Movie Review - 'Steep'

Steep

Featuring Doug Coombs, Seth Morrison, and Peter Krause
Directed by Mark D. Obenhaus
Rated PG

“I’ve lost a few friends, blood brother type friends. That’s the life I guess I’ve chosen for myself. I guess I’ve learned to accept that. You ski big mountains in an uncontrolled environment, you’re going to see death. And you may succumb to it yourself.” - Eric Pehota

For some of us, skiing is an easygoing family getaway in Vail. For others, maybe the Olympic slaloms hold some appeal. But then there are the restless, fearless and talented athletes who have taken skiing from a placid pastime to an aggressive, graceful extreme sport that scales the highest peaks in the world and challenges them to find the fastest, most thrilling way down.

Steep retraces the footprints in the snow of a sport that has been revolutionized several times over the past 40 years, first in the French Alps, then in the craggy mountains of Western Canada, then through an underground ski movie called Blizzard of Aaahhhs that inspired a new generation of skiers, and more recently, to previously untouched summits in Alaska, where the sport broke into the mainstream consciousness thanks to death-defying performers like Doug Coombs and Seth Morrison.

There is great insight here into the makeup, the character and the will of these men and women (although there are only two women featured in the film) who see very real mountains as metaphorical ones. Perhaps that’s overstating it for a few skiers, like Glen Plake, the first real punk of skiing, who seems simply to be fueled by the adrenaline, but throughout the film, these athletes have faced fear, injuries and the deaths of those close to them only to climb back to the top of the mountain and try again.

Obviously, the cinematography and editing in this documentary are superb. As compelling as some of the stories are, the visual evidence is always much stronger. And while Steep takes a glorious turn about halfway in, the first 45 minutes drags as director Mark Obenhaus struggles to give equal time to an equally important but less contemporary and less virtuosic era for the sport. It’s like watching ESPN Classic and trying to figure out what people mean when they say basketball was better 20 years ago.

But there are lessons to be found in Steep, both from a filmmaking perspective and in life. The athletes who make this breathtaking form possible and make the film so interesting absolutely have no regrets. Walk down the street and see how many people you could find who could join that group.