Jeremy Jones

A year ago there was talk Teton Gravity Research was going out of business.  It was not as close as people made it out to be but they were at a cross roads and this amazing lifestyle they had created was now injeopardy. Some hard calls were made and some great workers had to be let go. The people who stayed were forced to take on more responsibility and carry the work load of multiple people.

Things had gotten away from them and although there last release “Lost and Found” was a great movie the people on the inside new that TGR could do better. In the words of TGR’s producer Josh Neilson, “it was time to step up, or step out.” Those who were left stepped it up in a big way. Camera men started hiking the pass before work to get in shape for the shooting season, new technology was purchased and a new energy was put into all aspects of the company.

Days like this is why TGR refused to close the doors and made the months of sleepless nights and endless  hours at the office restructuring the company worth while.  There is none better at “getting it done” in the mountains  then my brother Todd.

On the hill where it mattered most it was clear from the start that whether you were a camera man, guide or rider you better be bringing your “A” game. Everyone fed of off each other and by the time we got to AK things were on a different level. I would find myself pacing on top of my linecontemplating a 20 foot air when I would watch Se th Morrison drop into his first line in days and throw 70 foot flip and stomp the crap out of it.

Josh and Todd putting the “jib arm” to use.
Now I had ridden with Seth before and had always been impressed but after a few days of this “off the couch” charging I had to ask what was up. He related his new intensity back to riding with Kye Petterson earlier in the year. He told me story after story off how Kye left it all on the table every run and every day filming. From the sounds of it, if Kye was not bruised and battered at the end of every day he was not trying hard, or in his words, he was being a pussy. As more riders showed up to AK with the same intensity they shared similar experiences about filming with Kye and there was a new tone among riders that if your not icing bruises at the end of the day then your not pushing it hard enough. Iguess the fact that most riders were now travelling wi th there own ice packs summed it up best.

Check out Seth’s two tracks in the middle.  The big air was his first run in 5 days.  He second “double skipper” line was out of a video game.

Whether I new it at the time or not I too was indirectly being pushed by Kye through the riders I was with. By the end of my trip I had lost three pairs of goggles in falls, gotten two bloody noses, hit my biggest air maybe ever, bruised a rib and later found out I had fractured my arm.

Jim “the Sarge” Conway assesses the snow in hopes of us getting us on the terrain in the background.  He has been the head guide for TGR for the last 10 years and is a keyingredient to the program.  Together we continue to evolve our protocol in the mountains that safely gets us riding the goods soon after storms.  This year Jim developed “Excalibur”  the cornice cutting weapon that allowed us to do the ultimate slope tests by dropping huge cornices on slopes we wanted to ride.  Mad props to Sarge!  

  Now I do not know what the end result of all this new focus will have on the final product but after viewing the latest TGR teaser, http://www.tetongravity.com/undertheinfluence/tgr_uti_trailer_medium.mov it is clear TGR is on the up and up and stronger then ever before. Regardless of the out come of this years movie it was a pleasure being surrounded but a bunch of people who were totallycommitted to taking things to the next level.  TGR’s, “Under the Influence,” will be released this fall.  Pick up a copy at www.tetongravity.com

Roner paying the price of progression.   Check out sick POV footage at www.erikroner.com

I am fortunate to work with a lot of amazing production companies and the one thing that stands out most about my time with TGR is there level of passion and stoke they have for the mountains.  From the beginning they have totally committed themselves to setting up an environment that provides a setting for riders to safely charge as hard as possible.  They are also not afraid to put the cameras down and get some themselves.

For months I have been trying to hook up with the Clif Bar Save Our Snow Tour. Each time it got pushed later into spring and the thought of riding together looked all but hopeless as the tempratures climbed into the high 80’s throught the middle of May. Seemingly out of nowhere it got cold again and the high country saw its first snow in over two months.

The spring melt down came sooner then I wanted so I was really fired up to get in some more riding. One line I was really looking forward to all season was the moon collier and I finally had my window of oppertunity. Mountain biking is cool but I will take a day of backcountry riding over biking any day of the week.

The Crew. Mike Parzialy, Chris Ednunds and Mike Basich get a first look of the peak.

The line. June 1st. This is the best this line has looked in almost two months.

Mike Parzialy, the master of grease, and captain of the SOS tour had never snowboarded a chute before in his life. He kept saying,”I do not feel good about this,” and I kept saying, “Your riding it.” He rode it.

The view from the top was totally blind and there looked like an air into the chute. This turned the mood from mellow summer riding to, “when was the last time I rode…should I be doing this?”

Our tracks down the two chutes. The main one and the lower left one.

There are few better feelings then taking off the boots for the last time of the year.

Special thanks to Mike and Marty McFry (the van) for getting us to the mountains on veggie oil. Mike said it best, “The SOS tour must be working because we just rode powder in June.” Keep up the good work Mike.

About CLIF BAR’s “Save Our Snow” Winter Roadtrip—Part of CLIF BAR’s Natural Energy Tour Series
The CLIF BAR “Save Our Snow” Winter Roadtrip is part of the ongoing CLIF BAR Natural Energy Tour Series, designed to inform and inspire people about using their natural energy to create simple changes to fight climate change and protect the places where we play.

Learn more about Grease Not Gas on the below link.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=64276520

Almost ten years ago to the day I finished my season with one of the best runs of my life down Pontoon Peak. Since that moment those experiences have held a place in my most cherished memory bank. I refer to lines like this as “life time achievement awards.” The list is short for these lines, The Tusk, Grizzly Spine, The Brothel, Meteorite, Storm Troopers, Shoulder of Death, Stevie Wonder and Pontoon Peak.

It towers above the rest of the Chugach and sits all by itself as if other mountains were afraid to get close to it. Whenever I am around it I feel it gravitational pull and can not take my eyes off it. The fact that it was ridden in the early 90’s by Trevor Petterson and Eric Pehota proves to me that I was not the only one to feel Pontoons pull. At the time terrain like this was considered unridable and most of the Chugach was unridden. To top it off Trevor and Eric had to sit on the skids(Pontoons) in order to land the peak. It was so far outside the realm of what people where doing at that time that they must have felt like astronauts exploring outer-space.

I do not know when Trevor said these words, ‘THERE COMES A TIME WHEN ONE MUST RISK SOMETHING OR SIT FOREVER WITH ONES DREAMS,” but there is a good chance it was siting on the pontoons of the heli moments before being lifted to the top of Pontoon Peak.

“Airy” is the best way to describe the feeling of standing on top of the Peak. There is a weight to the air one can only get by standing on an edge that drops away thousands of feet on all sides. I felt myself crawling to my line even tough I had a few feet on either side of me.

Dropping in the rollover seemed to never end and I felt like I was riding on the edge of the world. 5,000 feet below I hopped over the bergschrund just as the shadow crept up the face. It would be my last run of the trip and was a story book ending to an incredible Alaskan experience.

Have you ever seen a better looking mountain? Whether is person or in a photo I have looked at this Peak more then any other mountain in the world. The line I hit 10 years ago is the center spine to cliff. Do to the conditions this year I started off the peak and faded to the right exiting just lookers right of the cliff.

So much sick terrain everywhere you look but it is hard to take your eyes off of Pontoon.

We landed on the bump in the center of the ridge. The 100 yard walk was the width of a sidewalk butdo to the exposure on both sides it felt like a tight rope.

I took at least 50 photos of the peak over a two week period.

A good view of the Peterson and Pehota line down the right hand ridge. The bottom of the photo is the halfway point.

Right before going up I talked Travis into getting in the Heli and riding it. He has the right mix of respect for the mountains and balls to deal with exposure. Look for him to carry the torch of legit Big Mountain riding. Being one of the biggest peaks in the range the Northwest face get the last light. We dropped in at 8:45 at night and did not get home until 10 at night.

THAT’S IT, THAT’S ALL! Check out the movie coming this fall. If you have not seen the teaser check this link. Check back in a few weeks for the new teaser.

http://snowboardermag.com/videos/flash/thats-it-thats-all-teaser-travis-rice/

The thing I was looking forward to most coming to Valdez was getting to ride some bigger lines.  Lately we have trended toward smaller lines 700 to 1200 vertical feet.  For putting lines on film this size seems to work best.  It allows riders to push it harder because the falls are a lot shorter and the risks are more manageable.  That is not to say I do not like bigger lines,  I actually obsess over the big ones.  It is just really hard to find big faces that can be ripped top to bottom as well as getting them in the right conditions.

My memory of Valdez was of huge lines that could be ripped top to bottom.  What I have seen my first few days out has confirmed this but the avalanche conditions were so gnarly I figured I would never gain the confidence in the snow pack it would take to commit to the big lines.

That all changed with a major wind event.  I always say, “take what the mountains give you.”  Today they gave us the big stuff.

The afternoon menu. The big one in the back followed by the  big spine just coming into light on the far right bowl.

A 3200vertical foot face.  This is the biggest face I have ever bombed and ranks high in the trophy case.  Think Snowbird Tram for vertical drop comparison.

The only landing for this line was in the upper right hand corner. It took me 45 minutes of billy goating over exposure to get to the top of the fluted spines on the middle right of the photo.  The reward was the longest spine of my life clocking in at 2300 feat,  the size of Kt Chair at Squaw.  Travis and Lando stepped up and hit the face to the left.

It came at a price.  My “sluff free” exit was not as clean as I had hoped and I ended up cartwheeling over the bergchrund and getting punched in the nose by my knee.

Possible lines for tomorrow? Pontoon looms in the background.  If this high pressure continues I hope to ride it.

Three weeks of unsettled weather has come to an end. It took a high pressure the size of Russia to clear things out but unfortunately the sunny skies have come with a strong north wind. It is the dreaded north wind that does the damage because it strips the north faces, the aspect we ride, of all its soft snow. It was a sad day yesterday looking at the peaks with big mohawks of snow coming of of every peak. Today the winds died a little bit and we were able to get into some low elevations lines. Our first look of the damaged mountains was not pretty but past experience has taught me that somewhere in this range of mountains is some protected snow. The good news. Avalanche went from “high” to “moderate” on the north faces.

So much to do, so little time. I could spend days just looking at these mountains.

The north wind doing its damage. Frostbite warning was in effect. I spent half the day swinging my feet trying to keep from losing my toes.

Bouncing around in the heli getting blown off of every landing we got close to Nicolas said what was on everyones mind, “lets go surfing. ” Travis stuck to his guns, found a landing low down and built a jump. This is the start of the in run. Landvik is dropping in and will point it to the jump below hitting speed upward of 50 mph.Travis gets creative with a cornice jib.

Landvik sends it.

Nico wraps up the jump session just as the wind dies down and the evening light starts to light up the north faces. We headed across the way to the spines in the background in hopes that the Tusk(the peak in the middle) would protected them from the wind.

The only way to tell how wind hammered this snow is to ride them. With no real exposure I was willing to give it a go.

My track. Even though it was not that deep the wind was ripping up the face making my last four turns totally blind. The snow is about boot deep and gives us some hope that we will find more of it.