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Top 9 Ski Resorts Featured in Films

Originally posted on Powder | By Ian Greenwood | Last updated Feb 9, 2025 7:21 AM ET

We're skiers — we obviously like ski movies. Jamming into a theater to watch a crew of talented guys and gals do their thing doesn't get old. Many of these movies or edits shine a light on our favorite ski areas, highlighting the contours of familiar terrain by injecting them with professional skiing talent. But it's not just ski bums with RED cameras who have taken an interest in the mountains. Movie creators— the bigwig, Hollywood kind — have written, pitched, and filmed major projects that involve ski areas.

What's better? We prefer the ski-specific movies made for skiers by skiers, of course, but that's not to say the It's Always Sunny gang's antics at Mammoth Mountain, California, aren't worth mentioning.

Between James Bond and Matchstick Productions, ski areas worldwide have seen plenty of silver-screen action. Here's our list.

1. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wyoming

Film: Stoke the Fire

Teton Gravity Research features their hometown resort in most of their annual films, partly out of convenience but also because, with no shortage of pro skiers or epic terrain, Jackson Hole is a pretty incredible spot to film skiing. One Jackson Hole segment, in particular, really captures the essence of not just the resort but also the energy around skiing there.

Filmed over the 2020/2021 winter as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted ski resorts everywhere, TGR's Stoke the Fire Jackson Hole segment didn't just show viewers a highlight reel of Jackson's deep powder and steep lines, but a look into the folks who work to open the mountain as well as Jackson's core skier culture. Backed by the classic Spencer Davis Group bop Gimme Some Lovin,' the segment uses Kai Jones, Tim Durtschi, Jim Ryan, Veronica Paulsen, and Caite Zeliff to showcase Jackson's callout culture and that even pro skiers can get a little puckered in Jackson's biggest terrain.

In short, the segment is a love story of TGR's home mountain and all the people and things that make it what it is.

2. St. Mortiz, Switzerland

Film: The Spy Who Loved Me

The 007 classic, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) features a classic and iconic James Bond moment as Bond escapes KGB assassins in an epic chase scene that opens the film. Although 007 escapes on skis in several of the Bond films, this segment is perhaps the most memorable.

It was filmed in the St. Moritz, Switzerland, area in January of 1977, and although Roger Moore, who played Bond in that era, was a highly skilled skier, he was still replaced by a stuntman for the scene. While the actual ski portion of the scene was filmed at St. Moritz, the cliff jump at the end was filmed on Baffin Island, Canada, in Auyuittuq National Park, where stuntman Rick Sylvester parachuted from 6,611' Mount Asgard.

The scene was notably and expertly re-created in Matchstick Productions' 2007 annual film, Seven Sunny Days with Shane McConkey. Known in part for ski BASE jumps, McConkey skis away from the KGB assassins before BASE jumping off Lover's Leap in the Lake Tahoe area, where McConkey lived. It's nostalgic both in McConkey's portrayal of Bond and in the use of a skit to feature skiing, a seemingly long-lost technique that Matchstick often did in films like Yearbook and Ski Movie.

3. Palisades Tahoe, California

Film: G.N.A.R. the Movie

It would almost be offensive to talk about ski resorts featured in films and not talk about the Game of G.N.A.R.

G.N.A.R., or Gaffney's Numerical Radness Assessment, is a game-turned-contest-turned-film where a bunch of Palisades local skiers competed doing silly things like skiing butt naked (5000 G.N.A.R. points), pole whacking on a cornice (200 G.N.A.R. points), or calling their Mom while skiing (500 G.N.A.R. points.)

The game was invented by late Palisades legends Shane McConkey and Dr. Robb Gaffney in an effort to take some of the seriousness out of skiing. Many of the things required to gain points in the game referred to specific ski lines or lifts at Palisades (formerly called Squaw Valley and referred to in the film as such), and is, in a sense, an homage to the mountain itself.

4. Snow Space Salzburg, Austria

Film: Calm Beneath the Castles

Dennis Ranalter's segment in Matchstick Productions 2024 annual, Calm Beneath the Castles, is the most passionate love letter to resort skiing. Oftentimes, ski films show the unattainable in skiing — the deepest pow, the biggest mountains, and so on.

While Ranalter's skiing is insane and definitely still unattainable to most of us mere mortals, the segment reminds us that low-tide, in-bounds skiing is just as fun. Filmed at Snow Space in Salzburg, Austria, and backed by Hot Chocolate's Every1's a Winner, the segment fondly shows staples of European (and American) resort skiing like bustling slopes, kids with massive gaper gaps, and that fist-pumping dad at après.

Filming cinematically at a resort like Snow Space is already a difficult task, but when you consider the mountain's 45 lifts and 210 kilometers of piste that make up the mountain, it's even more impressive. Alongside Ranalter's massive tricks and stylish carves, the segment makes even the most die-hard backcountry enthusiasts want to spend a day or two lapping lifts in the sun.

5. Timberline Lodge, Oregon

Film: Turbo

We couldn't talk about resorts featured in films without mentioning Timberline Lodge, Oregon, which is situated on the flanks of Mt. Hood. One of the most recognizable and best filming locations for park segments, the resort has been featured in tons of different ski films. Notably, though, is Level 1's 2008 film Turbo, which stars Tanner Rainville, Henrik Harlaut, and Tom Wallisch in a mind-melting volcano skiing segment. Complete with early 2000s ski steeze, the segment is everything a Mt. Hood segment should be.

6. Ruka Ski Resort, Finland

Edit: Faction Collective

Ruka Ski Resort, a terrain-park-heavy destination in Finland, has become synonymous with Scandinavian park skiing. Faction athlete and style master Antti Ollila regularly posts clips from the resort, and in 2019, he teamed up with fellow skiers Alex Hall and Markus Fohr to visit Ruka in an episode of The Faction Collective. Longtime Faction filmer Etienne Mérel got behind the lens, and the team, thanks in part to Ruka's wild park features, went to work, producing one of our favorite edits. The bassy techno of Topdown by Channel Tres takes the action further.

7. Mammoth Mountain, California

TV Show: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The ill-fated antics of Charlie, Mac, Dennis, Dee, and Frank in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are, for the most part, far removed from the slopes. These sitcom heroes (IMDB describes them as "raging alcoholic narcissists") are the proprietors of an Irish dive bar in South Philly, not skiers — or that's what you would assume, at least.

It turns out, though, against the odds, they are skiers, and they rip — except Charlie, who uses beer bottles for ski poles and crashes into a collection of picnic tables. That's what we learn in episode three of It's Always Sunny's 11th season, which was filmed at Mammoth Mountain, California, and sees the barflies live out an 80s ski movie fantasy.

The absurdity of The Gang isn't the only TV action Mammoth Mountain's seen. Portions of the over-the-top raft scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were shot at the resort, too, which bills itself as a prime location for commercials and major motion pictures.

8. Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia

Film: Magnetic

Annual ski movies, usually, are travelogs. They take viewers from one backcountry zone to the next — perhaps stopping by a resort for an epic park shoot — culminating in a worldwide excursion that, admittedly, is removed from the day-to-day mountain experience most skiers live. We ride the chairlifts. We ski moguls — not bottomless Alaskan pow.

But Magnetic, which was filmed entirely in Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia, took a different, more singularly focused tact, expertly leveraging the resort's sprawling 8,171-acre footprint. The film's claim to fame is that it was the first ski movie filmed entirely at one resort. While accomplishing such a feat at a small Midwest hill would be difficult, Whistler Blackcomb has plenty of features — from big cliffs to park jumps — to play with. It's fun watching a movie like Magnetic, knowing that you could, hypothetically, hop on a chairlift and ski the exact same line as the pros.

9. Snowbasin, Utah

Film: Frozen

It's every skier's worst nightmare. You blitz to the chair and barely catch the last lift. As you ride upwards, the lift stops, and after a few minutes, it hits you — the operators forgot about you.

That's the premise of Frozen. Filmed at Snowbasin, Utah, the film chronicles three friends as they try to survive for days while trapped on a chairlift. They contend with wolves, hypothermia, and, as with most horror movies, things don't end well.

The reality at Snowbasin is obviously much different than the film. The lesser-known Salt Lake City, Utah, area destination doesn't, for the record, have a reputation for leaving clients hanging overnight (although, in 2024, a woman was left in a gondola for 15 hours at a different ski area, Heavenly, in California).

Despite being fictional, Frozen's premise remains terrifying and, according to one YouTube commenter below the movie's trailer, a useful cautionary tale for lift operations everywhere. "As a ski liftee we all watch this together every winter to wrap-up our evacuation training. Scary stuff," they wrote.

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

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