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.

The quest has always been to ride the best mountains I could find and to always ride new terrain.  It started in Valdez 16 years ago and as new lines dried up there the search led me Girdwood, Skagway, Haines, Tulsequa and the Tordrillo Mountains.  A long the way I learned what ranges are holding the goods a lot about what combination of conditions is needed to create the real trophies lines.  This knowledge is what has directed me into the Fairweather Range 65 miles outside of Haines.  It is hands down the most impressive range I have come across and has captured my imagination and has motivated me more then any other range in the world.

On April 4^th trusted bush pilot Drake and I lifted off from Haines in search for a place I could call home for a month.  Setting out to find a base camp is one of the more daunting tasks I have ever done.  You can scour maps all you want but once you are up in the air none of that matters.  Time is limited because we are so far from town that there is not a lot of extra fuel to explore before the plane needs to go back for fuel.  In the plane was all my gear and ten days of food and fuel incase the weather came in and the rest of the group would not be able to meet me. Tom Burt, Ryland Bell, Josh Dirksen, Lucas Debari, Camera men Chris Edmands, Garry Pendygrass, And Seth Lightcap stayed back until I had made the call.

We are approaching the general area that I saw from across the way last year and had been looking closely on the maps.

The terrain was amazing but a ton of the outruns were littered with crevasses and cornice covered ridges making a lot of the faces unridable.

This is our airport and our home. I hardly looked at the zone before declaring it good to go but I had seen what I needed to on the first pass;  dark white North faces with clean out runs at the right elevation (above 3000 ft) and surrounded by tons of glaciers.   So with low fuel and in and out clouds I told Drake to set it down if he could. With in ten minutes of first seeing the zone I was now on the ground, by myself, and 65 miles away from the closest person.  Even though there was a lot of work to do like pack a runway or build tent platforms I could not stop drooling over our new home.

The Fairweather Range towers over the coast and creates its own weather making forecasting very hard.  The day I landed the weather was in and out but the weather Gods were on our side. The landing strip would open up just  the rest of the crew approached the runway. The snow was so deep that even on our split boards it was thigh deep.

Mapping out an area takes a ton of work.  Everything is new.  Everything needs to be analysed, dissected and discussed.  We start with the smallest and safest lines and work up from there.  Our first mission was to  “Town Hill” the closest and safest line in our world.  We are getting ready to put Tom Burt on belay to go dig a pit on the North Face.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Haines, Alaska. The Dream has changed.  Since I can remember the dream was always about getting paid enough snowboarding so I could spend the spring in Alaska flying in helicopters and making snowboard movies. After starring in over 45 movies the dream was starting to wear off. The challenge was gone and I was getting bored.  No longer was I having the “best day of my life” every time I went out and although I was riding some of the best lines of my life it did not feel like it at the end of the day. (Cry me a river…I know.)

Now the dream is about taking a plane deep into unridden mountains, setting up a base camp and hiking and riding first descents on foot. It is a much more intimate experience with the mountains because I am not retreating back to our hotel rooms when nightfall comes or a storm blows in. I see every layer in the snowpack form as it falls.  We watch our projected lines day and night for weeks on end and get to learn their moods and hopefully solve their problems.  The big lines are a complex chess game with mother nature that keeps us adapting each step of the way and require total focus.

The complexity of the lines leave me turning back on more lines then I actually get to ride.  From a “getting the shot” perspective we come home more days empty handed than holding the goods.  Thankfully I love the process, and the people I am surrounded by do as well.  At this point in snowboarding less is more.  The reward of riding a new “dream line” that I have worked so hard for is the ultimate reward for me in snowboarding.  After 25 years of riding this is where I am; getting my greatest highs in snowboarding. That is the whole point of it.  He who comes home at the end of the day happiest wins.

Jonaven Moore moments before the payoff.

“Heat up some hot water for my tea” was the last thing Tom Burt said before dropping into this line.

Being out at night and watching the sunset and the moon ride is one of the best parts of camping.

Climbing up the lines is an amazing experience but it is still all about the down.

Evolution of My Snowboarding Dreams

1982 Getting a snowboard for Xmass.

1985 My Backhill had metal edges and a P-tex base

1986 Snowboarding was allowed on my home mountain.

1989 Getting sponsored.

1991 Going out west.

1992 Being a pro snowboarder.

1993 Moving out west.

1994 Going to Valdez,Alaska.

1996 Being in Standard Films movies

2000 New terrain in Haines Alaska.

2009 Riding first descents in Alaska, accessed on foot.

2010 See below…

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

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.

4 AM start. Hiking with down pants and two down jackets.
Hit a wind slab at 9AM an hour from the summit of our objective and are forced to turn around.
10 AM Find good snow and ride good lines.
1PM Sage hits a huge air….lands perfect on a small tranny and rides away clean.
4:20PM watch the sunset from a high ridge.
6 PM realize we are running low on fuel.
7:05 PM Sage saves the day, finds water.

Day two.
4AM start. Snowing hard.
5 AM ride low angle powder in the dark.
7:45 AM Sun comes out as we are standing on our first lines of the day.
10:15 AM start an avalanche on a face next to us as we skin up a ridge to our lines.
10:30 Drop 3 cornices, start three slides, and go back down our skin track to ride a mellow shoulder.
1:45 Ride an isolated spine line at lower elevation.
2:30 Ride threw a natural arch.
3:20 PM Edmands falls in a river with 8 miles left to skin.
7PM make it back after a hellish traverse that resulted in 2 gnarly falls on my split.
7:15 calculate we covered 20 miles today.

Recap.
Tetons are very big. Remind me of Europe with out the ice. Tetons are very cold. We would have to ride with water bottles under coats, Clif Bars would have to go under your armpits before they could be eaten and whiskey does not freeze.

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.

This was the first mountain we saw after 62 hours of open ocean.  I was trying to get the boat to stop so we could ride these spines.

This is as close as I got to this bowl of spines.  My best guess on size has this thing weighing in close to 3000 feet in vertical drop.

Chamonix breeds with Alaska and has a kid in Antarctica.  I took this pic from the top of a line that was about 1800 vertical feet and mid 50 degrees.  This mutant of a face was towering in the back of us making what we rode look like a pimple.

Xavier and I rode the chute in the middle of the face.  The snow was great allowing us for a rare opportunity to ride a line with out axes.  This was the only slope we tested the the pitch of.  It was measured 52 degrees.

This was taken from the bottom of the above face waiting for a pick up to go back to the boat that was 4 miles away.  The next day we rode a chute that ended right at the pointy rock.

I took this photo at 11 at night.

My dinner came to an abrupt end when we hit this channel and started passing the most radical faces I have ever seen.

The coulior in the middle of the face may be the steepest coulior in the world? It is just across the channel from the spine wall above and probably has close to a 3000 vertical foot drop.

The captain of this sail boat has over 700 descents in Antarctica.

This may be the most impressive mountain scapes I have ever seen.  Mt Francois clocks in at 9600ft and may be one of the most sustained descents in the world.  Our expedition leader Doug Stoup and one of the guides on the trip, Andrew Mclean spent 3 weeks in the rain trying to ski and climb it and never saw the peak.

This sits right across from Francois.  I am guessing it is bigger then Jackson(4139ft) in Vertical drop and 50 to 60 degrees.  I think it is the cleanest, tallest and steepest line I have ever seen.

Token Penguin Shot.
Big thanks to Ice Axe Expeditions for the trip of a lifetime