Following skiing’s origins across Eurasia, a team of professional skiers and snowboarders encounters stories of their sport connecting ancient worlds. As they engage the nomadic keepers of indigenous ski traditions, they learn to live more sustainable, balanced lives.
The series follows a group of curious snow sports athletes as they investigate the origins of their sport from Central Asia to Scandinavia, finding evidence of skiing dating back over 10,000 years.
Though Snow Hunters follows western athletes, its message comes directly from indigenous voices inhabiting the places they explore. The series is intended to act as a spotlight for local storytellers.
Through adventures with Tuvan, Kyrgyz, Uralic, and Sami people, viewers learn how skiing grew in balance with the ancient world. Snow Hunters documents a minimalist way of life and offers opportunities to live more sustainably in our rapidly changing environment.
Over the course of the series, they will embark on a ski expedition that will take them across Eurasia in a quest to understand the origins of skiing and what can be learned from the descendants still using the ski as a nomadic tool for travel.
Through their journey, the team stays with indigenous hosts in Western China, Kyrgyzstan, Siberia, and Scandinavia and learns how the ski has been an integral part of man’s survival for millennia. As the team uses traditional skiing techniques and practices local customs, they make meaningful connections with their hosts and learn valuable lessons. They notice contrasts between the over consumption and egoism they know at home and what they learn over the course of the film. Along the journey, they realize how to ski in harmony with their surroundings.
Between cinematic ski scenes in remote mountain ranges and deep immersion in indigenous nomadic culture, the series shows how its characters connect to the energy of the mountains. By opening a window to a simpler yet equally fulfilling way of life, its protagonists recognize how much can be learned from these people and applied to modern living.
Location 1: Beijing, China
The team from the west meets with the team from the east to learn how the winter sports industry in China is growing in anticipation of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Location 2: Altay Mountains
The combined team travels to one of the birthplaces of skiing to ski with the local indigenous people while learning their customs which have been passed down over many generations.
Location 3: Tian Shan Mountains
While living out of traditional yurts with the Kyrgz people, the team use their skis and splitboards to climb and access the high mountain peaks and descend the epic lines.
Location 4: Ural Mountains
In the deep Siberian tundra, the team learns how the dog and reindeer were used in tandem with the ski to travel over great distances in the winter and learn how this impacted the spread of civilization across the planet.
Location 5: Scandinavian Mountains
A Saami leader explains how his community strives to balance modernity with respect for tradition, so as not to exploit the landscapes and animals that have given them a way of life.
Chris Winters is a ski adventurer who has devoted much of his adult life to exploring remote ski destinations around the world. Through video blogs, he documents the unique local cultures in each location. Originally from the USA, Chris has lived in 8 countries over 3 continents while skiing in hundreds of destinations globally. In 2009, he founded an education startup in China called FarView. Through FarView, he opened offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taipei. While in China, he developed strong connections with local leaders and government officials.
Brian is a British Columbia based cinematographer who specializes in environmental and action sports film making. He established himself shooting snowboarding for some of the most respected production companies in the industry, with top athletes from around the world. His most recent film, The Radicals, was widely celebrated by outdoors film festivals across North America.
In 2018, Chris embarked upon the project Gliding on Wooden Horses which traces the origin of skiing from the Altay Mountains in Central Asia to Scandinavia. He has spent extensive time in the regions central to Snow Hunters, researched the archaeological basis for the film, and established the local relationships that are essential to the film– he understands how to engage with this story respectfully.
Brian’s talent for translating the natural wonder of wild places through cinematography will help Snow Hunters achieve the visual impact its story deserves. His experience shooting, skiing, and mountaineering will help us deliver compelling footage from the expedition’s most exciting moment.
Positive cultural and sustainable message
Exposure to the Chinese ski market
Cross-branding with Asian companies
Contribute to positive impact to global community
Preserve ancient and endangered cultures
Non-profit structure enables favourable tax write-offs
Expand portfolio with cultural and historic focus
Initial research and story already developed
Chance to work with Chinese media outlets
Provide opportunity to increase sustainable branding
Opportunity to ski/ride first descents
Be part of an epic adventure
