Is This The Best Ski Movie Opening Segment Of All-Time?

Ian Greenwood
·2 min read

Ski movies are subjective.

Some of us like to watch big mountain shredding in Alaska, whereas others prefer to ogle skiers as they dance gracefully down imposing street features. Regardless, it's still fun to come out and boldly claim that one ski movie segment is better than the rest.

This is almost what Matchstick Productions did earlier this month on September 2nd by sharing Mark Abma's Seven Sunny Days opening segment with the following title: Greatest Opening Segment Of All Time?

I'll let you be the judge.

As for me, I hesitate to call anything "the best." There's just a lot of good stuff out there, y'know? And, of course, ski movie segments are multi-faceted. One might have outstanding editing but boring music—or excellent skiing but lousy filming.

That said, this part from Abma is way up there for me. It's so emblematic of "Golden Age" freeskiing. The music, the skiing, and the variability in terrain selection are all on point.

During Abma's "peak" (he still rips, hence the quotes), he was an all-around freeskiing weapon. Park, big mountain, backcountry freestyle... You name it, he could do it. Skiers, for better or worse, tend to be more specialized these days.

I do need to consider the rose-colored glassing here, though. Seven Sunny Days came out when I was 16, aka the peak of my youth. Any sort of ski media I came across during that time is steeped in personal nostalgia, so I'm a bit biased here. But I'm not so biased that I can't admit that on a technical basis, skiers these days can throw bigger tricks than those who dominated in the past.

Regardless, Abma's opener in Seven Sunny Days holds immense water. Per MSP's question: it's definitely up there.

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