Warren Miller's Children of Winter

Warren Miller's Children of Winter

Posted on 18 December 2008 at 6:51pm

A big corporate Vue in the heart of London on a cold dark evening, it's enough to make you pack your bags and head for the white stuff. Children of Winter captures something we can all relate to - sheer selfish childish delight. A feeling we lose every now and then when living the city life and surfing the tube.

However, Kevin and Jessica Quinn will never know such a life. They spend their winters waist high in Alaskan powder. Imagine a whole cinema sitting wide-eyed, turning slightly green whilst watching Olympians Seth Wescott and Marco Sullivan being taken to explore vast untouched powder terrain. To top it off the Quinns also own a 98-foot boat with a helipad. Now who wouldn't wake up grinning like a child every morning with toys like that?

The great thing about Warren Miller's gem of a movie, apart from being beautifully shot and well documented, is it doesn't discriminate. The children of winter are mogul champions, downhill Olympians, snowboarders, surfers, young, old, seriously talented or just simply silly. The tour is epic (long enough to need an interval), and takes you everywhere from Austria to Japan. It follows Pep Fujas and Andy Mahre playing in the undiscovered backcountry of Silverton. And captures the unforgiving sport of Skijoring caning veteran Chris Anthony in Leadville. The soundtrack is well picked and the atmosphere always buzzes with giddiness (perhaps something to do with the giant inflatable balls and free prizes). But that's OK, in fact it's positively encouraged, because if you're a child of winter you'll never grow old.