DAUGHTER OF THE COLUMBIA
THERE’S A MOMENT in Children of the Columbia, the latest joint from Sherpas Cinema, after Dane Tudor drops onto ferociously steep Wildcat Peak at Mica Heliskiing in British Columbia, where he turns into a funnel at high speed only to be eaten by his slough. Fortunately, he isn’t swallowed whole—merely chewed up and violently spit out. But Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger sees none of this and knows only what she hears over the radio as she stands on the peak awaiting her own countdown. Adjustments will need to be made.
“It was a bit nerve-wracking,” she offers in retrospect. “I had the line all worked out, but after talking with Dane on the radio, I must have flicked through photos of it on my phone a hundred times.”
Ultimately, she angles left to an even more exposed line; after cruising it, she cuts powerfully right into a steep, corniced bowl that offers a better view of what’s coming, staying high on the wall above the barrel. Her calculus is perfect in creating a margin of safety. When a tongue of slough cuts her off, she sees
