Film

Tsirku: Director's Cut

Deep in the Saint Elias Mountains where Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon converge, there is a place most skiers and snowboarders only dream of visiting.
 

About

Director

Eric Crosland, Tim Symes

Featuring

Ralph Backstrom, Hadley Hammer, Samuel Anthamatten

Sponsor

The North Face

Running time

20 minutes

Country / Nationality

Canada

Our Judges say:

Badass lines down some badass spines it Shepherd cinema. So you know you going to get some beautiful shots along the way. 💯🔥

Ed Birch Director of Salt-Street productions

In late March of 2016, the team arrived at a base camp in Haines Pass, a region straddling the borders of the Yukon, British Columbia and Alaska. While awaiting better conditions to venture onto the Tsirku Glacier, they took the opportunity to explore the terrain surrounding Haines Pass by helicopter. Faced with a sixty-kilometer snowmobile route across a massive glacier marked by crevasses, seracs, severe wind, and avalanche terrain, the journey soon became as relevant to the story as the destination. Due to the constantly changing weather and snow conditions, the team took over a week to develop the route and drop fuel and gear caches before completing the full day mission from Haines Pass to Corrugated basecamp. One last thing stood in between the athletes and the face of Corrugated; mammoth cornices were blocking their access. Led by Mountain Guide Sam Anthamatten, the team works together to find their way onto the spine wall.