by Tim Mowry – Fairbanks Daily News Miner
If you’re a fan of the Arctic Man, you won’t want to miss this. The premiere showing of Arctic Man The Movie, a 43-minute long movie about the Tesoro Arctic Man Ski and Sno-Go Classic, will be held in Fairbanks on Friday at Chevrolet of Fairbanks at 3300 South Cushman Street. Show time is 7 p.m. “It’s 26 years of history,” Arctic Man founder and organizer Howie Thies said of the movie.
Tickets are $10 and are available at Los Amigos on South Cushman Street and at Sunshine Travel on Noble Street. Tickets will also be sold at the door. There will be seating for up to 500 people and standing room for more, Thies said. Anyone under 21 must be accompanied by an adult.
The movie, which Thies paid for, was produced by Unified Productions from Bend, Ore. and JGS Concepts in Anchorage. “It turned out excellent,” Thies said. “We’re excited.” The movie features video footage from last year’s race, as well as video of past races provided by Thies. It covers every aspect of the race, from the organization to the set up to the sponsors to the racers to the actual competition. “There’s interviews with the public, with skiers, with snowmachiners, with sponsors,” Thies said. “Like I tell people, if you’ve been there you might want to come because you might be in it.” The movie is narrated by Jim Scott, who grew up in Fairbanks and started racing the Arctic Man when he was 16. Scott, who now lives in Bend, Ore., has competed in 25 Arctic Man races. For the uninitiated or unAlaskan, the Arctic Man is Alaska’s version of spring break in Florida only it involves snow-covered mountains instead of sandy beaches. Each spring, thousands of snowmachiners converge on the Hoodoos Mountains in the Alaska Range east of Summit Lake for a week-long, winter-ending celebration that you have to see to believe. The centerpiece of the event is the Arctic Man, a one-of-a-kind race that pairs downhill skiers and snowmachiners in what is billed as the ultimate adrenaline rush. The skier starts on top of a 5,800-foot mountain, skis down 1,700 feet in less than two miles to the bottom of a narrow canyon, where he meets up with his snowmachining partner on the go with a tow rope. The snowmachiner then puls the skier 2 1/4 miles uphill at speeds faster than 80 mph to the top of another mountain, at which point the two separate and the skier drops over the side of the mountain for another 1,200 foot drop. The fastest teams finish the race in less than five minutes. Thies is also hoping to show the movie at several big ski resorts in the Lower 48 but details have yet to be worked out. “We’re working on getting a tour together now,” Thies said. “Hopefully we’ll do it February or March.” The goal is to make a new movie every year, similar to what the annual Warren Miller Movie does for downhill skiing. Thies is also working on a book about the history of the Arctic Man. There will be DVDs of the movie on sale Friday for $10 and they will be available online for $15. The movie will also be shown in Anchorage on Saturday and Wasilla on Sunday. Both those showings will be at Rum Runners, Thies said.
There is a teaser for the movie online at the Arctic Man website, www.arcticman.com