Extreme Skiing: "The Edge of Never"
Most people who visit the quaint resort town of Chamonix in the French Alps get vertigo just taking pictures from the top of its tram. But there is an unforgettable group of men and women who get goose bumps by jumping into the unknown.
In the documentary "The Edge of Never," the steep slopes of Chamonix challenge the world's best extreme skiers -- and the mountains win more than their fair share of battles.
Canadian daredevil ski legend Trevor Petersen couldn't resist the lure of Chamonix. He came there in the 1990s. A few years later, an avalanche took his life.
Now, Petersen's 15-year-old son, Kye, is following in his father's footsteps, facing the slopes of Chamonix.
Glen Plake, known for his technicolor mohawk, is one of three generations of extreme skiers who knew Kye's father well: "A great little skier that's, you know, basically a little park monkey that is full of tricks," he said of Kye.
Now, they're training Kye to meet the ultimate challenge: to finish the same run where his father died, on the edge of a glacier in a gorge called "Exit Couloir" on a mountain called "The Needle of the Noon Sun."
Plake, and "48 Hours" senior producer Peter Schweitzer, who produced "The Edge of Never," stopped by "The Early Show" to talk about the new film, which premieres this Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime.
"First explain Trevor Peterson and what kind of guy he was and what he meant to this sport," co-anchor Harry Smith asked Plake.
"He's a great guy. Loved skiing. Loved the mountains. Some of these people's interpretation of the sport is ski-area based. Ours is not. We need a mountain with snow on it; Trevor loved being on the mountains," he replied.
"What did it mean to go back -- this is one thing we see pictures of him doing stunts and having a degree of facility and say we're going to go back to this place that took the life of your father and this is the kind of skiing that's not taught inside the ropes," Smith remarked.
"No. So true," Plake agreed. "It wasn't a destiny that I felt he should ski this, but I knew the path he was taking was ultimately going to lead him there. I wanted to be able to maybe help him along the way there. The time of him skiing that run was going to come eventually in his life, and this was the time to help him do that."
Asked why he made this movie, Schweitzer told Smith, "You know, I love great stories. And when Glen said, you know, 'If you want to make a movie about heart and soul of skiing, you have to get Trevor Petersen's kid, because he's ready at age 15 to go and ski the run that killed his dad.' Wow! That's an epic story. The kid is amazing. The interesting thing is that he grew up in the mountains. He grew up skiing every day. He's totally comfortable being in this extreme situation. Like you saw at the end of the beautiful piece you did, he can sit on the edge of an unbelievable precipice and is as comfortable as can be. You have no problems walking down the streets of New York, this kid can go places we don't want to go."
Check out a preview of "The Edge of Never," plus the full interview of Plake and Schweitzer below:
Preview:
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Interview:
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