Daron Rahlves, Courtesy of WME
A sold-out crowd packed the auditorium at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco for the screening of Warren Miller’s Dynasty on November 10, 2009. The enthusiastic crowd cheered wildly as past Olympic gold medalist, Jonny Moseley, and Olympic medal hopeful Errol Kerr bounded onto the stage to kick off the evening. The live appearance of these Lake Tahoe-based skiers made the evening even more magical for this crowd.
Moseley, who won the gold medal in moguls at the 1998 Olympics, said the opening segment, filmed in Tahoe, was “epic” for him since was where he learned to ski and trained for the Olympics. It’s also special because of the connection to Warren Miller himself, who started out as a ski instructor at Squaw Valley. It meant a lot to him to feature Lake Tahoe and local skiers since the area has not been featured in a Warren Miller movie in 10 years.
Kerr, an Olympic hopeful, said it was a dream of his to be in a Warren Miller movie, an aspiration that many wanna-be skiers and boarders in the room could relate to. Kerr is an up-and-coming athlete who is planning to represent Jamaica at the first appearance of the Jamaican ski team in the Olympics. His specialty is skiercross, which will debut for the first time at the Olympics in Vancouver in February 2010. Modeled after motocross, skiercross is a wild sport for competitors and spectators alike as four skiers leave the gates simultaneously down a course filled with terrain features, taking jumps along the way, and is sure to be a crowd favorite at the Olympics.
Jonny Moseley signing autographs
Moseley, who has taken over the narration of the film from the venerable Warren Miller, is a featured skier in the opening segment of the film along with other Lake Tahoe skiers, including Daron Rahlves, an Olympic contender in alpine ski racing in the 2006 Olympics, now pursuing an Olympic medal in skiercross for the US team in 2010, competing against Erroll Kerr. They were joined by Kerr, Jamie Burge and JT Holmes as they took advantage of the phenomenal powder that Tahoe received last year, bombing down some incredible terrain in the backcountry.
Erroll Kerr with Inga Aksamit
At the intermission Moseley and Kerr sat side by side signing autographs and chatting it up with the crowd, their appearance and conduct contrasting their experience in the world of elite skiers. Moseley, poised and comfortable, looked like the elder statesman with a collared shirt and short haircut, while Kerr was dressed in a bright green Alpine Meadows sweatshirt and long hair, a little looser in style and refreshingly playful.
There were a few segments of vintage Warren Miller clips spliced into the movie to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Warren Miller movie production, a nice addition for those who remember the warmth and humor of the Warren Miller movies of the past. This movie, like the Warren Miller movies of the last few years, is a sophisticated production that delivers good entertainment value—not bad, just different from before, with perhaps a little less soul. Moseley is settling into his role as narrator in this second film for him, and is giving it a different feel, reflective of the times.
The usual breathtaking scenery, cliff jumps, tumbles, hikes up hanging faces and precarious helicopter landings in Alaska, British Columbia, Norway and other locations were interspersed with unique scenes, such as the Schrab brothers, previously profiled in Warren Miller films as teenagers. Now grown up with engineering degrees they are still executing daring stunts on the flats of the cornfields of Wisconsin. An inspiring segment displayed the athletic prowess of seven disabled skiers competing on monoskis at the Monoskier X catching huge air and absorbing some big crashes.
The segment that really had people talking was a trek in Northwestern China on a horse-drawn sled to a remote village where skiing may have truly been born thousands of years ago. The locals have been using rough hand carved wooden skis and horsehair climbing skins for recreation, dragging a single pole behind them and to the side to aid balance and steering, and gave the visiting crew with their modern equipment a run for their money.
Seeing the Warren Miller’s Dynasty is the best way to get psyched about winter so you don’t want to miss it. The tour is happening right now in venues across the U.S.
Photos of Jonny Moseley (middle) and Erroll Kerr (bottom) by Inga Aksamit
