Day 1 Burning and Shooting at Retallack, B.C. | Powder Magazine - Ski Photos - Ski Videos

Burning and Shooting at Retallack, B.C.
On location with Matchstick Productions

Photos and Words by Matt Hansen

On some ski trips, it dumps. Other times it doesn’t so much as whimper. Such is the way of the world. But no matter what Mother Nature hands you, you take it with a smile and give thanks that you’re not working at a bank in some flat-ass icy armpit. Instead of getting face shots, maybe you burn a couple (dozen) trees, shoot off fireworks, build huge booters, and otherwise simply find stuff to jump off—like a lodge balcony into a pile of beanbags. But watch that landing, because if you miss the pillow you damn near might break your leg, or ass bone, as it were.

Over the last two weeks, Matchstick Productions hunkered down at Retallack in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia. Though known for its deep snow and steep tree runs, Retallack was in the midst of a high and dry cycle. But the MSP crew, along with athletes Rory Bushfield and terrain park wunderkinds Colby West and PK Hunder, searched high and low for shots for next year’s film.

The trip marked a turning point of sorts for Colby and PK. While they had done some backcountry trips before, they were breaking new personal ground at Retallack, a catski-op that lets its guests ski aggressive lines while treating them to a unique brand of mountain culture. It was especially new to PK, the 19-year-old Norwegian who goes into this week’s final Dew Tour stop in Tahoe with the chance to take home thousands in cash earnings.

In candid interviews, Colby and PK admitted to being out of their element, and PK had even yearned to be back in the predictable nature of a groomed park. “I miss the park,” PK said quietly after one missed landing. Given the nasty avalanche cycle that hit Retallack in early January, rendering many of its slopes unskiable, you could begin to understand their frustration on the eleventh consecutive day of shooting with no new snow. (If you weren’t concerned about spinning or grabbing mute, and weren’t worried about getting a film segment, you could still find freshies, as the cold temps sucked any and all moisture from the snow surface, leaving beautiful cold smoke.)

Reprieve was found during a session on the Retallack sign next to the highway—a tow-in behind a Subaru. And the dead pines, which flamed up in seconds with just the flick of a lighter. And then there was Bushfield, who’s always stoked just to be out there.

On the last afternoon of shooting, after Bushfield hit a kicker on his snowmobile beside a 50-foot torching tree, he walked back up the cattrack to his sled, his ass still smarting from missing the beanbag jump earlier in the week. “Hey, Bushy, where you going?” asked cinematographer Murray Wais.

“Gonna grab some fireworks,” he responded.