Off the Edge

Saw this when I was a kid and loved it. Two guys hang gliding & skiing through the Southern Alps of New Zealand. The technical ability to ski where they did is still highly impressive thirty years later. Often nowadays I see similar stunts which in my opinion still don't come close to the exhilaration of what the did with virtually no backup or support. The hang gliding ability also is great and must have been dangerous particularly in the changing wind flows through the southern alps

This was filmed when NZ was relatively unknown except for hard core ski junkies and shows some great scenes of the country.

Thinking now what they needed to do to actually get up there with all the 1970s gear, let alone film it was true reward when nominated for an academy award in 1977.

The Theme song sung by John Hanlon 'Higher Trails' was a great choice and still today is representative of the era.

Wherever these guys are now, they must be really happy to look back on this achievement. Wonder where they ended up after this?

Saw this at the tender age of 16, after two years of sporadic weekends down at Whakapapa skifield in the central North Island...

What is this? Hang-gliding *and* skiing? Holy mofo... where do I sign up? You are bullet-proof at that age, so this really hit the afterburners.

As the earlier reviewer commented, this was done with very little equipment, expertise or intent, but it had 150,000% heart.

Even now, in 2017, I get a lump in the throat thanks to the earth-crushing emotions it evokes, especially if I hear the soundtrack on some kiwi radio stations - I kid you not: you really wanted to jump into the screen and join them.

Slo-mo forward to 1980 when I got a job and had enough cash to be dangerous with so I signed up with a crowd in Piha (Auckland) to do a hang-gliding intro course, and afterwards a bottle of Mezcal couldn't get me out the the trees...

Bought a hang-glider two days later and had a delirious three months of floating around in the sky until gravity and outstanding bills brought me finally down to earth; aw crap, girlfriend and the stereo now long gone.

Memories still very strong. Recommend anyone into snow or sky check this movie out.