Friday, March 17

Sticking It

By Derek Taylor

Steve is one of the pioneers of the freeskiing movement. One reason the whole thing came about is because Steve was shooting film of it. Mike Jaquet, Publisher of Freeze Magazine

The first time I interviewed Steve Winter was in the winter of 1996. Winters third full-length ski film, The Tribe, was just named Best Adventure Film and Best of Show at the International Ski Film Festival. I found him in his office outlining his next release, Fetish. His world headquarters at the time was a little room somewhere between the kitchen and his bedroom in the A-frame he and partner Murray Wais rented in Mt. Crested Butte, CO.

Right now, skiings got probably the lamest image it can possibly get. Its at its lowest low, Winter lamented. But I think if we keep showing what you can bring your limits to, people will start respecting the sport, and the image will get better.

In the three years since that declaration, the sports image has indeed rebounded, and Winter and Wais deserve at least some of the credit. I never once thought about stopping making ski movies because it wasnt cool, Winter says from the office he now occupies overlooking Crested Buttes historic Elk Avenue, a space that dwarfs the bedroom he used in 96, but that hes already outgrown. Instead I thought, Im going to work really hard to make a good movie that will make skiing cool again.

Winters first attempt (if you dont count the VW-bus-supported 15 minute demo he made in 1991 called Nachos and Fear), was the 1993 cult classic Soul Sessions and Epic Impressions. Every year since, he has released another movie (including two in 1998: Sick Sense and a best-of film called Second Nature), and every year his movies, and the revolution they were intended to start, pick up momentum.

Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of that revolution has been Winter himself. In 1998 he and Wais changed their companys name from Reel Adventure Films to the more marketable moniker Matchstick Productions (Because we wanted to ignite the flame under the ski industrys ass, Winter says). Their 1999/2000 release Global Storming is expected to sell half-again to twice as many copies as Sick Sense, which Winter says is the trend just about every year. MSP now works with some of the biggest distribution outlets in the world, including Virgin Megastores, Blockbuster, and Tower Video, and the release of Global Storming on DVD is a first for a ski movie. There is also a Global Storming soundtrack CD, believed to be another first for a ski movie.

The revolution is a success, but victory didnt come without its price.

Steve Winter should be dead. Powder Magazine

In the summer of 1997, Steve hit a defining moment in his life and career. While in Chile filming Pura Vida, the helicopter carrying Winter, photographer T.R. Youngstrom, skier Seth Morrison, a guide and a pilot to the top of the Andes went down. The crash killed Youngstrom and the pilot, and seriously wounded everyone else, including Winter, who broke his back and was paralyzed. According to those on the scene, Winter was minutes from death himself.

Two and a half years later, Steve is sitting at his desk next to a poster size picture of Youngstrom, trying to answer my questions amidst a flurry of phone calls. This is the second day in a row weve attempted an interview. Yesterdays barrage of calls was even worse. MSP currently has five cameramen in mountain ranges from California to British Columbia to France, and Steve is in the midst of planning his own trip to Alaska; it will be only his second time in a helicopter since the 1997 crash. The calls are coming in from cameramen experiencing technical problems, from skiers trying to iron out the logistics of their next trip, and from magazine editors trying to get their photographers on the next excursion. Every once in a while, when the ringing stops, we get a chance to chat about that day in Chile.

Do you ever get sick of being the filmmaker who survived the heli crash?
I do and I dont. I get tired of the general questions, like in the bar when ten times a night someone comes up to me and says when are you going to ski again? Im like, I dont know. Because I dont know.

When things happen to you in life, you have to look at what good is going to come out of it. For Matchstick, its brought us more exposure. The tragedy of the whole thing is that there were lives lost. Its a really sad thing when you go out to have a good time, and you come back with people who are dead.

How much do you remember from those two hours you spent on the side of the Andes?
I remember quite a bit. I was conscious the whole time. T.R. was right next to me and I spent most of my couple hours talking to him. We talked about staying alive, and not thinking about dying. It really occupied my time just trying to stay alive and just trying to stay with it and be there for T.R. He was a little worse off than I was.

Do you think thats what got you through?
It could be because a lot of what I was doing was saying, Were not going to die, were not doing to die. People are coming; I know theyre coming. Theyre on their way. Maybe the support that I was giving to T.R., and vocalizing it, really kept me going as well.

How long is the rod in your back?
Its called a Harrington Rod. Its a titanium bar, and I will have it out in May. Its been affecting my golf swing. It goes from L1 to T12, so its about six inches, and theres two of them, one on either side of my spine. It just fuses it all together. But since the bones have healed, they serve no purpose.

Is that the last piece of hardware left over from the crash?
Yep. Thats the only thing they put in. When I first got to the hospital in Chile, I had an eight-hour surgery, which is a pretty long surgery. Thats when they installed the rods, and fused my spine. The whole next day I was under, then the next day is when I woke up.

Did you ever consider just throwing it all away and quitting the ski business?
Definitely. After I woke up from surgery, Murray and I were in my hospital room together, just he and I. One of the first things we talked about was whether we want to continue doing this. Is it really worth it? And we came to the conclusion that F-yeah its worth it. Its totally worth it, because our lives have been so enjoyable, and the quality of our lives had been so great up until that point. Murray really took the torch from there, and did a fantastic job finishing Pura Vida. He finished the opener and the credits, and then started learning how to shoot. Hes turned out to be just an awesome shooter, and Ive been fortunate to get back out there and do some shooting. Getting through something like that makes you look back at the small problems you have with business, and theyre no big deal. At least youre not dead, and at least youre not laying in a hospital bed in some foreign country paralyzed. Theres really nothing that can happen in our business, besides another tragedy, that would really bring us down that far.

Two years ago, I was here in a wheelchair. Last year, I was on crutches. This year, nothing! Steve Winter at the World Premiere of Global Storming, September, 1999.

Just as Winter once helped wrestle skiing away from the suits-and-ties and day-glow one pieces that controlled the industry when he graduated college, everyday he wrestles a little bit of his old self away from his paralysis. He is able to walk, though for long distances he still uses a cane (in the summer time, the avid golfer trades the cane for a nine iron). The nerves are growing back about an inch a month, and though he still has yet to put on a pair of skis, mentally, the injury seems to have no ill effect on him. If anything, its helped his work.

You know, its hard and its not hard, Winter says of working in the ski industry and not being able to ski. I still get to hang with all my ski friends, and I still get to hear about their great days. But Ive had so many epic ski days in my life that being able to focus on my business and the distribution of our movies has been a big rush in itself.

As far as getting an adrenaline rush on snow, I bought a new snowmobile and its like motocross on snow. Its a really good time. And getting in a helicopter again to film Global Storming helped me feel reconnected with the ski scene. Just being out in the mountains and standing on a peak, and looking down and seeing all the snow, and blue sky, and all the peaks. That was a big deal.

For more on Matchstick Productions visit www.mspfilms.com