Publication Date: Friday Nov 14, 1997

Shred any mountain

For non-skiers, watching a Warren Miller film will likely do one of two things. It will either motivate you to pick up the poles and head to the slopes--or scare you into being a permanent lodge-lizard.

Miller, whose name is as synonymous with skiing as Rossignol, Salomon or Dynastar, has been wowing crowds with his cinematic visions of extreme skiing for close to 50 years. His latest film, which features the daredevil exploits of skiers, snowboarders and other powder-trashing riders, is called "Snowriders 2" and shows tonight, Nov. 14, at Spangenberg Auditorium and next week at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

This 48th annual feature film, a sequel to 1996's "Snowriders," follows the familiar Miller path: film the best skiers and snowboarders doing crazy stunts in some far off locations, throw in a few weird moments, mix with appropriately rocking music and serve on a really big screen. There's no doubt it's a successful combination. In its run through mid-December, "Snowriders 2" will screen 300 times to a total of 350,000 viewers across the United States. That's not even counting the dates in Canada, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

To a pumping soundtrack featuring the likes of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Joe Satriani, Shawn Colvin and the Counting Crows, the Warren Miller crew takes viewers to locations both popular and remote, from Heavenly Valley at Lake Tahoe and Killington resort in Vermont to Alyeska, Alaska and Almaty, Kazakstan. The film team is always on the lookout for exotic places to shred.

"I guess it's almost like the Star Trek thing, to (boldly) go where you have never skied before," said Peter Speek, who co-directed and produced the film with Miller's son, Kurt.

Speek, who has a degree in film and television, met Kurt Miller about 11 years ago and the duo started a sports-related sales and marketing company. They now own the film company, having bought Warren Miller and his partners out eight years ago. Besides lending his famous name to the productions, Warren Miller, 73, writes the scripts and narrates the films with his low-key delivery and dry wit. The operation is now a major year-round production, with a director of photography, an editor and an associate director. That's a far cry from the early days.

"Warren use to do everything," Speek said during a telephone interview. "Warren started out as a one-man operation."

Warren Miller's career took a turn toward success during a weekend spent skiing back in 1946, when he was a senior in college. That Monday he came back to college, dropped out and never looked back as he headed for a life careening down the mountain.

For his films, Miller has tapped some of the world's best skiers and snowboarders. "Snowriders 2" follows the exploits of such experts as former U.S. Olympic ski team member Bill Hudson; former Swiss national ski team member Annick Chappot; world snowboard champion Jeremy Jones; and former U.S. freestyle team member Ellen Sheilds. As impressive as these folks are, the viewer can't help but be equally awe-struck with the hidden cameramen who must chase these snowriders down the slopes carrying cumbersome equipment.

"The cameramen have to be as good a cameraman as any cameramen in Hollywood and as good a skier as any skier in our film," Speek said.

Although Warren Miller started off as a skier, over the years, his interests in snowriding have broadened. Besides traditional alpine skiing and snowboarding scenes, "Snowriders 2" also contains very vivid images of folks racing down the mountain using such odd devices as windsurfers, kayaks and mountain bikes.

"Today when people ask me about my choice of snowriding equipment, I just tell them when I go play golf, I don't have just one club in my bag, so why should I use just one piece of snowriding equipment?" Miller said in the film.

One of the main thrusts of the movie is to bring together the skiing and snowboarding communities. These two groups are often unfriendly, if not downright hostile, to each other, but as this film so forcefully shows, they both have the same goal: to shred.

"People are finally beginning to realize that we all play on the same mountain," Miller said in 1996's "Snowriders." "So why not abandon the centuries-old word skiers, and the 20-year-old word snowboarders, and instead call all of us snowriders?"

Why not, indeed?

What: Warren Miller's "Snowriders 2" film

When and where: 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, Spangenberg Auditorium, Gunn High School, 780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto; 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 18 and 19, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Castro and Mercy streets, Mountain View

How much: $13

Information: Call (408) 998-BASS 

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