Whistler Snow Day – Milwaukee Style.
Posted by: Feet Banks
Whistler has been blessed with over 350cm (11½ feet) of snow so far this season and no one is enjoying it more than two dudes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, out west for a one-week working holiday in the mountains.
“The snow has been ridiculous,” says Ryan Sheets. “This is why I always come here. This is what I live for.”
“Do you guys use decimeters when it’s this deep or what?” asks Aaron Biebert earnestly. “At home we don’t really use the metric system but it’s been, like, a foot of snow here every night.” Back in Wisconsin Ryan and Aaron work in photography and video production but say up until now their sports-related work has been, “Mostly football, and some BMX.”
“But we love mountain sports,” Aaron says, “and we wanted to shoot mountain sports so we said, ‘let’s do it at the best place on earth to do it.’”
“Back home we haven’t even had real snow the past few years,” Ryan explains. “And you can throw a rock to the top of our ski hills…”
So the duo packed up an editing suite and five camera rigs and headed for the Coast Mountains just in time for one of Whistler’s best early-season snow dumps of the past decade. “We skied with our camera bags which can be nerve-wracking,” Aaron says. “At one point I just got stuck in the powder and had to take my skis off and hike…you’re just sinking. But we got shots of people jumping off pillows and stuff and they just disappear. It’s intoxicating.”
“There’s nothing like shooting snow in the Village,” Ryan adds. “It’s the picture perfect postcard place. Our buddies back home can’t believe where we are.” Over the past week Aaron and Ryan have filmed local athletes on the ski hills, bobsleigh training sessions at the Whistler Sliding Centre, eagles in Brackendale, huge snowflakes at Whistler Olympic Park and waterfalls up and down the Sea to Sky Highway.
“We felt like if we want to grow as artists we have to come here to shoot,” Aaron says. “And if we can show people back home what Whistler is all about that’s a bonus.”
“People are so friendly here.” Aaron adds. “The skiing is unlike anywhere but I’m really impressed with the balancing act – how can everything be so great but feel so relaxed?” The boys have already cut together a short teaser (featured above) of some of their snowy good times in Whistler and they intend to release a longer edit of their entire trip sometime in early 2013.
“The first time I came to Whistler was because I saw it in Warren Miller ski films,” Ryan says. “That’s the power of film, it moves people.”
That’s also the power of snow.
“Yes, we’ll be back,”Aaron says.
“I told my wife when we got married, I have one condition,” Ryan adds. “We have to retire in Whistler.”
But before that there is already talk of the Boys from Milwaukee coming back in March (traditionally Whistler’s snowiest month). In the meantime hit up AttentionEra.com and SheetsStudios to see more of their work and as soon as the full-length Whistler Snow Day video is up The Insider will be all over that too.
Enjoy the pow.
Article source: http://www.whistler.com/blog/post/2012/12/05/Whistler-Snow-Day.aspx
