Part inspirational tale of personal conquest, part nail biting suspense thriller, Jeremy Jones’ Further premiered in Squaw Valley last Friday night.

Before a crowd of at least a couple thousand strong, under a calm, starry night, at the base of the legendary KT 22 lift Jones spoke to the audience before the showing:

“It is a dream come true to share this moment with you at Squaw. Behind you is the reason I moved here. I wouldn’t be doing what I do if I didn’t learn it right here first. This is where I met my idols like Tom Burt, Noah Salasnek, Mike and Dave Hatchett and Jim Zellers – the guys who opened the door for me. Hopefully I am able to pass that on to you here tonight!”

At least that’s what I think he said, see I’m still kind of rattled.

This is due to one of two things: the scale and production value of this movie and the questionable, albeit gripping decision to sit front row on the sidewalk, cross legged like a five year old watching Spongebob – totally engrossed, kinda creepy.

So I take it you all know the story of the Deeper, Further, Higher trilogy… Each are two year projects in which Jones and a chosen few riders search out new terrain far beyond what has ever been explored on a snowboard, or in many cases beyond where humans have gone period. They do this mostly on their split boards, camping out often for weeks at a time in seriously hostile environments. It’s manballs shit and snowboarding is just one part of the experience. Further is the culmination of the past two winters, highlighting his most adventurous trips to date with locations like the Japanese Alps, Northern Norway and the fabled Wrangle St. Elias range in Alaska.

About the movie: Spoiler Alert! Can I do that? Nah… You wouldn’t believe me anyway. I can tell you that due to my proximity to the screen and sound system, the drama of the soundtrack and often suspenseful crackling of radio communications left me with what feels like a nesting bat weevil chewing at my frontal lobe by way of my ear canal… and I mean that in a somehow, good way.

Seriously, I could come up with any number of completely fantastical scenarios and not even come close to the real life action that went down for Jeremy and his crew. I can say without hesitation that it is the gnarliest snowboarding to date. Period. I can say it’s certainly the most frightened I have been watching a snowboard movie. And at the same time, I can tell you, through and through that it is much more than a mere snowboard movie. It’s science fiction, adventure and mellow drama all at once, minus the mellow.

Broken down into sections, each trip highlights the next level riding of guys like Forrest Shearer, Lucas Debari, Josh Dirksen and Terje Haakonson riding along side Jones on chosen spines and couloirs in the backcountry – a treat to watch to say the least. But at each location Jones goes a step further calling child’s play on lines that would make any professional rider quiver, dropping in for the full adult dose and soloing some maddening shit that I can only assume his riding buddies considerately declined for fear of being physically if not mentally maimed beyond any hope of recovery.

This continues throughout the entire movie until a thoughtful ending sequence that brings it all back to a more relatable level – snowboarding is a special thing and sharing that with friends and family is about as good as it gets!

What I gathered, other than a peak sensory experience, is that Jeremy Jones rides for the same reasons we all do, just by way of extraordinary means. In the end, his message is righteous even if his methods are kinda pushin’ it. But that right there is the definition of evolution, the part of snowboarding that is perhaps the most inspiring.

Not one double cork though.

Read the full behind the scenes interview with Jeremy to get a true sense of what it was like making one of the best snowoard films of all times.