[by Brian Hockenstein]

Last Friday was the Whistler premiere of TGR's film Deeper. A two-year project imagined and executed by big-mountain pioneer Jeremy Jones, Deeper documented Jones and a select group of snowboarders as they explored whether it was possible to take big-mountain snowboarding to the next level without the use of the traditional gas-guzzling, fume-spewing modes of transportation, namely helicopters and snowmobiles. So what did that leave them with? Their feet and a quiver of split-boards, and let me tell you, they absolutely redefined what was possible out there, accessing incredible lines from Antarctica to the French Alps, and doing things on the way up and down that can only be described as unbelievable. And kudos to the team behind the lens, as the film does an amazing job of showing the viewers just how gnarly and rad all this stuff is, weaving together a good mix of interviews with the riding footage but in a way that never gives your heart a chance to rest from opening to closing credits. This film is truly a must see for anyone who has ever strapped into a shred stick.

The premiere crowd at Millennium Place in Whistler.

Jonaven Moore (right) after the showing.

I've been following this project since I first heard about it close to two years ago, both through media coverage and blogs as well as trying to extract as many stories as I could out of Garry Pendygrasse, one of the main filmers and a friend of mine. Every time we'd bump into each other, I'd always pester him for one more story and most of the time he was happy to oblige, but it was really hard for me to imagine just how insane what was going down actually was. From month-long ski-plane accessed winter camping missions on a glacier in Alaska, to trips to literally the bottom of the Earth, the stuff Garry had a chance to document is intense and by the time it was finally ready to watch, I just couldn't wait to see this film. And apparently I was not the only one who felt this way as, not surprisingly, both showings of the film sold-out in record time and, more impressively to me, the crowd was a true cross-section of the snowboard community, with everyone from park-rats to the Gore-Tex crowd well represented, a true testament to the wide-appeal of this film, something that is refreshing to see these days.

Guess they didn't have enough solar panels to charge the shavers. Garry Pendygrasse self-portrait.

I checked in with Garry after finally getting to see the movie to share a few of his thoughts on the film. As a photographer and filmer, I was most curious about some of the technical aspects of what it took to get this movie made and what were some of the challenges Garry had imagined facing when taking on this project. "For me, the first trip I did with them was that first AK mission and that was my first time ever snow-camping" said Garry. "When we were sitting in Haines waiting for the weather to break, it was just crazy anticipation of what challenges we were going to face. I hadn't snow-camped before and wasn't sure about that. You're always worried about how it was going to be walking around with all that camera gear on your back. I'd been to Alaska before but it was all heli, and I'd been filming on a split-board before but it was out of lodges, so it was all just kind of a big question mark on how the whole snow-camping and filming was going to work. And also power out there: we were working off solar power and wondering if we were going to have enough, and it turned out we barely did. But all in all, the whole basing out of a snow-camp worked great and after that first year it was like 'okay, this works and we can do this'."

This is a split-board. No, this is a split-board. And this is a... toboggan?!

When asked about unforeseen challenges, Garry had this to say: "Probably that part in the movie where we were snowed in for twelve days with ten days of food. We were getting to the end of our supplies before the weather broke and while we were kind of joking about our plan to ski to the ocean to get a boat pick-up, that was our way out if it had to be, and we were probably two or three days from that. Luckily it didn't happen but, yeah, that was interesting."

This is what your life could look like for two weeks straight if you go camping on a glacier in Alaska and get caught by the wrong weather. Garry Pendygrasse, self portrait.

Keeping your mind occupied while waiting out the weather is key.

And on the Canadian connection: "Something they didn't really show in the movie was that first AK trip, [Scott] Newsome came along to guide us after Tom Burt had to leave, so the second half of that 27-day stint, Newsome was with us, who is our old buddy, and then [photographer] Jeff Patterson came along too for that second half, so there were a bunch of old friends up there in Alaska. There were more Canadians than Americans at the end and it was just really cool to have Jonaven and Patterson and Scotty and me, a bunch of old buddies, up in Alaska doing this new approach to the mountains."

AK basecamp.

I wonder how many batteries got charged this day?

To see this movie and not automatically, if however briefly, want to sell all your worldly possessions and go climb and shred big peaks is basically inescapable, apparently even to those intimately involved in the project: "Just that experience of camping out on the glacier, something I'd never done before, it's something I'd like to do some more of. I've done a little bit, two or three times, all for the Deeper project but I'd like to go out and use the experience that I've gained from that, not just for work but to go out and do it for fun too. It just opened my eyes to how accessible that shit really is. If you do your research, and get out there, anybody can get out there and I'd love to do some more of it for myself now too."

It wasn't just the riders hiking all day for the shot. Here's Gary literally on top of a mountain perched and ready to go.

There's just something about this project that seems to appeal to every snowboarder out there, and I don't think it's just the insane footage of these guys ripping down some of the biggest mountains in the world, although that definitely doesn't hurt. I think it's more about the simple fact that these guys are actually doing what we all wish we could do and so often claim we will one day. It's a lot easier to make vague plans about a winter camping trip some time in the future, but it's a whole other thing to actually go out and do it. But as Jeremy Jones, Xavie DeLarue, Jonaven Moore and all the other riders involved in this project showed us very clearly, if you do make that leap of faith, the sky is the limit as far as what you can accomplish, which in this case seems to mean riding some of the largest lines imaginable, accessed in a way that lets you get much more connected with your environment than normally possible.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, please do yourself a favour and do. You will not regret it. And if the rumblings are true, this is just the first installment in a larger six-year, three part series of films so I think it's safe to say we've only just seen the beginning of a new, game-changing wave of big-mountain snowboarding.

Travis Rice get's intimate with his slough in AK.

For more info check out these links:
Deeper site
Jeremy's blog
Jones Snowboards blog
Protect Our Winters

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Related:
Go Deeper (blog)
Deeper Unplugged: Mini Golf in the Alps
Who Wants To Get Deeper? (blog)