The Meaningless Pursuit of Snow: Film Review
The Meaningless Pursuit of Snow by Patagonia Films unfolds in chapters, like a series of short stories that are interrupted in turn and revisited throughout the course of a single book. The common thread through each of the stories is a life oriented towards the pursuit of backcountry skiing or riding.
More than any other ski film I have seen, The Meaningless Pursuit of Snow explores the stories of people rather than simply showcasing spectacular places. The filming locations [Hokkaido (Japan), Jackson (Wyoming), La Grave (France), Salt Lake City (Utah), and East Burke (Vermont)] are indeed spectacular but the individuals we meet in each chapter are what drives the story forward.
To describe in detail each of these individuals and their stories would be to spoil the film. So I will save the film for you to watch (embedded below) and present simply a metaphor that is used twice in the film. The metaphor is that of a door, or a doorway through which people pass through. One individual remarks,
“Splitboarding, for me, is a bit like a door. You put these two things on, you put on the skins, and then the whole mountain opens to you.”
This theme of a new, magical world of mountains in the winter will be familiar to anyone who skis or rides in the backcountry. It is woven throughout the film and - I suspect - throughout the majority of days we each spend in wintery mountains.
But the doorway metaphor also leads to the darker side of lives lived in wild places. In a profoundly moving segment, one of the individuals featured in the film expresses their grief at passing through this doorway.
"You know, I would do anything for that day to not have happened the way it did. The doorway of suffering that I had to walk through is the only way I know how to live life now.”
The Meaningless Pursuit of Snow is a compelling film because of the lives of the people who put on skins and walk through the doorway into winter backcountry environments. Their courage, delight, creativity, and even their suffering, animates each chapter with humanity. But don't take my word for it, see for yourself.
Jerry Isaak is an Associate Teaching Professor and the program lead for ski touring in the Adventure Studies Department at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. He is an AMGA certified Ski Guide and has guided backcountry ski adventures in Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, and throughout the United States and western Canada.