Miller brings the ski action to Logan
The 56th annual Warren Miller Ski Movie entitled “Higher Ground” opened at Utah State University Thursday night at the Kent Concert Hall.
Gary Nate, a director cameraman for Warren Miller Films, was on hand to introduce the film and emcee the event.
“I’m going to require you all to make a lot of noise tonight,” Nate said before the movie started, and the crowd responded by whooping and hollering all night as they watched the latest ski footage and won prizes from Al’s Sporting Goods.
Besides the usual breath-taking vistas and highly technical ski maneuvers, “Higher Ground” featured some moments of levity such as an intern promoted to director in one day and an envious five-year veteran boom mike operator.
Josh Madsen, a former USU student and Warren Miller athlete featured in “Higher Ground,” was signing autographs for students in the foyer following the screening. Madsen said he’s been going to Warren Miller movies since he was 10 or 11 and, “it’s a great thing to kick off the [skiing] season.”
USU students John Reynolds and Nate Armstrong were there as well, as they have been for “the last seven years, cutting out my mission,” Armstrong said.
Reynolds, who is a senior majoring in business information systems, said of all the great skiing territory featured on the film, “I really want to hit Lake Tahoe.”
Armstrong, a junior majoring in electrical engineering, expressed concern that most of the narration duties were passed on to Olympic mogul skier and NFL prospect Jeremy Bloom.
“Warren Miller is getting old, and he wants to turn it over to someone else and make it a dynasty,” Armstrong said. “I thought the movie was great.”
Tyler Bird, who is an undecided junior, said he was having a great time and the new Warren Miller movie compares very favorably to ones he’s seen in the past.
Bird said he goes to the Warren Miller movie every year and wants to go skiing in Alaska after seeing the footage in the movie.
Madsen said he was excited to be back in Logan. Regarding the lack of Warren Miller narration in “Higher Ground,” Madsen said, “Warren has definitely taken a step back a little bit and this year they did Jeremy Bloom, who is going to be in the Olympics this year. I think it was an opportunity to have Jeremy come in and do a little bit of narration.”
The loudest applause of the evening from the students, came when the legendary Warren Miller paid his compliments to the legendary Utah powder over footage of Madsen and two other athletes shredding The Canyons in Park City.
-graham@cc.usu.edu