Pop Video: Urban Skiing in Pittsburgh

After we were blown away by this video, we contacted Colin Sander who is as gracious as he is talented. By email from California, the 22-year old Mt. Lebanon native told us how he made the video and a little about himself and his (fun-filled) friends. Turns out Colin just spent time here as a production assistant in Pittsburgh for the Paul Haggis film, The Next Three Days with Russell Crowe. And his dad, Scott Sander, is a filmmaker who visits L.A. one week a month.

After finishing that project, he started work on a feature-length documentary that he is directing for a Pittsburgh-based company called 'Minspeak'. 'Minspeak', as Colin explains, is a communication system that uses hieroglyphic-type symbols and linked-meanings to allow severely physically handicapped people who are rendered unable to speak, to do just that- quickly and efficiently-through their device. (Think Steven Hawkings, he says)."The film follows the incredible lives of two of these users, and their daily struggles, and opinions on the world. It also follows the story of the inventor and his company. I have completed shooting, and have 8-weeks in post left on this project."

And now about the video.(NOTE from the Editor: Since publication, Pop City has received several emails informing us that Howard Engelberg skiied down Mt. Washington in 1978 so thesee guys weren't the first. But still. They captured it magnificently on film.)

In his own words, Colin Sander:

The 'Urban Skiing' edit, was something I just wanted to do for fun, to take advantage of the storms, and to get outside and exercise with my friends. We picked four spots that we thought would be great to show off to Pittsburgh. The first were Pitt rails, on a nice sloped hillside up behind the chem building (near Peterson). The second was 'Wilshire Park' , a recreation-center in Upper St. Clair with nice down rails and, again, sloped in-run.

"The third spot was something special. My friend Nick Yourd, (works at Willi's ski shop on Castle Shannon) proposed that there was enough snow to do a powder-skiing type descent of Mount Washington. Right near the incline. I was more than keen on doing it, and he started looking into routes, the best time to go, who could drive/pick up, etc... After a little bit of searching we became pretty sure that this was the 'first descent' of Mt. Washington (on skis). Pittsburgh isn't that big of a ski-town, and Mount Washington rarely has the snow to cover all the crud and sticks. But it did, and sure enough we rolled out at 6:45 AM, got dropped off by our driver and helper Tom Antonucci (thank you! big shout out haha), and went over the edge with a game plan to meet down below.

It was steep, it was fun, it was very risky... but we got some great shots and had a great time embracing the storm and getting some unreal skiing right outside the city! We even dropped a few small cliffs. Nick and I both skied focused, and with packs filled with safety gear, and had alerted people about what we were doing. We had minor fears that the police would disapprove, but either way it was a success. The first descent went off!

Finally, Joe Montana bridges was the same deal, probably a first descent (make that definitely haha) but we hiked it, skied it, got some powder turns, and all-in-all had a great day.

The concept of 'urban skiing' is something that we started doing almost ten years ago. Myself and my group of friends- most of us were into extreme sports of any kind- rollerblading, skateboarding, wakeboarding, waterskiing, ski racing, etc. Rollerblading (down handrails, off stairs, etc) is what we did the most, and pursued the most intensely. Several of my Mt. Lebanon friends, myself included, acquired small sponsorships; we shot and sold rollerblading videos throughout high school.

I had been skiing since I was 2 years old, and ski racing since 4. Same with my older brother Christian. We started doing tricks on the mountain (off of small jumps we had built) at maybe age 10 partially because we were learning 'tricks' on our skates at the same time. In our early high school years, we realized we could ski rails, just like we brought some of our skate tricks to the mountain. We sessioned handrails all around Mt. Lebanon, and Pittsburgh in general, which we knew inside-and-out from our years and years of taking buses / the T / driving / walking to any random school, abandoned building, or interestingly architected area- in search of things to trick on.

We started to build jumps onto these spots that we were familiar with, and grind them on our skis too! it was entertaining, and something that only a handful of other people in the freeskiing world were doing at the time. Fast-forward 9 years and it is very popular, and 'urban' features are pretty much a requirement in someone's ski-video-section.

The Pittsburgh Storm Edit was filmed by myself, my friend Bill Paladino (also studied film, - cinematography - at Point Park in Pittsburgh. He is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and is working on a slew of music videos and personal projects now. We grew up shooting/making films together and pushing each others limits.) and also Peter Shannon (he was my best friend since i was 5, and isn't a filmmaker but just is down to help out occasionally : ) )

Colin Sander is a 22-year-old filmmaker  who grew up in Mt. Lebanon and studied  directing and cinematography at Chapman University in Orange County, CA. Now he is living in LA with his older brother, Christian Sander who studied film producing at Loyola Marymount University in LA. 

Want to know more? www.ColinSander.com

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