Glory Line with Jeremy Jones

Photo: Jeff Curley

Words by: Eric Greene

We’re shooting the final scene to Higher, which is the opening of the film. We’re in Alaska with this specific shot in mind. We get dropped off by the heli and set up camp below some mountain peaks. When the weather is right, we hike up this mountain, get a read on the snowpack, ride it, shoot it, and Higher is wrapped. So, we put the cameras away and then I see this really bitchin’ line, but we are already finished. The final movie of the trilogy is done.

Ryland [Bell] and I skin back to camp and have some tequila that we brought up there with us. The movie is wrapped and we’re celebrating, but it only lasts about 10 minute before we’re like, “Dude, what about that line?” So, we call our weather guy on the sat phone and he says it’s gonna be clear in three days. The problem is that will extend our trip to five days and we’ve only brought supplies for three days. We get all our food out and make the call to go on rations and push it three more days. Everyone leaves except a few of us.

Three days later the weather clears and I hike back up the mountain again. All the cameras are gone. It takes me a few hours to hike up there and I take a better look at this line. It’s a spine wall with this really cherry line right down the center of it, which is kind of a sluff nightmare. In my head, I’m like, “Oh, dude. There are no cameras around. I can get in there and then just pull up to the side and let the sluff go by, and then ride it out to the bottom.” But I’m also thinking that if I really fire it, I can maybe beat my sluff out of this exit at the bottom.

So, I look at if for a few minutes and decide: This thing needs to be fired. I get up on top of it and strap in, and then I just go right away because I’m not waiting on any film crew or anything. I air into this thing and just rage down it. I get right in the middle of my sluff and have to shoot through it and then I’m like fifth gear, wide open, and come raging out with all the sluff at the bottom. Ryland is in the flats and he’s like, “What the fuck, dude!” Seriously, it was probably the best line I rode in the two years I spent filming Higher.

That line was for me. It wasn’t like I needed to go fire a big line to see how I felt after the movie was done because I hadn’t even thought about what would happen next, you know? It was more like, “Can I walk by that line without noticing if it’s even there?” which was a total experiment for me. I couldn’t have answered that question until I was done with the film and then went snowboarding again. And that’s what happened, I guess. I rationed food to stay three more days in the mountains to do this one line that had nothing to do with the movie trilogy. It was a pretty funny experience, but it felt really good.¬¬¬