Warren Miller Entertainment comes to USU for ‘Cold Fussion’
Warren Miller Entertainment will premiere its 52nd annual ski and snowboard film, Cold Fusion Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m. at USU.
The 90-minute Cold Fusion film takes its audience from the steep terrain of the Swiss Alps to the soaring peaks and hidden glaciers of Kenya.
“We spend our lives looking for a perfect combination of slope and temperature, technique and daring, freedom and power. There we’ll inhabit a world driven by the power of snow, a power born of a reaction that produces no heat, a universe fueled by Cold Fusion,” Warren Miller said in the films opening.
Miller takes his audience across the world in the most extreme conditions, breaking world records and displaying the best skiers in the world including gold medallist Eric Bergoust of Park City, on the big screen.
The footage in Berbier, Switzerland catches Dave Barlia as he leaps off the north face of the Swiss Eiger, flying through the air for a world-record-breaking 41 seconds before pulling his parachute.
“Interestingly enough, in all the stunts and everything that Miller has had people do, no one has ever been killed,” veteran cameraman Gary Nate said. “A lot of it is luck, but a lot of it is being the best in the world at what you do and you just don’t go out and leap off a 100-foot cliff. You have to know what you are doing.”
How about a quad-quad? “Nearly 20 years ago, Frankie Bare did the world’s first triple-twisting quad somersault. It’s taken this long for someone to consider attempting the quad-quad. Today is the day,” Miller said in the film.
This narration comes seconds before Matt Chojnacki breaks another world record with four back flips with four twists. This jump has been outlawed by the Olympics, Nate said.
“These guys feel more comfortable in the air than they do walking around,” Nate said. “Our skiers really know what they’re doing, they can jump over the top of me or come within a foot of me.”
Julie Zell, a snowboarder from Teton Village in Wyoming, knows the danger faced when making these films. Zell describes an avalanche during filming in Girdwood, Alaska; “I glanced out of the corner of my eye and saw this big freight train of snow barreling at me.” She survived without even a scratch.
“I don’t recommend that for a thrill,” she said.
On Wednesday, in apartment L-2 in Old Farm at 8 p.m., the making of Miller’s Cold Fusion will be shown.