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.

Come one, come all to the DEEPER world premiere on Friday, September 10 in North Lake Tahoe, California!

O’Neill and Teton Gravity Research will proudly present the event in conjunction with non-profit partner the Sierra Avalanche Center.

Where: Truckee River Amphitheatre in Truckee, Calif.

When: Friday, September 10. Expo from 6-8 p.m., Show begins at 8 p.m. and afterparty to follow at Fifty-Fifty Brewery.

Cost: $15. Children under 8 are free with paying adult. Entry includes 2 for 1 voucher to Alpine Meadows Ski Area and proceeds go to support the Sierra Avalanche Center.

Ticket Info: Advance tickets will be available at Fifty-Fifty Brewery in Truckee and online at the TGR Events page. Tickets will also be available at the door (cash only).

That would be Jones team rider Ralph Backstrom walking away with second place overall in the 2010 North Face Masters of Snowboarding series. Backstrom piloted the 161 Flagship to impressive results at all three contests including a 3rd at the first stop in Snowbird and a 2nd at the series finale in Kirkwood.

Mid-April, Backstrom stepped it up again at the King Of The Hill comp in Valdez, AK. He narrowly missed the podium taking home fourth amongst a stacked field. You can get a taste of the AK contest terrain he was riding in this POV edit :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Backstrom wasn’t the only Jones rider on the podium…

That would be Ryland Bell and his 164 Flagship taking home third place at the Squaw Valley stop of the Freeride World Tour in February. Bell also fared well in the North Face Masters series snagging fifth overall including second place at Snowbird and fifth place at Kirkwood. Check out his 2010 FWT line down Bungee Bowl at Squaw Valley:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hopefully you’ve caught some of the “Deeper” reports that have been popping up in cyberspace this season – like this one on TWSNOW.com and this at ESPN Snowboarding. We really appreciate the response and support we’ve received about the Deeper project. Not to mention that the hard work feels all the more satisfying when you’re rewarded with stuff like this:

Those would be two pages from the new Frequency Mag. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet don’t sleep!

Frequency: The Snowboard Journal is always chock full of rad stories and photos and this issue is no exception. I am thrilled to have contributed three shots of Jones’ team riders in action, including this bottom image of Jones climbing the “Psycho Pinner” in the High Sierra. Ryland was featured with a cool article and image introducing him as well.

The Fairweather Range of Alaska is home to the sickest spine walls on earth. Man-eating fins like these don’t form up just anywhere because it takes a rare combination of maritime snow in ridiculous quantities to make it happen. There is no doubt Jeremy would hang out in a tent for 19 storm days for just one day of riding such wicked snow features. Thankfully, we spent 9 days tent bound for 11 days of riding these virgin spines.

Towards the end of our trip we were visited by several flocks of noisy snow geese.  The geese didn’t seem to mind flying in white-out conditions but we did hear them turn around abruptly after flying into unseen mountain faces. They were the only wildlife we saw the entire time we were out there aside from a mysterious house fly outbreak that coincidently appeared just after Lucas Debari arrived at camp. We let Debari off the hook after finding flies in places he hadn’t been but strange nonetheless.

You’ll never look through Jeremy’s goggles but if your lucky he just might share a glimpse of what he’s seen on his Sony HD helmet cam. Same goes for his journal that sits to the right. You’ll never read it, but on occasion he’ll open it and share his inner vision.

Of the 13 splitboards we brought with us on the trip, 2 were broken. Neither of the deceased were Jones’ Solutions. Lucas Debari sent this one to heaven slamming into an unexpected chunk of glacial ice on a high speed runout. RIP.

Needless to say, after three weeks without a shower and hiking 14 hours a day, we all got pretty stinky. The freezing temps kept the stench at bay however as sweat never had the chance to waft out that far. This picture symbolically depicts the funkiest funk we encountered on the trip by most votes, Bell’s boots and Burt’s ass.

You might think we were roughing it out there on the cold glacier, miles from nowhere. But really, no. We had a toliet with a bitchin’ seat and we ate damn good food including this tasty scallop veggie curry served up by Burt and Tero Repo.

While we didn’t have to battle gaping bergschrunds at the bottom of our lines, us media folk fought for fresh batteries and clean memory cards. Laugh away, but it was no easy fight. At any given time there were 8 cameras rolling not including the ipods and point-and-shoots that the athletes carried. Batteries got drained daily and cold laptops didn’t last long trying to dump memory cards. Five solar panels similar to the one shown here kept us alive and shooting.

Ryland got us all hooked on the candy sweet taste of Baren Jager, a honey liquor that was lip smackin’ good and too easy to swallow. Mr. Bell took his passion for the nectar one step further however, naming the sickest line he did all trip after it.

If you ever get the chance to fly with Drake outta Haines you just might see this ornament of a jolly cat on a sleigh sitting alongside his pilot-side window. It perfectly describes Drake’s flying style  – nimble, smooth and seemingly effortless. Touching down and taking off on crevasse strewn glaciers is no problem for the former professional race car driver nor are pitched banked turns 50 feet from jagged alpine faces.

We saw sunrise and sunset on the move many days. A 2:30 am wake-up and an 8 pm arrival back at camp was not uncommon. Long days on the glacier were always rewarded however, usually just as soon as the sun cracked the horizon.

Killer snow and killer weather = epic. I passed 1st grade with flying colors, now it was time to scope middle school. A great meal and a good nights sleep, and we were ready to go for it the next day.
Bluebird again… Yes!!!

Dirksen boarding with poles, heading out to Middle School

Middle school: I stood at the top, last one to drop, so nervous. I remember talking to the helmet cam telling it this was going to be the run of my life and I already knew it. 3 feet blower on 55 degree spines. Standing there alone, shaking waiting for my turn, I puked.
It was…. The line of my life… (up to that point).
We hit the glacier running, we had a west face that was too good to pass up, and with 5 hours to go and 7 miles to skin and snowshoe we had the rest of the afternoons work cut out for us. Exhausted and low on water we made it to the West face Jeremy would later name “Freefall Wall”

Freefall Wall

Twice in the same day I stood talking to my helmet cam, knowing this was going to be the run of my life, “Freefall Wall”… 70 degree hold on for dear life spines.
“Ten Seconds”
Shit Edmands Battery went dead.
Waiting for 30 seconds when you’re that nervous is like a 7 hour layover in Calcutta.
Stoked!!!
Made it!!!
We left camp at 6am and I rolled back in at 9pm, with no more than a 5 minute break in between, exhausted, but ready to do it all over again.
I think it’s not often you ride two lines in a day that as you stand on top of each, you know it will be the run of your life.

I rolled over on my friend Lucks’ couch and groaned, “I’ll be down there in 20.” My hangover was pushing in, and I hadn’t slept much.
We had all been in Haines for 3 days waiting for the right weather window to fly into Glacier Bay for a month of winter camping. It was here, I was stoked!!! I threw my last few things in a bag and headed to the hanger to meet the crew.

Steeps

Glacier Bay

We made it!!! We were 65 miles from Haines and about 30 miles from Elfin Cove, where I grew up commercial fishing. If something went down out here we were about a day away from any sort of serious help. This was it, we were Deeper.
Mt. Bertha, and Mt. Crillon, two of the massive peaks that make up the Fairweather range, loomed overhead. The only separation, the most disgusting spine faces on earth. An hour later as the sun left the high saddle where we camped, I took some time to soak it all in, we were in paradise. Later we would name it “The Spinal Institute.”

A glimpse at Mt. Fairweather

Soaking it in

3,000ft above the glacier floor and a 6 hour hike form base camp.  Ryland and I are tucked under a rock cliff, dug into the snow and hidden from a cold north wind that rages an arms reach away.  200 ft to our east is the starting point to the “Wall of Walls,” quite possibly the most amazing face I have ever considered riding.

If you told me 5 days ago I would be in this position I would have thought you were crazy.  In my head I figured the “Wall of Walls” would have taken weeks not days to unlock but the weather gods have blessed us with 5 straight days of sun and we have been able to climb the terrain progression ladder faster then I thought.  The price has been 14 hour day after 14 hour day and both my mind and our bodies are running on reserve.

Six hours ago it was looking like this was a dream that would not make it to reality.  Our original plan to get over the bergschrund failed, as did the second, and our third and final option looked hopeless until I found a snowbridge that could support our weight over the dark cracks below.  Once on the face my brain and body took over and before long we were 2,000 ft off the deck, the sun was long gone and we were hanging onto twilight trying to top out before total darkness. Our homes were on our backs, the ocean was not far below, huge peaks dotted the horizon and we had know idea where we would sleep or if we could make it up the last steep pitch of the climb.

Looking back the last two seasons I now realize how much I have learned.  Without the endless days of splitboarding  in my home range, the Sierra, and without last season’s AK trip or the rope work in Chamonix and the bergschrund lessons of Antarctica, I would not be here.  I am  big mountain riding on a level I never imagined. My whole body is aching, my boots are frozen, my feet or soaked and I could not be happier.

The Wall of Walls.  “Can we climb it?  What is the safest way….?”  Free Jones Snowboard hat for the first right answer.

The boot pack.

The top

The Bivy.

The reward.

What a treat.  Time to relax on a sunny day and dry our boots, have a huge breakfast that was brought to us by TB and take a nap.  We had five hours to kill before we needed to start hiking to our evening lines and we we were to far to go back to camp.

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…