Couldn’t you just show us a few seconds of video? Please?
Despite the plea from one member of more than 200 in attendance for Chris Davenport’s inspiring Denver slide show last week detailing his quest to ski every Colorado fourteener in a year, the Aspen pro skier declined.
Davenport has starred in more than 20 ski movies. This one, which captures his climbing and skiing on Colorado’s most daunting peaks, is “by far the best and most unique,” he said.
“It tells a story. It’s not just ski porn,” he told a packed room at Denver’s REI on a blustery night last week. “I would love to show you some of it, but I can’t.”
The movie is the most comprehensive film – and likely the only film – made about ski mountaineering on Colorado’s highest peaks. The video tale documents 30 of Davenport’s climbs and descents as part of his audacious push to ski every one of the state’s 54 highest peaks in a year. He has skied 46 so far.
“The main reason I wanted to make this movie is I love skiing big peaks and very few people in the world see Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in winter,” he said. “I wanted to be the first person to bring these peaks to the masses and show them what’s possible.”
His plan was to use the movie to raise money for nonprofit organizations such as the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative and the Roaring Fork Avalanche Center. But he failed to secure a commercial filming permit from the Forest Service. And his post-production application for a permit was rejected.
If the Forest Service gets its way, the existing film never will been seen by anyone but Davenport and his pal, videographer Ben Galland. If it is, said White River National Forest public affairs officer Sally Spaulding, Davenport could face a $5,000 fine and six months in jail, although, she added, that is “highly unlikely.”
“Filming of the commercial type in the wilderness area can be allowed, but only when that activity directly contributes to the purpose of why the wilderness area was established,” Spaulding said. “It’s the feeling of this national forest that Mr. Davenport’s activities do not contribute to the wilderness area or why the wilderness area was established. It’s just about skiing 14,000-foot peaks. His proposal was denied.”
The Forest Service is willing to work with Davenport’s filming on 14,000-foot peaks that are not inside federal wilderness areas, Spaulding said.
But those peaks are “super boring,” Davenport said.
“We could make a movie about skiing those few peaks, but it would be a shell of its former self,” he said.
Davenport is moving forward with his coffee-table book on skiing the tallest hills in Colorado. Commercial still photography in wilderness areas does not require a permit, unlike video. He has hired an attorney and is working with a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., to explore his options as they work with the Forest Service.
“The ideal outcome would be to change the law to allow things like what I’m doing to happen,” he said. “If you can write a guidebook with photos, why can’t you film a guidebook? I’ve been involved in lots of ski movies that never secured a permit. That’s not an excuse, though, and I know I should have done my homework a little better and known the law.”
Filming first and applying for the permit second is the wrong way to make a movie in Colorado, said Kevin Shand, executive director of the Colorado Film Commission, which works to lure moviemakers to the state.
“We call that guerrilla filming,” said Shand, who is not familiar with Davenport’s movie or permitting situation. “That’s not something we encourage because … it really makes it tougher for the next filmmaker to come in and make a movie. Really what they are doing is burning locations.”
The White River National Forest last week began investigating a commercially made hunting video that might have been filmed in a nearby wilderness area. Earlier this year, federal investigators fined pro football Hall of Famer Larry Csonka for filming portions of his cable hunting show on federal lands in Alaska without obtaining a permit.
Late last year, Wyoming ski filmmaker Teton Gravity Research paid a $1,000 fine for filming Utah skier Jamie Pierre’s record-breaking 255-foot cliff huck on federal land behind the Grand Targhee ski area. The film company had a permit for the Forest Service land where Pierre began his leap, but not for the wilderness area where he landed below the cliff. Teton Gravity paid the fine and was able to use the spectacular footage in its latest movie.
“We purposely never film in wilderness areas or in the Teton National Park because they will catch us and fine us. They watch us closely,” said Fred Johnson, director of operations for Teton Gravity Research. “We can’t ever get permits for wilderness areas.”
