Backcountry
Independent filmmaker and skier Dan Noakes released his annual POV Ski Mix, available on YouTube. This year’s film takes a different approach—stripping away music to immerse viewers in the pure sound of skis cutting through untouched powder.
The hour-long edit features new backcountry lines filmed entirely in Idaho, with every run hiked rather than accessed by lifts. Noakes estimates that he hiked somewhere between 75,000-90,000 vertical feet throughout the course of the 2024-25 winter in making this film. Its audio was captured with DJI microphones, bringing viewers closer than ever to the raw experience of backcountry skiing.
“Filming an edit like this takes about a season long,” Noakes said. “It’s roughly 75,000 to 90,000 vertical feet of hiking just to capture an hour’s worth of footage. I love doing it though.”
The POV Ski Mix has become a yearly tradition for Noakes, and each season brings a new experiment in how to capture the feeling of skiing. By focusing solely on the sound of skis and snow, this year’s project strips the sport back to its essentials—effort, terrain, and flow. As Noakes continues to carve his own lane in independent ski filmmaking, his annual edits stand as both a personal challenge and an invitation for skiers everywhere to reconnect with the raw joy of moving through the mountains.
