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Jim Ryan, Cooper Branham talk about role in Warren Miller’s ‘Timeless’

Jim Ryan made his Warren Miller film debut with 2018’s “Face of Winter” as the new guy trying to keep up in the Alaskan backcountry. His second go with the skiing industry’s most iconic movie company was a whole lot better.

“It’s way better. Year 2 is way more fun. Year 1 I didn’t know what I was doing,” Ryan said Wednesday from the top of Aspen Mountain. “Working in front of a camera is a whole separate skill set. You can be a really good skier and not know what looks good in front of a camera. And just feeling like I kind of belonged there felt really good.”

Ryan was taking laps with Cooper Branham ahead of the first of two showings of Warren Miller Entertainment’s 70th film, “Timeless,” which made its Aspen debut Wednesday night at the Wheeler Opera House. While it was Ryan’s second Warren Miller film, it was the first for Branham and Aspen skier Baker Boyd. Both have a role in the latest movie.



Branham, a snowboarder from Washington who now lives in Crested Butte, shot his segment at Eldora Mountain Resort near Boulder last spring.

“It was fun to see a local scene like that, that hasn’t quite gotten on the map yet, hasn’t gotten enough recognition,” Branham said. “It’s been fun being a part of it. I grew up watching the movies with a lot of influence from that, so it’s built me into a rider. So to be able to give that back to the kids that are watching it and be firsthand on that is really cool.”




Ryan, a skier from Vermont who now lives in Jackson, Wyoming, had his segment of the 2019 film shot in British Columbia, Canada, where he went heli-skiing. He said he’s already started shooting for next year’s Warren Miller film.

Ryan has been able to bounce around the country and attend many of the film’s showings. He was particularly interested in coming to Aspen’s in support of Boyd and the Freaks ski gang he helped found alongside World Cup ski racer Wiley Maple and the late Sam Coffey.

“I definitely wanted to see what the Freaks were all about,” Ryan said. “I wanted to see what his squad was all about. They are notorious and I wanted to check it out and I’ve already kind of seen that within one day of being here in Aspen.”

The second Aspen showing of “Timeless” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Wheeler Opera House. General admission tickets are $18 day of and can be purchased at aspenshowtix.com. This is the second film the company has released since Warren Miller’s death in January 2018.

acolbert@aspentimes.com

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