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your own reviews if you disagree with us or have something to
add! Some of these titles are not available on-line, so I've
included ordering information in the link. |
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Avalanche
History |
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The Greatest Snow on Earth: Utah's Skiing Story
55 min. 1999
Skiing in Utah is traced back to the 1800's when intrepid
miners and mailcarriers used skis to travel through the Wasatch
mountains. Within the span of a century, legends would be
created, a half billion dollar industry would bloom, and Utah
plays host to the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
Through rarely-seen archival footage and interviews of Stein
Eriksen, Alf Engen, Dolores LaChapelle, Dick Bass, and Andrew
McLean (to name a few), the compelling history of ski jumping,
resort development, avalanche science, inventions, powder
skiing, and the controversial 2002 Winter Olympic Games are
revealed.
The early history of avalanche science at Alta is traced
with compelling footage and interviews of Sverre Engen, Monty
Atwater, Ed and Dolores LaChapelle.
Hank Kashiwa, skiing commentator and 1972 United States Olympic
ski racer, narrates this documentary by award-winning filmmaker
Shawn Emery.
"Tune in...a must see," SKI magazine.
"A powerful testimony of the sport's true pioneers," Picabo
Street.
Ordering information:
Please send check or money order for $23.95 payable to:
Working Title Productions
1221 South 1000 East
Salt Lake City, Utah 84105
USA
Questions: 801-463-0741, semery@xmission.com
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| Avalanche
Awareness |
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Riding
Safely in Avalanche Country is produced by the Forest Service
National Avalanche Center. It is the best snowmobile-oriented,
basic avalanche awareness video available and it's a steal at
$15.95. All proceeds from video sales go to avalanche education
for snowmobilers, so you can feel superior for ordering it!
E-mail or call (208) 726-4333 to order.
Reviewed by: FF on 3/12/99
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Winning the Avalanche Game is a modern
classic! Produced by the Utah Avalanche Center, the avalanche
awareness and snow safety information is top-notch and exactly
what you want to know before going out to play in the den of
the avalanche dragon. $29.95 S/H included.
Also available from:
Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center
Box 521353
Salt Lake City, UT 84152-1353
(801) 488-1003
Reviewed by: FF on 3/19/99
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Produced by some of the country's leading avalanche
experts like Betsy Armstrong and Knox Williams, Avalanche
Awareness: A Question of Balance is an excellent avalanche
awareness video that gives you real tools to use in the backcountry.
Reviewed by: FF on 3/19/99
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now! |
Avalanche 2-Pack
"This video covers all the bases re: avalanche safety.
If you are spending time in the backcountry, pick one up. Could
be the best 10 bucks you ever spend." |
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Avalanche Rescue and Skills Training |
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now! |
Avalanche Rescue Beacons: A Race Against Time was
produced by Dale Atkins at the Colorado
Avalanche Information Center. This video is good stuff
and really clarifies the functioning of avalanche beacons.
You learn the "whys" behind all the quirky little things that
are hard to remember about beacon searches, like: orienting
to the maximum signal, interpreting double loud points and
the difference between grid and tangent searches. 38 min.
$25.00
This video is available through the Colorado
Geologic Survey publications catalog.
Reviewed by: FF on 3/19/99
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now! |
The same crew from the CAIC
teamed up with the National Ski
Patrol to bring you Avalanche Rescue: Not a Second to
Waste!. It's nice when videos like this are produced by
people who really know what they're talking about! Organized
rescue teams like ski patrols and search and rescue groups will
probably find this information the most useful, but anyone who
ventures into the winter backcountry can benefit from this quick
primer in search techniques. Seeing how long it takes even skilled
rescuers to find a buried victim will make you want to run out
and buy a beacon!
You can order this video on-line if you have a current NSP
membership number, otherwise, check your local bookstore.
Reviewed by: FF on 3/25/99
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Order now! |
What's the difference between a trampoline and
a banjo? You take your shoes off before you jump on a trampoline...
If this pretty much sums up your opinion of the instrument,
then steer clear of Snow Profile Procedures, whose
soundtrack is a poor audio-quality, uninterrupted jangle of
twangy finger-picking laid over still photos of some guy in
a snow pit. The Canadian
Avalanche Association (CAA) is known for their cutting-edge
avalanche programs and high quality education materials, so
it makes me wonder what happened here. The idea of a video
that illustrates snow pit profiles is a great one, since the
process is difficult to visualize from a text or lecture,
but the world will have to wait for a better attempt.
Order it if you must, but the excellent Observation
Guidelines... reviewed on our Other
Publications page contains the same information and is
not nearly so pricey!
Use this address
and phone number or e-mail
address if you have trouble ordering on-line.
Reviewed by: FF on 3/19/99
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Order now!
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In contrast to the pathetic Snow Profile Procedures,
The Canadian Avalanche Association's
(CAA) Beating the Odds is a great training video
that consistently ranks as the most popular in our avalanche
courses. While it starts out a bit hokey, the video ends up
doing an excellent job of tying the big picture together as
it follows a group of unacquainted backcountry snowmobilers,
skiers and snowboarders as they plan and conduct a weekend excursion
into avalanche terrain that turns deadly for some.
This video was a finalist at the Banff
Mountain Film Festival in 1996.
Reviewed by: FF on 3/19/99
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| Avalanche
Entertainment |
Order
now! |
The Discovery Channel's Raging Planet video series
focuses on dramatic forces of nature. Raging Planet: Avalanche
is like similar commercial videos produced by non-snow people:
you can expect high production values, high drama, nail-biting
avalanche footage and somewhat weak snow science. This is a
fun, ooh-aah video, but don't expect to learn much practical
information!
These programs are multi-media events and you can scan their
web-site
for related articles, lesson plans and other information.
Due to improved equipment, new winter sports and relentless
media obsession with the idea of "extreme", it's not just
the lunatic fringe getting killed in avalanches these days.
If Hollywood-style videos encourage the avalanche-naive general
public to seek out deeper information, then it is certainly
a good start!
Reviewed by: FF on 3/18/99
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now! |
Avalanche! is
a Nova (PBS) program. This is another extremely well-crafted
production with excellent avalanche footage, nice graphics and
interviews with prominent snow scientists and avalanche control
experts. The snow science is still a bit weak, but this video
won't teach you anything that you'll have to unlearn later.
Don't worry about getting bored--entertainment is still the
ultimate goal, here!
PBS invented the multi-media concept and the Nova
web-site continues the tradition with related teaching
materials, information on the making of the video and other
information.
Reviewed by: FF on 3/18/99
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Order
now! |
Another in a series of natural disaster "profiles"
by the people who invented the genre. Buy a good copy so you
don't have to sit through the commercials on the one your
mom sent you from Florida.
Reviewed by: FF on 2/8/01
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Avalanche Stock Footage |
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Looking for avalanche footage for your own media
production? This
page has some good sources. |
| Didn't find it here? |
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