In February 2006, I watched my first Powderwhore film, "PW05". I was in a friend's sparse apartment and outside an inch of slush was melting. It was the most snow we'd see all year, and we were jonesing for winter. The video shook, the pictures were grainy but that backcountry film kept our spirits up throughout the miserable "winter." Since that first movie in 2005, the Powderwhores have taken off as a backcountry film company. "Choose Your Adventure" is their newest offering and though a humble Noah Howell, (Co-founder) told Backcountry that, "it is easy to improve when you start low." Their new movie is much more than the simple Utah ski porn that Powderwhore began with. This year the viewer joins skiers like Chris Davenport, Andrew McLean, Seth Wescott, Jake Sakson as they choose their own adventures in places such as Norway, Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, and Utah.
When asked about the film itself Noah Howell described it as "a miracle." He recounts, "Last year my brother, [and partner] Jonah was caught in an avalanche, and shortly after that I tore my ACL. It was crazy. We weren't sure we were even going to be able to make a film. The snow was horrible, and we weren't going to do something that we couldn't be proud of. But we kept tinkering." The Powderwhore team had to do things differently and look at their ski movies in a new way. Given the brothers' situation, they also depended much more on outside footage. According to Noah this different process, "forced us to tell actual stories rather than just show ski porn. It is a new direction for Powderwhores. Now we're able to seek out athletes, or really just people with a lot of passion and goals, and share in their experiences. It's a lot of fun and really hard."
"Choose Your Adventure" opens in Salt Lake City on September 26th and then will tour across North America, for dates click here. If you haven't seen it, don't miss the teaser, "I'm on a Boat."
