Ski Movie!

Silent Kay productions, in association with picotrip is proud to announce our first microcontent-length feature.

On March 3, 1969 the United States Navy established an elite school for the top one percent of its pilots. Its purpose was to teach the lost art of all-mountain skiing and to ensure that the handful of men and women who graduated could make parallel turns in all conditions. They succeeded. Today, the Navy calls it Ski School. The flyers call it: TOP FUN.

Ghost Rider, this is Strike. We have unknown aircraft inbound Mustang. Your vector zero-nine-zero for bogey.


Tip: click the grey play button in the center of the video to play it in this page (clicking outside the play button will take you to the youtube website and play the video there).

Alaska heliski video

Here's a video I took of a flight back to base from the ski zone in the Chugach Mountains in 2006. Our pilot is Nick - the guy in the Union Jack helmet. Nick flew Jaguar jets for the Royal Air Force in his younger days. We bought Nick a bottle of single malt to say "thanks" for his effort and skill on our first fly day. He reciprocated with this roller coaster flight following the course of a river across Nelson Bay.

When we landed, I asked Nick how far from the ground we were flying, expecting it not to be nearly as close as it looked. "Oh, we were never closer than 5 feet" said Nick. :-|

Tip: click the grey play button in the center of the video to play it in this page (clicking outside the play button will take you to the youtube website and play the video there).

Alaksa heliski photos

Mary and I went heliskiing for the first time in March 2006. Helicopter skiing is a fabulous experience, but excruciatingly expensive, so I'm not sure we'll be going again very soon. We had a great time and skied more first runs in 3 fly days than you might get in years of resort skiing. Unfortunately Mary blew her knee on the final day and it's taken a long time to heal. Almost 12 months later, Mary's ACL is still "undergoing changes in histology" (according to the terrific Dr Atkin). Still, we'll be back at some point for sure. If you're thinking about helisking yourself, Alaska is definitely the place to go. Here are our photos of the trip.