Ten years ago, during a recon flight to map out the mountains around Haines, AK, this face captured my imagination and never let go of it. The more I searched the world’s mountains the more I realized how unique and special this face was.

Because the peak was located just over the US boarder into Canada access was restricted to our US based heli operator.  From the moment I realized the face was off-limits I started fantasizing about setting up camp and hiking to it from the US.

It became one of my reasons for starting the Deeper project.  At the start of my first Deeper trip to AK two years ago I wrote, “if the stars align and somehow we are able to ride Corrugated then this whole project will be worth it regardless if I ride anything else.”

Three weeks into our first Deeper AK trip I finally made it to the ridge and looked down the face of Corrugated.  Unfortunately, the conditions were marginal thanks to a harsh North wind that scraped the spines down to hard snow the day before.  We decided to pull the plug and put it on the list for the following  year’s trip.

This year I went into the AK trip with one goal, to ride Corrugated. I got lost on the way however (mentally, not physically), and ended up 50 miles past it at a zone in the Fairweather Range that was so stacked with spines it would become known as the Spine Institute.

After the best three week session of my life, and following the best morning of my life, I decided to push my luck and try to ride Corrugated on our way back towards Haines before an impending storm.

Our second 3 AM start came with out much pain.  The excitement was high and we were off to hopefully shred Corrugated.  Navigating the few miles of glacier in pitch black was easier than expected but a steeper than anticipated roll over had us all on guard do to the blackness it seemed to drain into.  By twilight we were on the summit ridge and the sun started doing its magic, painting the high peaks around us pink.

The cornice guarded most of the face.  I put Xavier on belay and he was guided to a 1 ft wide supported section on the ridge by the cameramen on the opposing ridge.

Dropping into the face was a feathering toe edge free fall with my head inches from the overhanging cornice.  Twenty feet below my edge locked in and I made a long bottom turn and projected myself onto the main spine and proceeded to get engulfed by face shot after face shot of waist to chest deep powder.  It seemed to go on forever and lulled me into a trance that I did not come out of until the large bergschrund at the bottom of the line.

The dream was complete.  Corrugated was checked off the list.

As seen in Transworld Snowboarding’s 2011 Buyers Guide.  Photo Tero Repo.

We skinned from camp up over the high ridge to the upper left of the photo and snowboarded down the glacier in the dark.

Our first look at the face.  Our entry point is too the left of the rocks on the summit ridge.  Missing it by a foot or two was not an option.

What dreams are made of.

To see us ride the lines pick up a copy of Deeper or come see the movie at one the following tour stops.

PRESS RELEASE:

Snowboard Magazine awards Jones Snowboards, The Flagship, a Platinum Pick for excellence in design.

“If you were going to trust anybody to design snowboarding’s premier big mountain snowboard, Jeremy Jones would be the wise pick.  The Flagship is snowboarding’s response to the most critical riding on the planet.  Using Magna-Traction, directional rocker and camber under foot, this board is more of a weapon than anything else.  It’s a weapon that’s going to keep you alive when others are bound to fail.  Designed with a longer-radius sidecut and shortened running length, the Flagship comes without a speed limit yet still manhandles turns in tight situations.

If you like getting booted off the local ski hill for going too fast or better yet, riding lines nowhere near a lift, this board is it.”

-Nate Deschenes, SNOWBOARD MAGAZINE.

Here’s a good look at the three bump, “Mellow” Magna-Traction.  It is three drawn out bumps, one bump between the feet and one at each foot.  It makes for a subtle but effective edge bite that you will only feel when the snow gets really hard and you are about to fall on your ass.

All the graphics are burned into the wood.  There is not a drop of ink on this snowboard.

The Flagship will be available in five sizes: 158, 161, 163W, 164, 168W.

Get the full low down here.

All product shots taken by Greg Martin

These are the bigger shows for Europe.  Stay tuned because we will be adding more stops.  Check here for ticket and venue information.

I will be at all the shows but Gents so come party with me. – Jeremy Jones

Half way up our first line of the trip and looking back at Ryland Bell.  This shows why we hike spines.  Two totally different aspects right next to each other.  The sunny side was heating up making the it dangerous so I stayed on the shady side.  Some days it is the other way around.

This is the view of the same face from below.  Ryland Bell getting his AK legs back.

It was awesome having Lucas around.  He is so full of energy and ready to jump anything.  I can see the influence of all the Baker legends before him.  He is doing the Mt Baker Hardcore’s proud with big natural drops and high speed lines.

Josh Dirksen has one of the best turns in snowboarding.  Alaska is a great place for him to show it off.

Our camp is at the top of the glacier to the center left.  We did not want to go home the way we came because it was steeper and more exposed then we thought.  Eventually we found a way up on the face to the right.

The last rays of sun 11 hours into our day and three hours from home.

I climbed mountains to know myself better and to find my own dimension, driven by the beauty of alpine nature, by its charm, and by the thirst for knowledge.” Walter Bonatti Italian climbing legend.

Craig would be proud if he saw what Jonaven has done with the torch.  He was a staple for many years in the Absinthe FIlms movies charging critical lines in big mountains.  Two years ago he went off the pro snowboarded map. .  Jonaven follows his hart more then anyone I know and his hart was no longer into having his whole snowboard world revolve around Snowmobiles and Helicotpers.  He could not get film companies or photographers to follow his path and he fell out of the spotlight and lost some key sponsors.  However when I tracked him down at the start of the Deeper project he was totally rejuvenated on the sport thanks to his split board and riding a ton.     The irony off this is that our friendship was born on the heli pads of Alaska but both of us at similar times, with out talking to each other, had turned our backs on Heli’s and sleds and started tackling mountains on foot.

To top it off it was these very mountains, filming for the Rome movie were he decided to change his approach to snowboarding.  He had rushed up to the mountains chasing a blue whole and on his third run his riding partner kicked off a class three avalanche that they both barely got out off.  He felt he was rushing things int the mountains and was taking big risks for other people.  Since that time he has longed to get back to these mountains and ride them his way.  Three years later the star aligned and we are back  with our camping gear and splitboards.

Going into this trip I figured I would get a good tune up for Alaska.  With in an hour of leaving our base camp I realized we were in terrain every bit as intense as Alaska.  Blind rolls, knife edge ridges with huge cliffs on one side, big bergschrunds to cross, intricate crevasse riddled glaciers to navigate,  extra steep spines walls to climb up, and complex sluffs to manage on the way down.  With perfect weather and a stable snow pack we were able to get after it right away.  (We were in the Coast Range not in the Canadian Rockies where the high avalanche danger was)

Our home.

The Wizards Toque.  Thanks to a 3:30 AM start I was able to stand on the peak of this line at sunrise.

Jonaven and Garry go over logistics for the next mornings session.  Afternoon heating kept us out of the mountains from the peak warming hours, 1PM to 5PM.  Jonaven ended up hiking up the far wall in the evening and digging a bivouac on top of the line so he could ride it at sunrise.  So well we were travelling the glaciers at dark trying to beat the sunrise, Jonaven was sleeping soundly on top of his line.

The beauty of being out all day is you get to see the terrain light up and react to the warming temperatures.  It is the best wide screen, hi-def TV you will ever watch.  This wall only got about 30 minutes of light and the glacier had to many open holes in the outrun making the consequences to high for us.

I forgot how hard and scary it is to cross Bergschrunds.  This thing looked really mellow from far but it was 15 ft deep.  This is why we always get roped across them.

Why do we cross Bergschrunds? To get to then goods.  When I started to climb this line  I assumed I could not get up through the spines or the gut because it cliffed out.  After an hour and a half of clawing my way up it I was standing on top.  This is the climb of the year for me.

Thanks to the Canadian crew for showing me their amazing world. Mikey, TIm, Jonaven, Garry, Melisa, and Dan.

Check out this web series, The Season, to get a behind the scene’s look of Jonaven’s snowboarding this winter

This was a super fun pow day at Squaw Valley a week or so ago on the 161 Flagship.  It’s really great for that chopped up pow often seen on resort bluebird pow days at freeride meccas like Squaw, Jackson, Snowbird, or up in the PNW at Crystal Mountain or Mt. Baker.

The plan was to be in Canada but the above report led to a last minute cancellation on my part.  The   buried surface hoar in Utah also thwarted multiple attempts to flea the Sierra. The problem with buried surface hoar is that it will give you a false sense of security.  5o people can ski a bowl and deem it safe only to have the 51st hit a trigger spot and have the whole mountain come down.  This is why it is such a killer and has left 5 people dead in the last week in Canada.

The steep, deep and stable snow of the Sierra kept me close to home most of the last month.  Multiple 1 to 2 foot storms followed by cold temps made for some of the more memorable Tahoe sessions I have had in a long time.

My main Tahoe objectives slowly went out the door a I spent more and more time in the mountains and discovered a whole new area of unridden gems.  Nothing is more refreshing then backyard discoveries.  It is amazing what one will find if they just get off the beaten path and drop over the edge into the the unknown.

Josh Dirksen is one of the best snowboarders I have ever ridden with.  For years I have been a fan but to see his act in person is something special.  His time hanging out with Gerry Lopez has rubbed off.  He surfs the mountain with effortless flow and precision that would make any goofy footer proud.  It is clear that his time away from the camera the last two years  has allowed him to mature his snowboarding into one of the more well rounded approaches in the snowboarding.

Ryland Bell successfully negotiates a tricky line and pauses for a moment before leaning into one of the deepest bottom turns of his life.

The remnants of a small avalanche, a backhand bash and a  backside air.

Dirksen four off the lips in and setting up for the big finish off the cornice.

Ryland Bell enjoying the fruits of his labor.  Double overhead sprays and no one with in ten miles of us.  Solitude is easy to find in the mountains.

The gateway to the goods was through the green forest.

It took three days of skinning to session this face.  It left us all scratching our heads.  The  Lightning fast sluffs and mandatory airs made line selection critical.

Sluff management 404 and some indecent exposure  was needed to leave this exit clean.

Pausing to enjoy the last rays of light 15 hours into the best day of the year before making the final push to camp.

The High Sierra continue to overwhelm me.  Pick any drainage and be prepared to have your hit list grow ten fold.  This valley is one of the better natural half pipes I have ever seen.

This line has been on our hit list for over a year.  With 10 inches of fresh and now wind we decided the time was right to tick it off.  It is a 34oo ft sustained chute (Snowbird is 3000ft), and I wanted to split up as far as I could.

Forrest Shearer at the half way point.

Seth Lightcap an hour later.  This thing just kept going.

We were dealing with 10 inches of fresh snow on bed surface.  We came around the corner for the summit push and it got to be knee to waist deep.  This not only slowed us down quite a bit but for the first time of the hike I became concerned with a pocket pulling out.  A quick pit and snow test confirmed the pack was deep but bonded very well.  Non the less we put it into over drive and got off the face quickly.

It was so fun blitzing this thing.  It took five hours to climb up, two minutes to ride down.  Our legs were feeling it but Forrest still had enough left to get his slash on.

The best things in life are free…once you have the gear. Fired up to get my first ever factory made split board the Solution in some big terrain.

The wind came up on our second night.  It made for a rough night of camping and blew the snow to the Nevada Desert.

Sierra eye candy.

Check out www.deeperfurtherhigher.com for more info on Deeper.

“Mountains Speak, Wise Men Listen” John Muir

This is one of my favorite quotes that perfectly sums up approaching the mountains. You can take all the avalanche courses in the world but if you do not read the signs it does not matter. Often times there is no room for error in the backcountry and one bad call reading the conditions can erase a lifetime of good calls. Because of this I like to keep on the top of my brain sayings like, “just say no” and “live to ride another day.” When approaching a line I always go in with the mind set of, “I am going to look at the line,” not “I am going to ride the line.” The mountains are one big feel out. Having a preset agenda is dangerous. I never know if I am going to hit a line until the moment I drop in because my mind and gut are observing the constantly changing conditions and I am always open to turning back at any point.

This can be tricky when you are filming or leading a group because so many people have worked so hard to get into position and you may feel like you are letting them down by backing down. The further up a line you get, or the closer you get to dropping in the harder it is to say no to a line. Saying no takes practice. If I have not backed off a line for a long time then I start to question myself and will make an effort to back off a line in the near future just to practice saying no. This is the one area of my ridng that I have gotten much better at over the years.   My past record means nothing though. No one is above the law in the mountains.

I waited for two weeks on this face.  This is a shot I took from the top of a smaller face with the same aspect and similar elevation that we spent the day riding in hopes to step up to this face the next day.  The snow and stability was perfect  when I took this photo and we went to bed fired up to finally hit this face. That night the wind picked up and loaded these faces. We ended up having to turn back and never got to ride the face.

This was another face I waited on for awhile but was turned back from for fear of a small wind slab popping out and sending me for a ride down the face.

I turned back from this 3 days in a row.  Each day I figured out how to get past each hazard that kept turning me back.  On the forth day I solved the puzzles and rode the wall.  I called it Touch and Go Wall because so many times on the way up I thought I might have to turn around.

This was a face in Europe I made three attempts on.  On the final attempt we woke up at 3, got to with in an hour of the top but decided to turn around because one of the people I was with was not feeling it.  Two of us felt good about it but there was no way we were leaving the third behind and we were not going to ride a line that one of the members in the group was not feeling.  You need to get as educated as possible about reading snow conditions but at the end of the day one of the most important tools is listening to your gut.  As much as I would have liked to ride all of these lines, not for a second did I ever second guess myself or the people I was with for backing down. If by chance the stars align again I may get to ride one of the faces and if I do the feeling will be that much sweeter.