Paul Cotton Films opened the evening with the world premier of “Gaper Day- The Untold Story”. Greeted with hoots and hollers, mainly from people who “went small” on Blackcomb's closing day last season, it was going to take a TGR scale film to top the trailer.

Boom!!! McIntosh set the stage with the opening segment and no-one ever catches up. Skiing steep, steep spines in Alaskas Tordillo Range, full tilt down the fall line and over massive exposure, he lifted the bar for the sport of big mountain skiing. If Jeremy Nobis pushed the sport in Tangerine Dream, McIntosh pulled it along at mach speed to a whole new level. The helmet cam footage will blow your mind as he straddles spines, getting face shots all the while and then boosting blind airs. Not without his share of wipeouts that demonstrate just how on the edge the guy is skis, it is the kind of segment that no-one would want to follow.

Kye Petersen steps up to the plate though and sends his fair share of big cliffs, falling like a leave in the wind. He is a small kid and it looks like he could use a few pounds of ballast, but he stomps his lines and will have you eager to see how he progresses in the coming years. Not to mention the fact that he leaves you green with envy that a teenager gets to heliski in Alaska’s sickest mountains, and to rub salt into the wound, that he can ski them like that.

After that, I don’t really know what happened in the rest of the film. Dash Long and company got some face shots in Austria much to everyone’s surprise after the winter Europe had. There was the usual “We had the best day of our lives”, “Explored mountains no-one has ever seen before”, and all the blah blah blah that comes with the turf. Apparently Skogen Sprag spent the whole winter in Jackson Hole and only got one day of powder. Meanwhile the entire Pacific North West got pounded day-in-day-out, but the lesson is that persistence pays off. Loosing faith and going to Mt Baker would have paid off a lot more though.

Marc Andre-Bellevue made a come back in a wicked sit-ski segment not a year after his crippling spinal injury. Getting face shots, falling over occasionally, grinning from ear to ear, dropping a few 5ft cliffs and a straight line to close, it sounds heart warming, and that’s because it is. The guy is a testament to mankind, and in all honesty, French-Canadians and will make you feel like a hack on your new Pontoons because they are meant to make skiing powder easier.

Dana Flahr threw down a solid segment and Jeremy Nobis skied some incredibly technical lines in AK to show he still has it. Sage did his thing and Eric Rona hucked some shit with his parachute. We almost lost Seth Morrison in a bergschrund after sending a huge front flip mid-way through the film. Just when things were almost flat-lining and dead, Jeremy Jones had them nose the heli in and saved the day again. Wrestling slough and grinding 55° spines, he put together a bread and butter segment by his standards, but it sill left the audience with their jaws on the ground.

All in all, “Lost and Found” is what we have come to expect from TGR with the strong travel influence and “core” tone. Not a cinematically amazing film, nor fresh and original, but McIntosh’s segment alone makes it a must have.

Check out the teaser here