snow films

Some snow films to take a look at:


Seen at the Snow Film Festival (http://www.snowfilmfestnyc.com)
"Work It Out" (http://www.meatheadfilms.com).
"Work It Out" won the Snow Film Festival's viewers choice. In "Work It Out" the Meatheads are east coast cats showing some east coast style all over the...... East. The Meatheads really show how much the East has to offer. They show footage from Canada, VT, NH, ME, and Japan. Plus they show everyone's fav. NEW JERSEY. There are some killer urban lines in this flick, they go to DC in a blizzard and build a hit right in front of the Washington Monument. Who does that! I love to see the Meatheads go so hard about the east. When I first moved to the city, eight years ago- I thought the east didn't have real mountains and the snow was all ice. Basically, I deserved to have my face smashed. I, now love riding the East. It definitely makes you a better rider. I love the tight trees, the hard snow, and the freezing temps. When I go back to Sun Valley I hear people whine, "It's iccccccy." I turn around and say, "Bitch, ice is blue."
Forum's "F*ck It" (http://vimeo.com/user611720)
The Forum team always goes big. I was sad not to see Peter Line. He is Forum. John Jackson's clips were amazing. The film was massively silly and an altogether good time. oh yeah, and Sun Valley was in it.


Seen uptown:
Wintervention (http://www.skinet.com/warrenmiller/)
I'm always stoked on Warren Miller films because he started out in the River Run Parking lot in Sun Valley, sleeping in his van down by the river. Warren Miller sold his company years ago, but the house is still putting on stellar films year after year.
Wintervention takes you all over the world with addicts as your hosts. Addicts jonesin for that next line.
They start off big in Antarctica skiing what seems like 90 degree pitches on glaciers. One fall and they are in the ocean.
They go to Georgia, which used to be a part of the soviet Union and is an untouched paradise. The New Zealand World Heli Challenge is covered by these addicts. This contest is insane, riders and skiers pick lines way above the treeline and try to "impress" the judges.
My favorite line is in Southern Utah. Reggie Crist drops this palpating chute with the greatest of ease.
The Alaska segment shows dreamlike ranges and turns.
The film ends in Norway 500 miles from the North Pole with the addicts skiing all hours where the Sun never sets.
Wintervention left me itching for snow (its almost time for me to leave Brooklyn) with visions of future lines and mountains dancing in my head .

Ah, Colorado

My girl Carrie commented in her facebook status that it was a powder day. She's in Breck. I began reminiscing about last years CO trip..........





A long time ago, in a land far away there were four ex-Burton sales associates who decided to leave the big city and follow the call of the mountains. On the way there one of them acquired a Ram Zi. Time passed and I became more and more worried about their mental state. So Q and I set out to visit the escapees. We rode Breck. We rode Vail. We rode the Beav. We pretended the elevation didn't effect us. Then we rode Vail some more. All these mountains are within an hour and a half of each other, if it's not a blizzard and you aren't driving a toy car. We were driving a toy car in a blizzard.

These mountains are just a bunch of kids that have been chilling together for a while.

Breck is the bad kid. All my girls worked at Breck. I was on the chair with a 10 year old who was rolling a blunt, I was like, um, give me that- I'm telling your mother! I have a bump problem so I was all about The Burn. (Peak 8 was closed, no snow). Those long rollers are big fun too.

The Beav. is the fat kid. They give you warm cookies at 2pm everyday, c'mon. Our tour guide was a voiceless sushi chief ninja from Queens who showed us the glades. Man, is the vert at the Beav sweeeeeet! Root broke his collar bone. Genna had some fat lady run over her face. Was fun for all.

Then there is Vail, Vail is the smart kid that knows everything, you want to hate him, but then that smart kid writes all your papers and you realize that all you wanna do is chill with the smart kid. Q had his first bump run! Ramz and I rode from one side to the other, front and back. Wildwoooood!
Vail is Mecca. It's 7 miles wide. Bowls and bowls and bowls and then some more bowls. You could ride Vail for a whole season and not cover all of it- Someday I will take that challenge.Ps- for all you Eastcoasters- check this out http://www.rideandskine.com/Home.html. Good discounts and it's something for the kids.......

The Pee-Wee Herman Show

My friend Kristina, who I grew up with in Idaho, is now Pee-Wee's manager. She invited me to come see The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway. I have loved Pee-Wee forever. One of my favorite things to do is talk/yell like Pee-Wee. Which usually makes my boyfriend disappear. Hmmm. Anyway, the show is fantastic! Pee-Wee is hilarious, and even jokes about things that have happened to him in the past. A hand skit, if you will. The set is perfect and all the characters are back including Chairry, who is played by Lexy Fridell. I went to boarding school with Lexy and it was amazing to see her make her Broadway debut! Amy Klein assisted in the press photos too: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/he_holds_his_own_F0z7QBOMFVvVxD4UnHV5KM. Here are: some clips of Pee-Wee after the show at the stage door, and some pic.s of Lexy, Kristinia, Q, and me.


Pee-Wee stage door from elisabeth toft on Vimeo.

introduction of the gaper

It is now time to introduce the Gaper.
What defines a gaper? Well a gaper is totally unaware of their surroundings. They seem astonished that they are on the snow; confused about how they got there. They show no emotions and are usually adults. The name gaper came from the goggle gap, and the individuals ability to gape at the mountain and their surroundings. Also in some cultures, it refers to a
gaping vagina.
A gaper is usually a mute, maybe not in real life, but once they put their equipment on, they become silent. Perhaps it's the sheer effort of gaping, perhaps it's the elite nature of the gaper, they want nothing to do with the common man. They can almost fit in with the locals, they have the right gear and the right equipment. But the way to identify the common gaper is their speed, they move with the swiftness and intelligence of a mentally challenged turtle. They travel against the mountain, that is, they turn up the hill. In line they intimadate others by running over people's skis and implementing the loss of leg muscle technique. One might mistake this as falling or being uncoordinated- do not be confused- this is the way of the gaper.
My sister and I will now demonstrate:
We are not mocking beginners, we are mocking the gape and the gapers inability to be aware of their surroundings

Steak night

Last Fri. night we went to Ryan and Yuko's to grill some steaks. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the coals weren't staying warm. So Q and Ryan decided to bring the steaks in and put the hibachi on the stove. There is a big air vent over the stove and we opened windows, so everything was grilling perfectly. "I know we aren't supposed to put the grill on the stove, but I can't remember why."-Ryan What we learned: when you grill there is fire. Q and Ryan took the grill back outside. The steaks were delicious. See the final product on http://stopdownphotography.blogspot.com/

cow insemination gloves

I hit a tree while riding at Pomerelle last year right after Christmas. I hit trees all the time; they like it. I took another run, but I knew something was wrong when I couldn't buckle my bindings with my right hand. I had broken my arm. I had a trip planned to Colorado at the end of January. My doctor said I could go ride, I just needed to keep my cast dry. The nurse told me to go get some cow insemination gloves (remember, this is Idaho), the glove would keep my cast dry. So my sister Mary and I went to D & B supply, a local farm supply store, as soon as we walked in the door a man came up to me and said, "Cow insemination gloves?".
How did he know?
My arm was hidden under my coat.
Photo- Ryan Zimmerman (http://stopdownphotography.com/)

Faile- Bedtime Stories

Thurs. night I went to Bedtime Stories the new Faile show at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery with two of my best girlfriends, Lil Mo (http://motionetti.com/) and Amy. The artists from Faile are based in Brooklyn but they are all over the place. They just finished a Temple sculpture in Lisbon and have shows in London all the time. The last show I saw they did a collaboration with Båst. They had their art in old school video games. You could actually play games like Frogger with their art. Um, yeah I like Faile.
Faile- Bedtime Stories from elisabeth toft on Vimeo.
Music- Secret Agent Gel

I got my early/late season pass today for Sun Valley. It's $240 and is good for the 28th of March until the end of the season which happens to be 4/20. It's also good before the 17th of Dec., but I won't be there then. I am going to Sun Valley for a month at the end of the season. If I only rode 18 days after the 28th because I was: super lame, or had a brain malfunction, or something it would equal out to be $13.50 a day. What! That's amazing because Sun Valley is crazy fancy. My brother has been teaching skiing at Sun Valley for five years. I will stay with him in his.... um, filthy one bedroom studio that is at the base of the mountain. I also did this last year, and had pretty much the best time ever. Although I am sure he loves sleeping on the floor, this year I plan on "borrowing" a twin mattress from my parents who live an hour and 15 min. away from Sun Valley.