The Meeting 8 closed strong with Teton Gravity Research’s feature film, “The Dream Factory.” The film is a tribute to Alaska, skiing’s mecca and TGR’s most frequented destination since it first began exploring America’s last frontier sixteen years ago. Starting in Girdwood, The Dream Factory covers AK’s history, from the gold rush and the rise of commercial fishing, to the advent of skiing’s golden age of exploration in the 1990’s, of which TGR played an important role.
TGR athletes before the show.
By chronicling today’s descents mixed in with clips from the past, TGR creates a story on Alaska’s ever evolving importance and impact on the world of freeskiing. From first descents around the Tsaina Lodge in the 90’s, to today’s exploration into northern Chugach, TGR shows how we, as a freeski community, have only scratched the surface. The Aspen crowd went especially nuts when local boy Colter Hinchliffe ripped a new one on the classic descent, Dr. Suess. Hinchliffe comments, “Finding myself in a TGR movie is honestly a dream come true… I’ve been to the world premiere in Jackson and a couple more premieres, but non was more special than in my home town of Aspen. It’s wild to finally be up on the big screen after watching and wondering if I would ever make it there… But I need to be humble and really crank up the work ethic if I want to keep it going.”
While the film has a big mountain focus, TGR also does a good job mixing modern day jib elements into its coverage of Alaska. Tim Durtschi’s opening segment demonstrates his ability to turn every aspect of Alaska into his playground, jibbing wild ice features while skiing big mountain lines at a high level. In another segment, Clayton Vila and Cam Riley throw down on the streets of Anchorage.
Though the film’s dominant focus is on Alaska, a TGR film wouldn’t be complete without a Jackson segment. In a way that somewhat embodies the theme of “The Dream Factory,” TGR finds a way to make a segment devoted to Corbet’s Couloir, a classic but heavily catalogued feature, seem new and refreshing. John Spriggs’ enormous laid out backflip sets the tone for a session that sees huge senders from Jackson locals Griffin Post and super-grom Daniel Tsisi. The film also features an awesome segment from Dana Flahr in his home turf of Pemberton, BC. The film wraps up with a segment from TGR veteran Dash Long. After getting worked by his sluff, Dash rebounds to crush in the Northern Chugach.
Teton Gravity Research’s 2012 films, “The Dream Factory” and “Further” (the second installment in the Jeremy Jones trilogy) will be screened November 7th at Western State Colorado University.
