How a Snowboarder Changes the World

Jeremy Jones - comfortable atop cold mountains, now he's climbing the Hill

Athletes have never been known for their political fervor. Especially all the bro bra athletes - snowboarders, skaters, surfers. Like, yeah, they have some organizations like Surfrider, an org that brings together funding and support from the surfing world to try and clean up the oceans. And having lived in Newport Beach constantly plagued by waste spills from Huntington I can appreciate what they do. But Surfrider seems to be focused on local action - getting better restrictions and regulations in area beaches - and you don't hear much about Surfrider lecturing DC on environmental standards. Even more, Surfrider isn't run by the pros. You don't see Bruce Irons or Kelly Slater sitting on the board, much less hustling politicians.

 Enter snowboarder Jeremy Jones (big mountain, not jibber).

Jones founded his own environmental conservation org a few years back, POW (Protect Our Winter). And then he put his money where his mouth is - in an industry that currently revolves around getting access to new lines by chartering gas-guzzling choppers, Jones decided to shoot a series of movies where he and a few snowboard mountaineers put down burly lines following ascents made under their own power. That means everything they went down they first had to go up.

Having spent this last season in Jackson Hole without a pass to the resort, I've gotten a taste of this. That 30 minute or less 3000+ foot run is appreciated a lot more when you had to spend 3 hours skinning up it, not to mention when you're bootpacking and/or clambering over rocks. I've also seen a winter with banger snowfall in December and April and very little during the actual winter months of January and February, with a March in which the town thawed out, just to be pulled back in. From what I hear, winter used to go from January through March, not the other way around but, hell, such is life in a world with a seriously schizo fucked up weather pattern. J Jones knows this all too well.

Okay, let's rewind it for a second. For those of you who don't know who Jeremy Jones is, he's the Michael Jordan of big mountain backcountry snowboarding (yes I've said that before so you mainstream bastards have a frame of reference - it always comes back to Jordan for you folks). There were a few who came before J Jones - Craig Kelly comes to mind (God Rest in Peace) - Terje - but none took it to the level that Jones has nor has anybody dominated for as long as has (Big Mountain Rider of the Year for, like, a decade). Jones pushed far beyond what was possible on a snowboard as far exploring uncharted and undescended terrain. Just check out this footage of him longlining it into a burly couloir.

Just recently he and Bryan Iguchi made history by taking a route down the Grand Teton that no snowboarder had ever done before. But that's not the most interesting thing he's done. Somewhere between his endless runs to Alaska and Jackson and Europe he found time to go be honored at a White House dinner.

That's right, when the man was a boy he dreamed of snowboarding all day in the sickest untouched peaks on the fringes of society. He went to AK with 1000 bucks and 100 Cliff bars, spent most of his money on helis and lived on the bars. The boy became a man known for exploring and opening up uncharted super-sketchy, technical terrain when most of the snowboard establishment was becoming obsessed with baggy-pants jibbers sliding down handrails and doing park laps. The man became a godfather of the current hottest part of the sport, big mountain freestyle, the living legend who teaches current superstars Travis Rice and John Jackson how to do what they do on the steepest, gnarliest virgin terrain on the planet. And at the same time the man became an entrepreneur with his company, Jones Snowboards. It's only 2 years old yet 1 out of every 3 riders in big pow places Jackson, Tahoe, BC, so on swear by his boards. Just check the average backcountry bootpack or skin track and you'll see the now-familiar Jones Mountain logo staring back at you. And just to add more to his schedule, the man is a politician, trying to use his influence, his name, and his good fortune at living a life most people could only dream of, of being a man us average schlubs have to settle for looking up to (both figuratively and physically, as he's usually atop mountains high above most of us) to make the world a better place. He's no longer just traveling the world riding to enjoy himself. No, that's selfish; that's childish; that's a job little boys have. He's trying to change that very world - though, let's be honest, he DOES have a personal reason. If the globe keeps warming, where the fuck will we snowboard?

In my opinion this issue is more important than gun control, immigration, and gay marriage combined. Those all deal with civil rights that should already be sorted out (yes on background checks but counteracted by increased treatment of mental illness funded by increased background check fees; give current illegals a path to citizenship but also start looking at American policies that exploit Mexico and turn it into the shithole it is AND all legal citizens must root for USA soccer; is there any logical reason for not letting gay people marry that doesn't sound like a bigoted child babbling on about a family system that never was? I didn't think so) and, yes, I believe they are very VERY important, don't misunderstand. But what good will it be if dudes can exchange vows, crazies can't get guns and Mexicans can become Americans when our planet becomes a miserably hot toxic dump where nobody can live anyway?

So applaud Jeremy Jones. And check out, donate, whatever to POW.

A truly great and ambitious man is one who changes the world for the better.

- Ryan