jason Winkler, whose over-the-edge skiing is featured in the film. "We try to introduce the characters and give some insight into what motivates them — but to let the skiing speak for itself."

It does, in locations like Taos, N.M., British Columbia's Whistler-Blackcomb Resort, Montana's Bridger Bowl and right in our backyard at Jackson Hole.

But the pitches of Las Lenas, a growing ski center on the east slope of the Andes, steal the show.

"You're out in such a huge, wide-open environment," Winkler said. "It's just a great place to be shooting."

French "adventure snowboarder" Serge Cornillat's skill is showcased at Las Lenas' bowls, chutes and too-vertical snowfields in a way that puts the sport in the context of its natural arena.

The sweeping scenery is a canvas for Cornillat, and for Emmer, who finds camera angles and vantages that seem nearly impossible.

"It's amazing where Mike is able to get to and shoot," Winkler said. "He's a great skier and a great climber."

The viewer knows, peering down into a sinew of snow that plunges through a couloir, that Emmer's 16mm film camera is perched on a granite precipice, high above.

"Looking through a lens is not exactly the easiest way to establish equilibrium," Winkler said.

"You have to make sure you're balanced," Emmer said. "It's good to have a good assistant along, somebody who's ready to grab you."

Action moves from Argentina to Taos, NM, and the low-tech, no frills resort developed there by ski pioneer Ernie Blake. The contrast between the two Americas — north and south — is striking: The high desert terrain of Taos provides an arty backdrop to the skiing of Dave Swanwick and Alison Gannett, a pair that Winkler describes as the "king and queen of extreme, or, rather, adventure skiing."

About that word: "Extreme." The producers, and the skiers in Controlled Gravity, seem hell-bent on stamping it out. The E-word seems to have adapted itself to virtually every sporting pursuit known to modern humans, Winkler said.

"The extreme thing," Winkler said with a slight sigh. "The word's been picked up by marketing people, not only in skiing but everywhere else. It carries this 'you fall, you die' connotation. That's not what this movie is. The movie is mainly adventure skiing."

As the action shifts from powder-bouncing among the gracefully weathered pinon pine snags of Taos to Jackson Hole, the words introducing that Saturday afternoon ABC television staple, "Wide World of Sports," come to mind: "Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport..."

A few critical words might be due here. The Jackson Hole footage lacks spacial context. We could be ... well, almost anywhere. If not for the skiing appearances of Pepi Stiegler and Tommy Moe, the Rendezvous scenes might not be recognizable even to a local audience.

A minor point, though: The beauty of Jackson Hole, under a cobalt sky the day following a mighty powder dump, is a true vicarious pleasure.

Freelancers and snowboarders will not be disappointed by the efforts that the Bridger crew has made to balance the action. A special trip to British Columbia's Whistler Peak gives us a look at a seldom-seen competition — the FIS World Telemark Competition. Telemarkers moving faster than most of us have observed them, careening down what appears to be a steep Super-G course, is a big moment in this movie.

So, too, are the telemark powder 8s, an event that the crew and skiers traveled to by helicopter, a 50-kilometer flight from Whistler to the edge of the spectacular Pemberton ice fields.

"We included a lot of telmarking in our last movie, too," Winkler said. "We feel it's a really pure form of skiing, and fun to watch as well."

Controlled Gravity concludes with some summer fun in Montana. Some of the most scenically spectacular moments in the film catch Adrian Knapp on his snowboard, taking advantage of the remaining threads of midsummer snow in the Beartooth Range. Squeaky-narrow, boulder-choked passages give pause to even the most seasoned winter boarders. The aesthetics of Knapp's board work set against the lush, green Montana valleys are a perfect wrap for this movie.

Almost.

Emmer and Winkler might be giving audiences a preview of their next cinematic genre when, at the bitter end of Controlled Gravity, they take to the rivers. Maybe they just couldn't resist expending a few feet of film on a pair of kayakers losing themselves among the frothing haystacks of Montana's East Rosebud River.

But skiing and snowboarding, braided with a soundtrack of jazzy, urban music from such Mangy Moose favorites as Boogie Shoes and Punkinhead, are what make this movie so pleasing to see.

"It's a representation of the way we're skiing now — taking air, deep powder," Winkler said. "Our culture is really into the outdoor experience." So is this movie.

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Freedom on Skis Uses Jackson Hole Products
by Thomas Dewell

With snow getting deeper and thicker with every passing hour, Jackson Hole is returning to its prime winter form — where even great skiers are tested.

Last year's snows made this valley into a bountiful place for people who play gravity games, and for Michael Emmer. Emmer's company, Bridger Productions Inc., has produced Freedom on Skis, a video that is being broadcast on Prime Network from November to April into 38 million cable-capable homes.

The film features blue skies and deep powder, and Jackson Hole skiers, snowboarders and telemarkers. Doug Coombs stars in the film as a spokesman for avalanche awareness and what it takes to ski the steep and deep.

Boarder John Griber and telemarker Dave Ellingson are also featured in the show.

In one particular scene Coombs is skiing in Alaska at the extreme skiing championships. He's carving graceful turns through untracked powder on a steep slope.

Suddenly a huge fracture surrounds him and he pops out of the sliding snow, lets it slough and then skis back down the slide path. It's a pretty amazing shot, deserving some instant replay.

The film also focuses on avalanches and what makes them run. In a sequence shot at Coombs' Steep Skiing Clinic, the Jackson Hole Ski Patrol isolates a column of snow in a snow pit. It suddenly shears and Coombs immediately points to the hollow layer of snow that made the break possible. Most ski films wouldn't go into this depth, instead focussing on endless face shots in deep powder, but this film comes from Jackson Hole and is made by Jackson Hole filmmakers. Avalanche awareness has its place.

One of the most striking aspects of the film is the wildlife cinematography.

There are breathtaking shots of geese flying over heards of elk, and Dahl sheep shaking snow off their heads.

Along with these images there's a curious voice over.

Whoever narrates this film just drips with reverence for these wild creatures, skiing and the splendor of nature, making Mutual of Omaha's Marlon Perkins seem like a comedian.

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