Mike – After months spent traversing heinous glacial fields, subsisting on food products prepared by people who have never heard the phrase “food handlers permit”, and lugging hundreds of pounds of gear through the bus stations of South America, our second summer of winter has come to an end.  Wrapping up two years in production for SOLITAIRE, I spent two weeks shooting on the world renowned slopes of Portillo Chili, while the rest of the crew, already back in the states, were fervently hacking at keyboards and bumping the refresh rate on their monitors beyond safety standards for human use.  Mark my words, there is no better way to top off a season of living in the rough than by working out of a classy hotel that serves you up with mouthwatering breakfast, lunch and dinner, with tea time thrown in between, and the icing on the cake; complimentary aquarobic classes.  Uncanny. Sure, I was still charged  to hike up the hill with an overweight angry midget clamped to my back, but then again the water pressure inherent to aquatic aerobics breaks lactic acid down quick.  The hot tub and cute ski instructors don’t hurt either.  Maybe I should feel bad for enjoying goods with the rest of the team back home, but then again, lets not forget the bounty delivered by red hot american summers; pool parties, bike rides, BBQ’ing, cold refreshing beers, and perhaps most importantly sun dresses.  The boys have been cranking the edits out, and the cuts are  looking delicious, but I know they’ve been taking a few breaks to see the sun.

Stay tuned for the return of our On The Road with SOLITAIRE series, as we drop episodes about our time at the big yellow hotel and more… and get ready for SOLITAIRE to drop September 15 at the Gothic Theatre in Denver, CO!

 

Thanks Frank Shine Tecnica/Blizzard for photos, Ski Portillo for accommodations!

 

 

 

Sweetgrass Productions presents SOLITAIRE

Ben– Hey folks, arising from the belly of the beast, we’re back again. Bolivia– down. Peru–down. Las Lenas and Nevado de Chillan? Game over. All that’s left now is a brief stint for Mike Brown in Portillo, and the beast is in the bag.  As for our whereabouts for the next month, we expect to be deep within the Batcave with nary a glimpse of summer sunlight and little to no social interaction, editing a two-year project in two weeks. These balls are destined for the walls, things have been kicked into gear for Solitaire’s September release, and it feels like Christmas is finally coming after Santa skipped it for a year.

So in the spirit of shred-trailer holiday season, and without further ado, we present the trailer for our two-year epic South American snow-opera “Solitaire.” Enjoy, and if at all possible find yourself in Denver at 7pm September 15th at The Gothic Theater for a ski film experience unlike any you’ve ever known. And/or buy the DVD immediately thereafter. Lots of them, we’re poor.

Shot on location in the Cordillera Blancas, Peru; Altiplano, Bolivia; Las Lenas, Argentina; Caviahue, Argentina; Bariloche, Argentina; Nevados de Chillan, Chile; and Portillo, Chile:

A massive thanks goes out to our sponsors for seeing through such an off-the-wall project by a bunch of near-college dropouts. Patagonia and Dynafit, you are dear to our hearts. Clif Bar, you easily constitute 30% of my body weight. And then, of course, we celebrate Osprey Packs, Venture Snowboards, Blizzard Skis, Flylow, Backcountry.com, Gentemstick, Backcountry Magazine, and BCA. You making our rocking world go round.

Our athlete roster for the film includes:

Leo Ahrens, JP Auclair, Ryland Bell, Will Cardamone, Johnny Collinson, Forrest Coots, Stephan Drake, Jacqui Edgerly, Chris Erickson, Sebastian Haag, Kip Garre, Atsushi Gomyo, Kim Havell, Eliel Hindert, Erica Laidlaw, Jaime Laidlaw, Kyle Miller, Osamu “Ommu” Okada, Carston Oliver, Alex Paul, Thayne Rich, Dave Rosenbarger, Elyse Saugstad, Aidan Sheahan, Forrest Shearer, Ptor Spricenieks, Thomas Steiner, Drew Stoecklein, Taro Tamai, Jack Tolan… and honoring Arne Backstrom and Kip Garre. A million thanks for putting your time and sweat into an unconventional project that at times seemed to have no end.

Finally, a personal thanks to the trailer’s narrator Tata Cabral and the crew at Hostel Punto Sur in Bariloche, for helping us scrape together the narration at the last minute and tying this trailer up. And to the mighty Joseph Conrad, from whose mighty “Heart of Darkness” the narration was adapted.

See you in September, boys and girls.