Regular Skiers Shine Alongside Top-Level Pros in New Film 'After the Snowfall'

Professional skiers lead rarefied lives.

The ski gear is always new and from next year. The snow is deep. A plane is booked, and a few hours from now, it will land in Alaska beneath the most beautiful spines you’ve ever seen. At least that’s the perception, however accurate, created by social media and ski movies. Often hidden are the hours spent nursing injuries, working off-season jobs, and persuading sponsors for a bit more money.

Still, the winter season for your average professional skier looks much different from the one that Bill, that old guy at your local hill, enjoys. Bill has groomer skis that he uses on powder days and bristles when you try to sell him on buying a new pair. He’s packed the same peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his bag since 1987.

Most of us, realistically, are much more like Bill than Marcus Goguen. After the Snowfall, the new movie from Matchstick Productions, tips a hat—or ski helmet—to this fact. In figuring out what skiing is all about, the film doesn’t just ask the pros, it surveys the mountain masses, too.

Tap or click below to watch the trailer for Matchstick Productions’ After the Snowfall. Keep reading for a preview of the film’s various segments. Scroll to the bottom for a list of tour dates.

Want to keep up with the best stories and photos in skiing? Subscribe to the new Powder To The People newsletter for weekly updates.

In one segment of After the Snowfall, we learn from a young kid about what makes skiing scary. “Falling,” he answers, providing a cute visual demonstration by plopping onto his butt.

In another quick cutaway interview, April, a visually impaired skier from Steamboat, Colorado, says, “Skiing, for me, is just very freeing. It just gives me a sense of independence.” Standing alongside April is her guide, beaming. Those moments, among others, ground After the Snowfall and provide flashes of relatability amidst what’s otherwise a jam-packed, high-octane romp across the globe.

If you’re concerned that Matchstick Production’s new movie spends too much time focused on the quotidian, don’t be. 

After an introductory monologue, the filmopens with a bountiful powder harvest in Japan. Jess Hotter, Nico Porteous, and Janelle Yip careen through deep snow, helmetless, looking a bit like surfers who found themselves on the wrong continent at the wrong time. A Forest by The Cure blares, offering a moody and melodic musical backdrop. From there, the pedal remains fully depressed. A crew tees off spiny, high-consequence lines in Alaska, with Parker White adding another entry to his always-growing catalogue of memorable frontflips. Later, in British Columbia, after stomping a pitch-perfect blunt cork 720, Finn Bilous cackles like a hyena.

Ben Richards, meanwhile, may have landed 2025’s prettiest 360.

The momentum slows in Norway’s Lyngen Alps. There, Jacob Wester and Nikolai Schirmer attempt a hellaciously steep line. On the way up, Schirmer sings Lou Reed’s Perfect Day, which becomes the backing track. Like the song, the segment is unhurried, with tension building slowly before releasing as the duo drops in. As is often the case in the backcountry, things don’t quite go to plan. The two take some heroic tumbles. Until a follow-up segment, the perfect day remains elusive.

One of After the Snowfall’s transitions follows, this time pivoting into a brief meditation on injury and consequence, with Caite Zeliff as a conduit. She describes a fall in Alaska in 2022 where she plunged 1,500 vertical feet before stopping, as evidenced by accompanying, horrifying footage. In After the Snowfall, she gets a film shoot comeback alongside Michelle Parker, Nadine Wallner, and Coline Ballet-Baz in Tromso, Norway. “The mental side of these crashes, there is some fear that the body holds on to,” Zeliff says in a voiceover as the group trudges into the mountains. “That’s just the reality when you’re operating in these huge mountains—the risk is there.”

Zeliff offers one insight among many. The themes After the Snowfall covers through the eyes of professional and amateur skiers alike are wide-ranging. There’s April in Steamboat describing the confidence and freedom she finds on skis. There’s the kid falling over into the snow. Then, the star-studded cast offers their takes.

What may or may not come as a surprise is that, with your eyes closed, you might not be able to determine if it was a Red Bull-sponsored athlete or a diehard local speaking. Sure, the former gets to ride in helicopters, but when it comes to dispensing wisdom and joy in equal parts, the mountains don’t discriminate.

For After the Snowfall tour dates, click here.

Related: New Web Series Follows Mali Noyes’ Record-Setting 47-Day, 93-Chute Ski Feat