(Photos courtesy the Tufts and Cirillo collab.)
My brain embraces Peter Pan. Somehow, after all these decades, I’m locked in my mid-20’s wanderlust, fixated on dreaming up my next multiday journey on skis. The body, however, likely suffers from collagen depletion, excessive free radicals, and inevitable decay. There are, however, moments when I’m reminded of how transformative some experiences can be. It makes me feel young and ready to scheme, pack my underused 10-degree sleeping bag, and light out.
The lighting out here is key, and I’m going to circle back to it. But I want to recognize the importance of relationship building here at The High Route. We’ve got to gain readers’ trust. And maintain it. And we have to cultivate relationships with those pitching us stories. Late last summer, Matt Tufts sent a pitch along for Issue 3. I had read Matt’s work before and scrolled or flipped through his silky and human and finely snapped photographs. Rather than accept the excellent pitch outright, I cold-called him, and we spoke for about an hour.
For me, something clicked. I sensed a kindred spirit.
Lighting Out in Iceland
If there are a hundred words for wind in Icelandic, I’m certain that way in the past, they shared a singular etymology rooted in the Old Norse word for beatdown.
In the spring of 2024, Tufts and Cody Cirillo lit out for a 35-day over 1,000-mile bike to ski circumnavigation of Iceland. Their film, A Hundred Words for Wind, is a mind meld of luscious ski shots and hellacious bikepacking. Cue the wind. Evidently, Iceland’s tourism board was not a sponsor, as Type II into-a-head-and-side-wind cycling dominates. There’s Cirillo, blown into a ditch. There’s Cirillo and Tufts pedaling in sketchy whiteout conditions on remote, but trafficked roads. If there are a hundred words for wind in Icelandic, I’m certain that way in the past, they shared a singular etymology rooted in the Old Norse word for beatdown.
As far as Tuft’s film work, I thoroughly enjoyed Painting the Mountains. I wrote this about the film: “We don’t do ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ here at THR. But maybe we should develop a film rating system. If anything, if we ran across Tufts on a trail somewhere, we’d give him a solid fist-bump.” And so when I learned his latest film was publicly available, I cued it up.
With crisp filming, Tufts and Cirillo flip the script on several occasions, and we are treated to just the right level of epic couloir and face skiing. While Cirrilo completed a rough-cut edit, and friend Wiley Kaupas tightened the final edit, what I admire about this group’s approach to filming and editing is that they understand that, to touch on the sublime in a ski segment, it’s best to let the landscape and terrain sing. The skiers are there for scale and in-the-moment energy, but the place itself reigns. Amidst a great soundtrack, the skiing and skinning generate plenty of stoke, but Cirillo and Tufts form the more perfect union here. There’s little, if any, bro-ing, and the duo seems uniquely paired in temperament to understand they’re lucky to experience all that wind and the potential for fine (or unfine) skiing just off the road in a region one local describes as “not a place created in joy.”
Ironically, I think you’ll find tons of joy in the film. There’s the elevation of doing something nonsensical in a beautiful place and doing it with a good friend. If lighting out is in your future, maybe even many months from now, A Hundred Words for Wind will provide a hundred reasons to dream.
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