The Misguided Glorification of Avalanches | Is social media taking away our respect?
One of the the most exciting parts of The Fourth Phase is when you realize Travis Rice is still alive after he gets in way over his head in an avalanche. But is this responsible? They say if an avalanche is ever triggered while snowboarding you messed up a long time ago. Especially when filming.
Robjn Taylor in this article for the Snowboard Mag equates it to, “Hey, when you play with fire, sometimes you fall backwards into a pit of molten lava.”
Which is true. It’s not like just falling. Is social media blinding us to the dangers of the backcountry as well?
“It’s badass, I agree, but here’s the thing: A boxer getting knocked down is an acceptable part of boxing, more like a rider slamming hard in a landing or taco-ing on a rail. But an avalanche? An avalanche is not Rocky down for the count. An avalanche, that size especially, is the ceiling of the arena collapsing and landing on him in the middle of the ring.
So the choice to obscure specific details, clues of imminent rescue, the springing into action of those nearby, is an interesting one. Here was the single most impacting sequence of the entire movie, and it was given less physical context and screen time than the story of how the crew failed to fill out some paperwork in Russia.
Of course, The Fourth Phase, while unique its delivery, is not the only shred flick painting an abstract picture of avalanche danger. There’s a quick clip that executes this vagueness in the opposite but more common way, in The Manboys Movie. Canadian backcountry scholar, Rusty Ockenden, gets carried away in a formidable slide with grave potential. It’s thrown casually into the bail section (which is amazing by the way), equating it in seriousness with any of the other failed trick-attempts and tomahawks.”
Many great points brought up in this one. Let’s leave the avalanche glorification to the rabbits…
Click over to the SNOWBOARD MAG for the full The Misguided Glorification of Avalanches
