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Gathering brings out the many colours of our mountain culture

The third annual Gathering at Red Mountain last weekend brought together legendary skiers, photographers, and filmmakers to share their talents and regale audiences with their stories in a festival that celebrates the inspired images that arise each winter from the core of ski culture.
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Various skiers

The third annual Gathering at Red Mountain last weekend brought together legendary skiers, photographers, and filmmakers to share their talents and regale audiences with their stories in a festival that celebrates the inspired images that arise each winter from the core of ski culture.

“It’s gaining steam,” said Red’s Mika Hakkola. “We had a lot of heavy hitters.”

Also gaining steam were two fully nude, apparently male skiers on Saturday afternoon. As this reporter sat on the Motherlode lift, one cried out, “I’m going to rip the s--t out of this,” before the pair charged Link’s Line and skied away.

The reference was to Gnar, the Squaw Valley game invented by iconic pro skier Shane McConkey who died in a ski-basing accident on March 26 two years ago.

For those unfamiliar with ski-basing, the Gathering had attracted extreme athlete and ski-baser Matthias Giraud from Europe, who explained how he had been inspired by McConkey to enter this sport in which skiers launch off massive cliffs and free fall before deploying a parachute.

Mike Douglas, the “godfather of freeskiing,” now a filmmaker, and also a close friend of McConkey’s, said to the Gathering, “[McConkey] is the greatest skier of all time. He did more things for this sport and to inspire people than anybody else I know. He made us laugh; his legacy lives on.”

Douglas went on to show video of his pioneering efforts to ski-surf in Hawaii.

Kootenay local and “Red Sucks” star Mitchell Scott hosted the event both nights, keeping the crowd endlessly entertained. He gave big kudos to patroller Sparky Steeve’s burly line down the Microwave face, eight-year-old Simon Hillis’s hard shredding and superior goggle tan, and his best in-bounds day of skiing ever thanks to the “shacks with beer everywhere” on Red Mountain.

One of the evening’s highlights was National Geographic photographer Ace Kvale’s Vision Quest slideshow that documented the efforts of three doctors to give free eye surgeries in Asia and Africa, as many as 1,000 in a week, between skiing and mountaineering expeditions and colourful encounters with different cultures.

“We can give people sight overnight,” Kvale said.

Marko Shapiro, dubbed by some to be the godfather of ski photography, began shooting pictures in the 1950s and winter sports in particular in the 1970s. He told the crowd, “There are a zillion factory riders. My show is dedicated to those couple of riders who, [understanding] that the life of a pro rider is not very long, have gone out to find other venues to keep their lifestyle and their riding going, like Leah Evans and Mike Douglas.” Shapiro’s show highlighted Dominique Perez, a pro skier who has spent years creating his own shows and making his own opportunities.

On Friday night, local skiers Colston Beatson, Dane Tudors, and Leah Evans each gave presentations.

Local photographer Francois Marseille took a turn, “documenting life on the other side of the resort that most of you don’t know about and stay away from.”

His creative and hilarious short took us on a tour of a Rossland trailer on a ski morning following a binge, looking in on beer-can archways, a mess of passed-out partiers — including a pair of snuggling ladies — and a couple pauses while the flimmaker swigged whisky and burned blades before hitting the slopes with a case.

“I’ll see you at the end of the summer when I come out of rehab, or something,” Marseille said.

Filmmaker Derek Frankowski, a photojournalist by training who works to merge art with storytelling, gave a behind-the-scenes look at his well-known mountain bike flick, Life Cycles.

Steve Ogle, a skier, photographer, and ecologist out of Nelson, presented a stunning collage of photos and videos from his “best week ever,” not in the hills of a far away continent, but right here at home this February.

Presentations were also given by Grant Gunderson, the lead photographer for The Ski Journal, Whistler’s Leslie Anthony,  an award-winning writer, editor, and filmmaker, and Derek Taylor, the editor of Powder Magazine.

“Red Mountain’s heritage as the original ski resort of Western Canada makes it the perfect location to bring together the old guard of the ski world with young up-and-coming skiers, snowboarders, photographers and filmmakers of the vibrant Kootenay region,” Hakkola said, adding that the event is a sign of Red’s “growing reputation as a crossroads of international mountain professionals.”

Parties carried on into the night, with the Disco Inferno Party at Rafter’s on Friday and the Toques rocking the Steamshovel on Saturday.

Before the crowd dispersed, Red Resort owner Howard Katkov announced, “The Gathering Four will continue next year, we welcome everybody!”