Aspen-based big mountain skier Chris Davenport has ascended and descended some of the most challenging peaks on Earth’s seven continents, he famously skied all of Colorado’s 54 fourteeners in the span of a year and, like all of us, he’s been spending some extra time on the couch over the past month during stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
We asked Davenport, who has been featured in Warren Miller flicks like “Flow State” and Matchstick’s “Days of My Youth” and was the director-producer of “Australis,” to curate a collection of his favorite ski and adventure films you can watch during your stay-home period.
“So there are three key elements to a good adventure film: great characters, an epic or exotic location, and an objective that pushes the human experience to new heights,” Davenport explained of his selections. “Now, a great adventure film has an added element. It could be a tragedy, or a survival story, or even a huge ‘first’ for humanity. Regardless, filmmaking in remote locations is an amazing art and one that has inspired me for a long time.”
These are his picks:
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‘THE ENDURANCE’
George Butler’s acclaimed 2000 documentary about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic survival with his crew through an Antarctic winter.
Available free on YouTube HERE.
‘AUSTRALIS: AN ANTARCTIC SKI ODYSSEY’
The Davenport-directed and –produced film about a ski trip to the Antarctic Peninsula aboard a small sailboat in 2009.
Available for rental and sale on iTunes HERE
‘THE EIGER SANCTION’
The famed 1975 Clint Eastwood docu-drama of the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland.
Available for rental/streaming on YouTube, iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.
‘TOUCHING THE VOID’
“One of the most incredible survival tales of all time,” says Davenport. “This tells the tale of UK climber Joe Simpson being left for dead in a crevasse in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, and surviving.”
Available for rental on iTunes and Amazon.
‘MERU’
The groundbreaking climbing film by Jimmy Chin – who won an Oscar for “Free Solo” – about the perilous first ascent of the namesake peak in the Himalayas.
Streaming on Netflix and available for rental on YouTube, Google Play, Amazon and iTunes.
‘180 DEGREES SOUTH: CONQUERERS OF THE USELESS’
Climber Jeff Johnson retraces a legendary 1968 climbing trip in Argentina by Patagonia founder Yvon Chounard and The North Face founder Doug Tompkins.
Available for rent on YouTube, Google Play, Amazon and iTunes