'Fire on the Mountain': Grateful Dead soundtracks new action sports documentary

Alex Biese | Asbury Park Press

It's a match made on the mountainside, a synchronization discovered on the seas: the music of the Grateful Dead, it turns out, is an ideal soundtrack to the world of action sports.

"They never play the same song (the same way) twice and they always just enter in this stage and sometimes they reach the high of highs or the low of lows, and that’s exactly how we approach mountains and waves," said skier, artist and filmmaker Chris Benchetler. "You know, we either have the best run of our life or fall trying."

That direct correlation of improvisation can be found at the heart of "Fire on the Mountain," Benchler's latest film.

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Streaming for free via the Teton Gravity Research YouTube channel starting Friday, Dec. 13, "Fire on the Mountain" combines stunning, borderline impressionistic footage of skiers, snowboarders and surfers with a killer soundtrack of Grateful Dead classics.

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"The Dead just have a different approach to the way they play," said Benchetler, "and it’s all about being in rhythm and feel and collaboration and community and everything that they represent comes through their music.”

Grateful Dead audiovisual archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux, who spent his early years in Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus in Bergen County, served as music supervisor on "Fire on the Mountain."

Lemieux helped craft a soundtrack heavy on 1970s recordings; "Brown-Eyed Women," "The Other One," "Dark Star" and "Playing in the Band" from the band's spring 1972 European run are all heard, as is a "Fire on the Mountain" from the Dead's legendary May 1977 stand at Cornell University.

Basketball legend Bill Walton, a noted Deadhead, provides the film's captivating narration.

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Walton, Benchetler explained, “represents sport and the Grateful Dead more than anyone on this planet, I would say, because he’s intertwined with both so much so he was heavily qualified to be the narrator of the film.”

Walton, in an statement provided via email, called Benchetler's film "one of the coolest things that I have ever been involved with."

"I am the fortunate one who gets to set the stage and tone for 'Fire on the Mountain,' an incredible 30-minute adventure though our emotional identity that is officially fueled by the Grateful Dead’s live (catalog)," Walton wrote.

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Walton explained that the film "validates my criteria for why I do things: people, passion and purpose. Chris Benchetler is awesome beyond description. I love the edge, and beyond. 'Fire On The Mountain' takes this notion to incalculable heights, and spectacular places."

"Fire on the Mountain" will be available to stream for free via the Teton Gravity Research YouTube channel starting Friday, Dec. 13.

For more information, visit www.dead.net/fireonthemountain or www.tetongravity.com/films/fire-on-the-mountain.