Ski fanatics celebrate Miller's latest release, Journey

As winter sneaks up on the Tufts community, many are drawn to the great indoors -- the artificial warmth of heaters, blankets, and homemade fireplaces. We venture out, bundled head to toe, only for the necessities. However, there are a few among us, a breed of winter-lovers who choose not to hibernate come daylight savings time, and who relish in the zenith of winter wonderland: ski season.

For ski enthusiasts, reliable snowfall, blinding sunshine, and working lifts not only signal the start of this year's ski season, but also the opening of famed skier and filmmaker Warren Miller's latest production. Every year, the film maker and his camera crew travel the globe, searching for fresh snow and radical rides by the world's best skiers and snowboarders.

As the first snow starts to fall in October, the finished project goes on tour nationwide. For three months, hundreds of local theaters host the movie (often for one night only) in what has become part of a skiing community tradition.

With the penetrating and imminent cold so typical of Boston, hundreds of snow enthusiasts gathered last week, first at Boston University and then at our own Somerville Theater, to catch a showing of this year's film, "Journey," before the movie's tour moved on.

The theater was filled with energized fans, and many Tufts students in attendance cheered, as celebrated skiers and snowboarders tore down virgin terrain and dashed through glistening slopes with jumps and half pipes.

This lively crowd was not a surprise, seeing as Warren Miller is one of the ski and snowboard community's most renowned figures, and he has a consistently massive turn out for his annual film-making adventure.

With the myriad featured athletes and location shoots ranging from Copper Colorado to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, it's hard not to sit back in awe and fantasize about being dropped out of a deafening helicopter into the silence of the untouched powdery mountains of Alaska.

This year's film is packed with diverse locations, invigorating music, hilarious anecdotes, some very inspiring hairdos, and even an unprecedented tragedy. All the while, the movie is accompanied by the calm and insightful voice of Warren Miller as he serves as a guide on what he likes to a call "a journey, not a destination."

Memorable moments include being introduced to one of skiing's most prominent personalities, Glen Plake, as the film crew goes onsite to his hometown mountain, Heavenly, in Lake Tahoe, California. Plake, complete with a 13-inch mohawk, is what one of the film's athletes calls, "an icon of our sport."

In addition to this symbolic glimpse of Plake's radical mohawk, the film highlights what it means to be a pioneer in extreme sports and includes glimpses of what professional skiers do on location when they're not on the mountain. Cameos of barefoot "water skipping" (similar to barefoot water skiing, except that athletes are pulled by a speedy snow mobile instead of a motor boat) in Helena, Montana, along with shots of camel riding in Africa, show that you don't have to strap on a pair of skies to be an extreme athlete.

"Journey" is an invigorating and inspiring way to get pumped up for winter and to embrace the season's looming chill. Though the tour left Boston after gracing the Somerville Theater, the film will be showing through April not too far away at the Wachusette Ski Mountain, which is about forty-five minutes south of Boston.

So, as the sun sets at four o'clock in the afternoon and the wind tears at your bundled body on your way home from class, the only thing left to do is pray for snow and sunshine. Just hope for open lifts, strap on a pair of skis, plaster your hair into a 'hawk, and let the "Journey" begin.