There is nothing I like to do more after a long day of shredding the hard pack that is skiing the east, than filling up at après ski with food and drink loaded with carbs. However, as a father of three, it begs the question, how does après ski continue once you get back to the house? If you can survive the food and beer induced coma, it becomes tough to take three little kids out to a restaurant for dinner (although we try our hardest) So, inevitably, we stay in and watch the tv while continuing to fill up on adult beverages.
In recent years when the après ski party ends up at home we have incorporated the viewing of some of the most epic and some not so epic (Copper Mountain) ski movies to pass the time. In these situations, there is no greater way to keep the stoke going than watching the best in the world rip epic lines through the steep and deep. It will certainly have you recounting your own tales of your day's runs and have you anxiously awaiting more the next day.
Always in search of a new ski flick to incorporate into our après ski tradition, I sat down with me three young daughters to watch the new Matchstick Productions movie, Ruin and Rose. I am not sure if I have ever seen a ski movie with a plot quite like this one...or one with a plot at all. Nonetheless, Matchstick has managed to nail this genre down. Set in a post apocalyptic world of sand called the Big Empty, Ruin and Rose is a story of a young boy in search of a fabled world of snow that used to be, called Xanadu. As the young boy wonders through the desert, his snow globe based dreams show the amazing geographic contrast between Africa's Skeleton Coast and the Mountains of Alaska, British Columbia, Switzerland, and more. Throughout its entirety, the deeper meaning of global warming is evident, as is the underlying theme of perseverance, yet despite this deeper meaning my two little girls (ages 3 and 4) seemed caught up on where all the kids' parents were. Confusion aside, it was not enough to prevent them from being fascinated by the pretty gnarly skiing that took place throughout the film. At one point, my oldest daughter (7), turned to me and said, "Dad, when am I going to ski the pillows?", which pretty much sums it all up. Yes, the post apocalyptic message of global warming is deep but so is deep the powder that the world's best carve up throughout the film. This thought provoking and visual combination makes Ruin and Rose a worthy ski film for mountain enthusiasts and anyone else who is willing to watch.
