Whitefish featured in new Warren Miller ski flick
<p>Whitefish Mountain Resort is featured in the latest Warren Miller ski flick "Ticket to Ride."</p>
When the 64th Warren Miller ski flick “Ticket to Ride” makes its Whitefish debut this month, more than a few segments will be quite familiar to local skiers and snowboarders.
The iconic ski film company teamed up with the Montana Office of Tourism last winter to highlight a handful of ski resorts and backcountry destinations in the state, including Whitefish Mountain Resort.
Super slow motion shots of skiers slashing through deep power beneath towering snowghosts on Big Mountain stand out in the five minute segment that features Whitefish Mountain Resort, Big Sky Resort and Bridger Bowl.
The Warren Miller crew was in Whitefish for about a week last January with professional freeskiers Josh Bibby and Tyler Ceccanti.
“They shot a lot of footage up here,” Whitefish Mountain Resort spokeswoman Riley Polumbus said. “The snow looks awesome.”
Polumbus wouldn’t release the exact location of where crews filmed, but said anyone who skis regularly on Big Mountain will easily recognize the terrain. A promotional trailer shows skiers jibbing snowghosts, point-of-view footage of powder pillows and even a few shots of the train depot and downtown.
The Montana Office of Tourism’s $350,000 sponsorship agreement with Warren Miller Entertainment should pay dividends, Polumbus said. The official film tour will hit 80 markets with 200 shows, and reach about 300,000 skiers.
“Being in a Warren Miller film is a big deal,” Polumbus said. “All of us grew up with them. There are a lot of good ski production companies out there now, but Warren Miller is still a go-to to get fired up for ski season.”
Having Big Mountain featured in the movie could be even more beneficial than making the annual SKI magazine top-30 resort list, Polumbus said — which ranked Whitefish Mountain Resort as No. 21 this year.
“You get so much more out of seeing a film and feeling like you are there,” she said.
The Montana segment of “Ticket to Ride” is positioned between exotic winter locales like the fjords of Greenland and Iceland’s Troll Peninsula.
Other athletes filmed in Montana include Keely Kelleher and legendary freeskier Scot Schmidt. Bozeman cinematographer Chris Patterson served as the film’s director and principle cinematographer.