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3 Takeaways from the Salomon Quality Ski Time Film Tour

Originally posted on Powder | By Izzy Lidsky | Last updated Oct 2, 2025 7:58 AM ET

Ski film premieres are as essential to fall as pumpkin spice flavoring, so I make a point to attend as many as possible each year.

A few years ago, Salomon started their Quality Ski Time tour to show short films from their stacked and very versatile athlete team. I attended the tour's second stop in Bend, Oregon on Tuesday night, and enjoyed five films alongside a 5-star girl dinner of popcorn, a meat stick, and a PBR.

I'm not sure if it was the lineup of films, the perspective I've gained working at POWDER, or a high-quality life chat over a game of pool after the show with the tour's emcee, who happens to be an old friend, but I found it a bit more thought provoking than your average film premiere.

Here are my unsolicited thoughts after the show, but TL;DR, just go see the Quality Ski Time tour if it makes a stop near you.

1. A Fantastic Short Film is Just As Good As a Feature Film

Blank Collective's films have been pretty darn solid the last few years, so I was excited to see their 2025 flick, Cold Calls, at the QST tour. The film kicks off with a quirky intro from Alexi Godbout before starting out with an incredible Alaska segment that features Jacob Belanger, Tom Peiffer, and others. Without spoiling too much, the film subsequently features segments in skiing meccas like Japan, Norway, and Whistler, and a bit where different athletes in the film are 'cold calling' Godbout.

Each segment felt perfectly timed, had banger action, beautiful cinematography, and a touch of story line to keep the viewer engaged. I don't know the exact run time on the film, but it couldn't have been more than 25 minutes and yet, when it ended, I felt perfectly fulfilled by what it had offered. Cold Calls did everything a ski film should do; it got me very excited to go skiing, gave me some serious powder skiing wanderlust, made me laugh, had my jaw on the floor at moments, and left me feeling energized and not like I'd just slogged through 50 minutes of an annual film bro fest.

Rarely do I feel that ski films hit every one of those marks so seamlessly, and more rarely does that happen in a short film. Yet Cold Calls left me wondering if we even need feature length ski films anymore that aren't story driven? Can 20-ish minutes of perfectly executed ski porn do the very same thing? 100%.

Here's the trailer for Cold Calls, if you needed more convincing:

2. You Should Bring Whatever Skis You Want to Ski Downhill On

This isn't a new take on the timeless debate of uphill vs downhill performance. In fact, it's one I've tried to ignore because my hip flexors would protest on most longer tours. However, after watching Gaetan Gaudissard haul his QST Blanks around the European backcountry, and Josh Daiek and Cody Townsend lug them up several massive Norwegian couloirs alongside Nikolai Schirmer, I almost have no argument for not taking a ski that I truly want to ski into the backcountry because of its weight.

The QST Blanks are probably the heaviest ski I've ever skied at 3900 grams in the 178cm size, and they rip unbelievably hard. It would be tough to find a more versatile, confidence inspiring ski, and if I was skiing with Josh Daiek or Nikolai Schirmer, I'd also want a burly, confidence inspiring, workhorse of a ski and also some black bibs to hide the fact that I'd probably be sh*tting my pants in any of that terrain.

So, henceforth, I pledge not to complain about heavy skis in the backcountry because anything you can do, someone else can do on QST Blanks.

3. Cody Townsend Might Have One of the Most Graceful Career Arcs I've Ever Seen

Again, I don't want to spoil too much because you should really go watch these films, (and no, Salomon didn't pay me to say that). What I will say is that I cried my eyes out watching Cody Townsend's new Fifty+ film, The Edge of Reason. The film takes him and Elyse Saugstad, whom Townsend is married to and has a 3-year-old son with, to the Lyngen Alps in Norway to ski with Nikolai Schirmer.

Schirmer has come up quickly in the last few years and gained himself a bit of a reputation for being sketchy, so Townsend and Saugstad rightfully spend a little time getting comfortable in mellower terrain with him before heading to bigger lines.

The film was supposed to be a comeback to freeride and skiing big lines fast for Townsend after having a kid. Instead, it forces one of the most experienced and dialed backcountry skiers around to evaluate risk versus reward with factors like a kid in play, and with the weight of his 40 year ski career. It also provides an incredibly interesting perspective as Townsend does so alongside Schirmer, who is younger , childless, and in some sense, at the peak of his career, but still not immune to the risks of the mountains.

Bring tissues. This one hit incredibly hard.

This article first appeared on Powder and was syndicated with permission.

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