Even without the curse or blessing of El Niño or La Niña, skiers can expect higher gas prices and lift tickets this winter. Also: midweek ski days for the newly unemployed. And even before the snow falls, there’s the annual psych-up-for-winter ritual of a Warren Miller ski movie. (No relation, and the dude has long since retired to the San Juans, his namesake company now owned by a Swedish media conglomerate.) Children of Winter is 59th in a series of snow flicks that began when Miller was living in a car in a Sun Valley parking lot. Youth, no surprise, dominate Children, which hews to the same travelogue/infomercial format we’ve come to expect. But you put up with the product plugs for Jeep—a division of Chrysler, d’oh!—to watch the gorgeous aerial photography in the Alps and Cordova, Alaska, or tree slaloming in northern Japan or Silverton, Colorado. (At the latter single-lift backcountry operation, we see Andy Mahre of the famous Yakima ski clan.) The best segment has skiers arriving in Iceland by sailboat, climbing up the slopes, and schussing back down to the fjords. With no helicopters, no diesel, no tickets to buy, and scant carbon footprint, it’s a good model for the sport to follow. Tickets and info: 628-0888, www.ticketmaster.com and www.warrenmiller.com. BRIAN MILLER

Fri., Nov. 21, 6:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 22, 6 & 9 p.m., 2008