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Tight & Loose, hitting the slopes from India to Alaska

The 21st TGR feature gets Whistler premiere on Friday, Sept. 30
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Tight looseness Whistler's Ian McIntosh and Nick McNutt were two of the athletes in TGR's latest film, which is being screened at the Maury Young Arts Centre. PHOTO submitted

You know how it is when you hit 21; you want to cut loose and party.

And so it was when adventure sports filmmakers TGR passed the big milestone of their 21st film.

They did what you'd expect, they invited a few ski and snowboarding athlete buddies to join them on an international adventure — and filmed it.

The result is Tight & Loose, a feature that shows off spectacular antics on and off mountains, from B.C., to Alaska, to India.

Two Whistler madmen — Ian McIntosh and Nick McNutt — are among the athletes who showed off their skills in Tight & Loose.

"I've skied in nine TGR's films over the last decade and it has been great," McIntosh says.

"It's a lot of work to make these films. For us it is all about pre-planning. Safety is a big concern with everything we do because it is quite dangerous. We'll go to a location for several weeks and wait until we get the right conditions.

"We all know what our jobs are, from the cameraman, to the safety person, to the athletes and we film certain lines or features. Get the right day and we go like clockwork from there."

Tight & Loose is a film full of laughs and McIntosh says TGR likes to make film that is fun to watch.

"We're not reinventing the wheel. The purpose of a good ski film is to get people excited to go skiing for the winter and to get people amped up for getting out there and doing it themselves, he says.

McIntosh gained more than the usual amount of hardcore notoriety after a video was released of him falling 490 metres down an Alaskan mountain in Nov. 2015, surviving with barely a scratch. It made international news.

How do you come back from that?"You've got to be an adventurous type of person to engage in these sort of activities," McIntosh says.

"But more than anything, it is my deep understanding of what I am capable of. I've been doing it for a long time. You've got to learn from your mistakes and move forward. Ultimately, I love what I do."

McNutt says it is always a blast to work with TGR and Tight & Loose was no different.

"It's nice to be on the mountains with good friends and to be able to capture it," he says.

McIntosh and McNutt will be on hand when the film is screened at the Maury Young Arts Centre on Friday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. (all ages) and 9 p.m. (ages 19-plus).

Tickets are $17 and admin fees for the 7 p.m. show and $19 and admin fees for the 9 p.m. show. They can be purchased at the MYAC or at www.artswhistler.com.

Screening organizer Jamie Bond of Doglotion Media, said funds raised from the night would go towards the Spearhead Huts Project in Garibaldi Provincial Park.

"After seven years, the project is now on the home stretch for building the first hut next summer, funds and planning permitting. Now is the time to get involved with the project and help push it through from dream to reality," Bond says.