You know it's funny what's happening to us.
Our lives have become digital.
Our friends, now, virtual.
And everything that you could ever want to know is just a click away.
Experiencing the world through endless second-hand information isn't enough.
If we want authenticity,
we have initiate it.
We'll never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it.
It's this self-discovery
that inevitably takes us to the wildest places on earth.
The Art of Flight
It seems like every place we go
has its own unique set of variables.
This place in particular
is no exception.
Alaska.
So far gone.
It's so hard to grasp the sense of scale here.
When your whole life is dedicated to travel,
you have to learn how to adapt to your surroundings.
It's just kind of hard to adapt when
you feel like you are on the moon.
All right, John, Drop in 3... 2... 1.
Come on.
Drop.
Hey, Travis, are you ready?
Yes, I'm ready.
Let's go in quick, though.
Let's do this.
Yeah, Travis!
The majority of time spent out here is
cloudy down days.
In order to create the great, you know, snow and glacier that we have
means we get a lot of weather.
Alaska's weather is hard to read.
Everybody is trying to nitpick everything all the time,
checking the weather constantly.
I just kind of like to wake up in the morning and look out of the window
'cause that's the ultimate test.
On May 2,
Nice cold morning.
The weather forecast
is for mostly cloudy with scattered rain and snow showers.
Here in Alaska, you don't always go with the weather forecast.
You kind of go with what's going on out of the window.
We try to create a lot of, you know, activities for down days.
We have a crew like this, we need to up the level a little bit.
Son of a motherless goat.
How are you doing?
I need a ride.
Fire.
That almost took my face off.
Pull!
What is that?
He used to dissect these in middle school.
Are you ready?
- There we go.
- Yep.
This is like "MythBusters," kind of.
At the bonfire, it's gonna burn.
It's gonna be like, "Fire burn!"
"And we are going to burn down Babylon!
"In Alaska Mountain!"
We're going deep. We have a plane coming out with fuel. So...
Firstly, use the plane to get
everybody out there,
allowing us to kind of go
deeper than we ever have before.
It should be.
I think it's "all systems go."
Looks I'm gonna fall out the sky for a while.
I'm ready.
One of the things about coming to Alaska
is there are a lot of terrain that is unridden.
And there's a lot of first ascents that go down.
You know, I came here four years ago with Jeremy Jones.
We had a lot of lines we had pick out.
He hasn't ridden them yet,
but we had identified them with names.
Jeremy Jones named this area "the Wizard of Oz",
but never rode it.
The wizard is something I saw
early on in the Tordrillo, then we put it
you know, on the top of our hitlist.
But the problem is that there's a lot of exposure below.
A ton of open crevasses which,
to people that don't understand,
like, those crevasses are black holes.
If You get taken into a hole with a bunch of moving snow,
It's not a good thing.
The chances are pretty good that you're getting buried.
Ready, Travis?
Yes, ready as I'll ever be I guess.
Nice job, Rice.
- Are you kidding me!
- Johny!
That's what I wanted. Yeah!
South.
It's always a bit surreal, chasing winter down to South America.
Geographically, Chile is one of the most amazing places on the planet
with thousands of miles of coastline
that reaches directly up to some of the tallest mountains in the world.
And right in the middle, thrives a cultural-rich nation,
yet one of the most effected by natural disaster.
In the last a few years, they have experienced one of the largest earthquakes,
tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in recent history.
It's just so cool to be here to see firsthand
a group of people that is so positive after such a dramatic series of events.
We're in the Andes
which is the longest mountains range in the world,
second tallest ranges in the world to the Himalayas.
It's crazy how much uncharted terrain is down here.
But it seemed like
that everywhere we looked
had been effected by a low-snow year
and usually high winds.
But after spending so much time and effort just getting down here,
we decided to see it through.
You know, it's not the destination, it's the adventure along the way.
It seems cliche to say that, but that's really how it is.
All-time kicker.
It's pretty epic.
I'm right now on the border of Argentina and Chile.
We got Argentina out that way.
Chile on yonder.
Some fingery little rocky shoots.
Super fun.
Snow's kind of got to shit, so...
make the best of it.
We were actually warned prior to coming down here,
that there was possibility of volcanic eruption in the region we were heading.
But the group decision was
that we just disregarded it.
That could've been a bad choice.
It was like something I'd never seen before.
We see ash started to cover the whole road.
It's all grey and super apocalyptic.
It's situations like this that you just can't plan for.
We were told that we had to leave the area immediately.
We've tried our hardest and it's just not working.
I'm gonna go home
and Trav is gonna hitch up with Mark Landvik.
And they are gonna go down south to Patagonia.
When we first started talking about going to Patagonia,
it's like epic.
Sounds like a great time.
And then, the more we started looking into it,
especially when we got down here,
that's when everything flipped up-side-down.
It's a place difficult to handle.
Mainly, here, everything is weather permitting.
This is like... like a beast,
like a live beast that doesn't like visitors.
You know, it became pretty apparent
immediately when we got down here
just how exposed to the elements we were gonna be, and
how we truly were at the mercy of our own decisions.
You cannot get in and you cannot escape from this place.
We are here in Puerto Williams,
in Navarino Island on the Beagle Channel,
one of the main gates to Antarctica.
And here it's a very, very remote place.
It's nothing, just the island.
It's very cold, mean, bad weather.
Sometimes you need to wait one or two months
to have two or three good-weather days.
When we first got down here,
we kept hearing about this place called the Darwin Range.
So we asked our pilot if he takes us there.
He said, "absolutely not.
"It's where the devil is."
Darwin?
Devil in the Darwin?
- You should consider a second the other time.
- No, no.
Does the Devil live?
Is that where he lives?
Tell me what you think, tell us.
He knows this area well and I respect his opinion of that.
- You are the pilot. Bottom line.
- Okay.
You are here in charge of our safety
- and I respect that.
- Yes.
We all respect that.
We cannot push that.
We could walk, we could walk this.
I mean, I don't know, maybe there's a big river here that we cannot cross.
- Across the glacier.
- I know you don't know.
We'd have to look at it. We'd have to look at it, of course.
Maybe this is a very big river. I don't know, I don't know.
The only problem is that there's absolutely no backup if some thing happens.
The first thing,
we follow through with our plan that the pilot has approved.
Don't forget I am in fucking charge of what's going on here.
Then let's go get tons of fuel and go here.
What planet the fuck are you from?
After a long discussion, we decided to try.
It's 6:00 a.m. and we finally have no wind.
This is some of the gnarliest weather that I've ever dealt with.
We are going to...
..one of the sketchiest areas down in the southern tip.
Really variable weather conditions.
It can change like that.
We have 40 minutes of working fuel once we are out to the Darwin Range
and it's gonna take an hour to get there.
But he's not gonna shut the helicopter down and It's gonna be a time crunch.
It's a strange thing, you know,
the first time we laid eyes on Darwin.
It was a real just position of
the surrounding terrain -- mountains
to this iced-over island.
You know, there is just this ominous feeling that hangs over the whole place.
So when they first decided to shoot,
I was saying: "Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
Looks pretty gnarly right there.
I think these clouds are moving pretty quick.
All right, guys, we're already running low on fuel here.
We're gonna have to get this going.
Are you ready?
I think we'll be ready in about...
..maybe 5 minutes.
Shit, man, there goes the fucking sun.
Keep quick.
OK, we're just about out of fuel, here.
All right, copy.
Step. Can you make it to my step?
Right here. hold on.
And there was quite a deep river,
where they need to swim,
this very cold, chilly water,
to get to the helicopter.
Oh, good job, guys.
That was very interesting.
Oh, man, that was heavy.
Feel like we just got away with murder.
Just to ski here, to snowboard here,
to do one line, to ski one line here in this incredible place,
that's what we live for.
Even sometime you are suffering and you say:
"This is the last time I will do that."
But after this feeling passes,
you are wondering what will be the next.
Home.
It's good to be home.
Yeah, it's powerful here.
I've seen a thousand times, but...
I still try to see it anew every time I come back.
Right on the edge of the biggest volcanoes in the world,
it's lively, it's electric.
I've dedicated a big part of my life to riding here.
Now this place is a part of me as much as I am a part of it.
I don't think I've ever approached a winter like I have this year.
You've got the time and effort to put in, the right crew,
this is the best backcountry park in the world.
In my short 28 years in Jackson,
I've never seen a winter like this.
Conditions of all-time.
These are the days we kill for.
Why'd he do that?
Dude, I took a trunk down with me!
Yeah!
I took a piece down, I didn't...
I thought I just bounced off it, I didn't realize I broke it.
Yes!
I don't even know what's going on right there, man.
I saw him flipping, a tree snapping.
That was chaotic.
Let's go!
Help!
Help!
Oh, guys, help!
Travis, we need you down here.
How does my jaw look?
I hit my head really hard.
Yeah, just relax for a second, bud. We'll get you out of here.
Don't lie to me. How do I look?
I think I broke my jaw. I bit my tongue.
I hit my head, hit hard.
I'm... ringing. I just want to get the fuckout of here, dude.
I wanna go.
Advil, Advil, I need some Advil. Do you have any Advil?
I've got Vicodin in my bag up top.
Can somebody go get it?
Maybe just hold off on that.
Let's just get the fuck out.
Oh, it can be such a love-hate relationship.
I need to throw up.
You know, it's basically you against yourself.
You know, unfortunately, injury is sometimes a part of what we do.
So, this is the 3-D reconstruction of your CAT scao.
You know, you're gonna take beatings.
It's written in our DNA, you know. You go down,
you get up. That simple.
Gnarly.
What the fuck are we doing?
This is a heavy-ass fucking jump, man.
For sure.
North,
every year, as the snow melts,
we start our migration up to British Columbia.
Everything we do is dictated by the weather and snow conditions.
Sometimes you get it good and sometimes you don't.
This year, we have been hearing
that Canada was having some of the worst avalanche conditions in history.
But conditions can change quickly
and we knew the only way we were gonna get any real data was
by going up and setting foot on slope ourselves.
Nelson traffic, C-golf-Yankee-golf-kilo.
Yeah, we're going to Gold Range, guy.
Most of the landings up there are around 9,000 feet.
Our fuel is a little heavy coming out of Nelson,
but by the time we get up there, it should just work out about right.
The fog around here and the clouds and everything
is just very unpredictable.
and just rolling in and out the entire time.
It's really weird.
I've never really seen this type of fog that we encountered.
We're up pretty high on a ridge
and we were just scoping out some lines.
You know, the bad spirit coming in, you know, like those movies, like...
That stuff is coming straight up valley.
We decided to pull off because the fog was coming in and coming in higher.
It wasn't a shut-down location.
I was worried about going over backwards above a huge cliff.
I don't know what that drop off would've been, probably maybe 400 feet.
Sheer rock. There was no snow on it.
I want four guys sitting on the front skids here.
I'm pretty scared shitless sitting down here.
Here we are in this ice fog
laying on the heli, keeping the thing from slipping off the ridge.
Okay, I want you guys to tie this thing down, too,
as soon as he's finished up.
He climbed on top of his helicopter
with a shovel handle.
I've never seen ice like this, man.
Just banging on his blades.
It was a scary moment. We didn't know if Ken was going to make it.
I'm gonna be almost straight up and turning it out.
Everybody untie the machine.
Get this thing rolling.
Once I'm at 100%, let go of the machine.
Roger. I'm doing this solo.
Do you need some spot?
You know what, close the door for me and we'll totally get ready.
And he was supposed to give us a nod or something
if it was good to go?
There was no nod at all.
Ken made it out and so did we.
He picked us up 20 minutes later like nothing happened.
We all have our boards ready to go
and the helicopter just comes in,
blades are spinning a couple of feet away from the slope.
The whole basket, the whole door is just in the air.
And below us are those cliffs.
Just the nose barely touching to the slope.
You get that helicopter go kuh-kuh,
you know, you are dead.
We didn't realize what we were on top of
until we actually lifted off.
It was a bad situation that could get a lot worse.
In the mountains,
learning from your mistakes can be
extremely costly.
You just never know when it's gonna happen.
But the danger is always there.
We are in an environment that has
snow, steep slopes,
and if that's all we had, there'd be no problem.
But as soon as we introduce
man and his toys
into that avalanche triangle,
then we have the avalanche hazard.
That would've been us, dude.
Avalanches were just popping, popping, popping, popping!
Everything that we are touching is avving.
You need to know that it's not just snowboarding.
You learn to ride some fun stuff, some good stuff
and push yourself, but at the same time you're gonna risk the mountain.
It's always this border line
respect relationship that you have to have with the mountain
because the minute you stop respecting the mountains,
that's when things just go bad.
Some of these avalanche accidents
are not these magnificent, large slopes
that have these great powder clouds and
overwhelm everybody, but they are very small slopes.
Ready for this, Marcus?
We are good to go.
You're excited for your run,
but at the same time, those conditions, it's like, "All right,
"well, have a good one, I hope I see you at the bottom."
- Dude, have fun.
- All right, I'm ready.
Go ahead, buds.
Mark's down, Mark's down. Eyes on him, eyes on him.
I got him.
Oh, shit.
Mark, are you good?
I don't know what's going on down there. Scott?
Yeah, this is stupid.
We can't fucking push this shit.
We know everything is fucking popping.
Well, dude, I'm glad you're all right.
Kind of how it goes out there sometimes.
Always trying to be as careful as we can
and, at the same time, push it
which is how you find yourself in these situations sometimes.
We'd pushed our luck quite a bit on the trip as it was.
I think that was the final piece where we decided to call it.
Glad to hear you are okay, buddy.
Yes, glad to see you, too, Ken.
Nasty, eh?
Yeah, it could have been a little worse.
That's what snowboarding is. It's just a constant search
and it's a constant struggle to find the best pow, the best lines.
That's what keeps us coming back year after year.
As it always goes, not completely satisfied with...
the snowboarding we were able to do
but something's got leave you hungry for the next time.
That felt good.
You could say that snowboarding is like church to me,
like church is what it is for other people.
Snowboarding down the mountain
is like flying.
It feels like...
..there is no friction, I actually feel like...
It feels like flying.
Despite riding through one the most aggressive avalanche circles we have ever seen,
we decided to head back north to Canada.
With time, the mountains can heal themselves.
That's what we were hoping for.
I think the reason you never give up
is because you know...
we dedicate enough time, eventually,
you're gonna get it good.
And I guess that's where we find our passion
in this never ending gamble of this so-called sport,
Snowboarding is more than just a sport.
There's the mountain, there's you,
and you pick your own line.
It's your soul
that... that does that and...
that always feels good.
When a human being can be creative,
it's... that's...
..when really anything is possible.
Yeah, Nico!
Yeah!
Wild man.
All right, Nico, ready?.
Ready.
Oh, my god.
All right, Travis. dropping in...
..three, two, one.
- Yeah, good.
- Holy shit!
So what you think you would've done if you didn't become a snowboarder?
Did your career path lined up before you were pro?
Well, I was on this super intense career path to be a...
..a world-class dirtbag.
I hated school.
I mean, I knew like so early on, by, like 12 years old,
for sure, I was like, "I'm living in the snow and I'm gonna be riding everyday."
That's a pretty worthy little spine wall back there.
Yeah, you like that? Cool.
I mean, spines is what we do backflips for.
It just continues to blow me away that
you know, 25 years in, I'm...
amping as ever to go snowboard.
The mountains are serious
and they are serious for anyone getting into the backcountry.
And I have seen that, over the years, you learn.
It's not just going and riding and crazy stuff,
It's not just with film crews,
it's like you are in mountains, you're in the backcountry,
you are putting yourself at risk
and no one is above the law.
Blind rollers, here we go again.
Good jump. Keep your tips up.
Yeah, Jeremy, it's beautiful.
Yeah, Rice, snow's rippable, slash's pretty manageable.
Get out of town!
Dude, you've got be kidding me.
That is the future and the future is now.
Ridiculous.
It was really cool being out there this morning with Travis.
He's better every time I ride with him.
Every time I ride with him,
he's doing stuff that I've never seen anyone else in the world do.
And it's pretty much the best snowboarding I've ever seen.
And that's...
..every day with Travis Rice.
Nice.
All right, Let's slip. bump up, warm-up run.
Hit it.
When it comes down to it,
it's pretty simple.
Adventure is what you make it.
And whether it's the travel,
the discovery,
or just the feeling of letting go,
the only way we will ever find out
is to get out there and do it.
Enjoy the ride.