{"id":2450004,"date":"2019-10-17T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=314519"},"modified":"2019-10-17T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:00:00","slug":"aspen-pro-skier-colter-hinchliffe-on-his-journey-to-tgrs-winterland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-pro-skier-colter-hinchliffe-on-his-journey-to-tgrs-winterland\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen pro skier Colter Hinchliffe on his journey to TGR\u2019s \u2018Winterland\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Colter Hinchliffe in action.<\/strong>
Courtesy Colter Hinchliffe<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Teton Gravity Research\u2019s latest cinematic stokefest is a good-time throwback of a ski movie, showcasing some of the sport\u2019s best as they rip through a historically stormy and powdery winter. Roaring Fork Valley native and longtime TGR skier Colter Hinchliff is among them in \u201cWinterland.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

He and the Jackson Hole-based TGR are bringing \u201cWinterland\u201d to the Wheeler Opera House on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The light-hearted tone is a change of pace from the more plotted, artier trend of recent years in ski flicks that have frustrated some core fans looking for the simpler joys of stoke and shred.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a classic ski film,\u201d Hinchliffe, 33, said recently from the road during the TGR premiere tour. \u201cThere\u2019s less story than the last few (TGR) films. There\u2019s just action with music, which is refreshing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interspersed with sparse and poetic voiceovers, the globe-trotting film\u2019s centerpiece is Jackson\u2019s powder-choked winter of 2018-19, bringing TGR\u2019s hometown skiers the most snowfall since the mid-1990s and the deepest February in its recorded history. As the narrator puts it, skiers were \u201csurfing storms that never seem to break.\u201d During that stretch of winter, Hinchliffe and the TGR crew hit Jackson and the surrounding backcountry.<\/p>\n

Hinchliffe gets a heroic solo segment, filmed over two weeks in Jackson Hole and set to NOFX\u2019s \u201cFreedom Like Shopping Cart.\u201d The music choice pleased Hinchliffe: \u201cIt\u2019s got this great old-school ski movie punk rock vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

His solo segment includes some of the movie\u2019s standout moments. He nails an impossible-looking straight-line run down a craggy backcountry line, throws a 360 over a tree and a 720 off a cliff. One dreamy overhead shot follows him through a pillow factory of fluffy snow-topped boulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinterland\u201d \u2014 also featuring TGR stars Nick McNutt, Todd Ligare, Elyse Saugstad and pre-teen phenom Kai Jones \u2014 showcases skiers (and some snowboarders, including Jeremy Jones) to British Columbia, Alaska, Austria (where Sam Smoothy endures a terrifying crash) and to Norway, where there\u2019s an Oslo street session.<\/p>\n

Along with his short solo segment, Hinchliffe is featured in shots interspersed in the movie intro and he\u2019s in the widely circulated online trailer. He also gets screentime in a funny interlude introducing his friend, frequent adventure partner and fellow TGR athlete Tim Durtschi, waiting around for his ditzy buddy at the base on a powder day. (When Durtschi finally shows up he asks, \u201cWhat are you waiting for?\u201d and announces he\u2019s lost his GoPro.)<\/p>\n

TGR also sent Hinchliffe, Durtschi and a camera crew on the road for an epic May offseason road trip, traversing desert and snow and mud adventures around Moab, Jackson and Southern California. The result is the short film \u201cRise of Red,\u201d released online this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it resonates with people because it\u2019s more of a lifestyle piece,\u201d Hinchliffe said. \u201cPeople are connecting to the camping and the adventure of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinchliffe has been a constant presence in TGR movies since the 2012 release \u201cThe Dream Factory.\u201d He got his foot in the door during a trip to Alaska, where he managed to talk his way into their shoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did everything I could to get in a helicopter with TGR,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI did and the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

This fall premiere season has had Hinchliffe bouncing around the U.S. and Europe for screenings of both \u201cWinterland\u201d and his new Volkl movie \u201c121.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s in the Jackson-centric TGR film family, Hinchliffe has remained a local boy in Aspen, a familiar presence on the hill with his ski gang, the Flying Monkeys, and an annual on-screen star of the goofy local ski film presentations at the NEPSA Video Awards.<\/p>\n

His plans for travel and filming for this winter are still in flux, which is the norm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have anything planned until two weeks before it happens,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cThere\u2019s always rumors flying around about what we might do, but until the snow starts flying it\u2019s hard to lock anything down.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll likely head to Jackson and Canada with his snowmobile by mid-winter and do a heli-skiing trip in Alaska in the spring. His early season, as always, will be at home here in Aspen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAspen is still going to be my home base,\u201d he said. \u201cI love skiing off the gondola in early season, getting strong, skiing with my friends. I love getting stoked at home, being there for the holidays and then taking it to bigger mountains with more snow in mid-January.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where he will be living in the valley, however, is an open question. Hinchliffe is among the locals displaced by the redevelopment of the East End apartment complex and ski bum haven known as \u201cPark and Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey kicked us all out in May, so that they could tear down the building,\u201d he said. \u201cThe building is still standing there and I\u2019m still basically homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since he and other residents\u2019 leases were terminated, he\u2019s been camping in the Lincoln Creek area between his globe-trotting travels (which this summer included a commercial fishing stint in Alaska). He\u2019s still on the hunt for a place to lay his head when he\u2019s home this winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m floating around, but Aspen will forever be my home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colter Hinchliffe in action.Courtesy Colter Hinchliffe Teton Gravity Research\u2019s latest cinematic stokefest is a good-time throwback of a ski movie, showcasing some of the sport\u2019s best as they rip through a historically stormy and powdery winter. Roaring Fork Valley native and longtime TGR skier Colter Hinchliff is among them in \u201cWinterland.\u201d He and the Jackson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 13:30:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}