Going “Further” In June With Jeremy Jones

When it becomes too steep to skin, fire up the Chevrolegs and tackle the Eastern Sierra stairmaster. Photo: Jeff Curley

Story by Nate Deschenes
For more info on Jeremy Jones' latest project "Further," head over to tetongravity.com/further.

Halfway through the follow up to Deeper, Jeremy Jones has taken his adventures "Further" into the mountain ranges of planet earth than most could dream, showing that with some ambition and a little giddy-up, riding lines once deemed inaccessible is no less a reality than a snowboard that turns into skis and back into a snowboard again. In his own words, Jones talks about riding powder in June and why sometimes the best-kept secrets are right out your back door… and of course camping near the North Pole.

Looking down one of the first lines of the trip with a million year old lake in the background. Photo: Jeff Curley

Words by Jeremy Jones:

Further is an extension of Deeper. I learned with Deeper that I could go anywhere and that the world’s mountain ranges were truly open to me. Through these experiences I have gotten better and better at accessing these remote areas. So "Further" is just one step, um, further than Deeper (laughs). Were going a little bit more exotic with the locations as well, adding another layer.

Filmer Chris Edmunds finds his angle. Photo: Jeff Curley

I went to Japan first off. Outside of Nagano on the main island we found some really big mountains with huge vertical in the high alpine. We’re talking really extreme camping, really cold, wild winds, tons of snow… but we got into some really good snow and rode some sick spines. I was definitely humbled by the mountains and by some of the more difficult winter camping I had ever done. The other trip I went on was to an island seven hundred miles south of the North Pole. We were no closer than a hundred miles from the nearest town or outpost station in Norway. We rode some incredible terrain in an amazing location late in the spring so it never got dark really which was kind of cool. Each of those trips was a month long. I do fewer trips at this point but at the same time spend more time on them. The reason being is that I have learned it takes time to learn new mountains and their snow and that is the key to getting the prominent lines that we want to ride.

Heading out. Jones admits that some of the approaches in the Sierra are
as difficult as anywhere he's been. Photo: Jeff Curley

What I try and do is get one or two long well researched trips and then just spend as much time as I can in my home range, The Sierra Nevada. So I rode the Sierra a ton this year without filming at all. I felt that with Deeper we filmed a lot of my home turf but in a way I still didn’t know it well enough, and I feel that we weren’t prepared in a lot of ways. So this year I dedicated a lot of time just riding and learning these mountains without the filming. By the end of the year I felt that I was in fact prepared to tackle some of these lines that I had been eyeing for years now. It just so happened that it was in June! The conditions and weather was perfect for it.

Winter like conditions in June? Jones rips one like its January. Photo: Jeff Curley

I was blown away. I got back from the Arctic in mid May, and yeah, I was still planning on riding, but as far as filming goes I didn’t think that we would have these five star conditions that were worthy of filming in May, let alone June. So we put together a quick shoot and took advantage of it. Thanks to a late spring it was still very much winter like up there. I invited Ralph Backstrom as the other rider along with filmers Chris Edmunds, Chris Ondercin and Jeff Curley shooting photos. We hit some classic zones in the Eastern Sierra that have been on my radar for years. Because of the time of year we just camped at the trailheads and started early. The beauty of it in June is that the days are so long that these North Facing lines started to get the light at three in the afternoon, allowing us time to get up there without having to camp deep. Just long day hits.

Ralph Backstrom. Fast. Photo: Jeff Curley

Backyard discovery is one of the coolest things in the world to me and with my home range I've probably put eyes on only five percent of it. I’m putting together next year already but I can tell you that the High Sierra really has me captivated. Because the approaches are so hard and the magnitude of the range is so overwhelming I want to continue my quest at home more than anything. I would love to put some more of these lines on film out here. So I think if we have a decent winter next year I could put all of my energy into the Sierra then just go to AK in April.

Celebrity Skin. The most famous crew in the Sierra backcountry gets ready to start the long haul. Photo: Jeff Curley

There is definitely a new area in Alaska that I am looking at. That is going to be one of those classic five week trips next spring for sure–a huge unknown range for me. Then there might be another location or two. Really, as I go into winter I want to have three or four locations mapped out and in the end focus on two of them depending on conditions. We’ll see what the weather brings, that’s something that can’t be planned!

The sweet reward of shedding 10 pounds and altitude induced hallucinations–a view not many are likely to see. Photo: Jeff Curley