Photograph by Jeff Hawe

A snowboarding pioneer risked his career to usher in a new era of exploration in the world’s wildest mountain ranges.

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“There is no longer anywhere in the world that I consider too hard to get to,” says big-mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones.

In 2012, for his latest film project, Further, produced by Teton Gravity Research, Jones navigated winds capable of knocking a rider from his feet, lived for days on end in subzero temperatures, and negotiated some of the most challenging avalanche terrain on the planet. At the ends of the Earth and far from rescue, making a mistake—taking a fall or getting caught in an avalanche—comes with the highest consequences.

The 37-year-old wanted to push backcountry snowboarding—or splitboarding, which uses a special snowboard that splits into ski-like parts used with climbing skins so a rider can ascend slopes—into a new era of exploration.

The wildest mountains were fair game, so he picked four of the remotest locations he could find—Japan’s Alps, Austria’s Karwendelgebirge Range, the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard just 600 miles from the North Pole, and Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias—and went to work. Further is the second film in his trilogy. It meant developing gear, integrating alpinism, and climbing to the top of each of the mountains he would ride.

Jones long ago became a legend in the snowboard and ski community for his powerful, improbable descents of Alaska’s mountains. Snowboarder magazine voted him Best Big Mountain Snowboarder of the Year nine times. Images of Jones arcing turns down thousand-foot snow spines inspired a generation of skiers and snowboarders in the ’90s and early 2000s. In those days, both athletes and cameramen used helicopters to get in position. By the mid-2000s, Jones found himself craving more adventure, wanting to explore areas by foot where helicopter travel wasn’t feasible or allowed.

“I could shoot those movies with my eyes closed,” says the Truckee, California, resident. “To turn my back on that was difficult. I had to walk away from a scene that I had perfectly wired.”

In 2009, Jones took a twofold professional risk when he decided to make backcountry snowboarding his priority and founded Jones Snowboards with big-mountain and backcountry riders in mind. It meant foregoing helicopters and climbing mountains blanketed in deep snow before descending. That initial effort resulted in the 2010 film Deeper, which brought backcountry snowboarding to a broad audience.

Jones’s calculated bet paid off. Backcountry snowboarding has grown under his leadership. Garage innovators and large manufacturers, sensing the potential in the marketplace, have helped bring splitboarding to a tipping point, but Jones is the undeniable face of the movement.

“I’ve learned more about the mountains in the last four years than I did in the first 15 years of my career,” says Jones. “That’s been the exciting part—learning things on a daily basis. We are just getting started.”

THE INTERVIEW

Adventure: Four years ago, riding and filming big lines by helicopter was standard operating procedure. What led you to make such a public switch to splitboarding?

Jeremy Jones: I had a couple of years where all I wanted to do was a camping trip in Alaska. I would try and get the film company I was working with to do it. They would tell me why we couldn’t do it. I’d get to the end of the winter and say, I didn’t do the one thing I wanted to do this year. I realized that in order to do this I would need to create my own group of athletes and cameramen and make this happen on my own.

A: That must have been scary on a couple of different levels.

JJ: It was. I had accepted the fact that I might lose sponsors, that I would fall out of the media spotlight. I was no longer afraid of not getting paid to be a pro snowboarder. Deeper was really a film for myself. I thought this niche core group of people would like it, and I would fall out of the spotlight. That ended up not being the case.

A: With this latest project, Further, you explored Japan, Wrangell-St. Elias, Austria, Svalbard. These are pretty extreme, hard-to-get-to locations. How do you select where you go?

JJ: Terrain has always been my motivator. I see something unique and it really inspires me, and I really get tunnel vision for it. That ends up overtaking my life.

A: Of those locations you’ve traveled in the last two years, what proved to be the most difficult?

JJ: In Austria we were dealing with extreme cold. Minus 20 temps at night and minus 5 during the day. The mountains were massive. Getting to the top of those peaks was a huge endeavor. Japan, out of them all, had the hardest weather. We had people getting knocked off their feet due to wind. Reading the snowpack, dealing with how fast the weather was changing, and the cold coupled with the wind—the weather made that terrain super serious. Trying to deal with that level of terrain with that weather was really difficult.

A: In 2007, you founded Protect Our Winters, an organization that mobilizes the snow sports community to fight global warming. You’ve lobbied in Congress. You tried to integrate sustainable materials into your boards. Why was it important for you to stand up for this issue?

JJ: There is no such thing as a green snowboard. Or a green jacket. Nothing is zero waste or zero energy. We can’t all move into tree houses and eat nuts. That’s unrealistic. We can hang up our snowboards, but the biggest change that needs to happen, where we will see significant differences, needs to happen on Capitol Hill.

Of course, you need to drink out of reusable water bottles, and there are ways to continue to reduce your carbon footprint. We really need to know what elected officials stand for and be up to date on politics. Believe me, that was the last thing I wanted to be a part of. Globally we need to embrace that really it’s our elected officials who can have the big impact on the environment. We can’t sit back and not do something about it. We owe that to future generations.

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Photograph by Alfredo Escobar

Among the world’s best big-wave surfers, a Chilean and conservationist turns in one of the best barrel rides of all time.

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“In my dreams, I’d never thought a wave could be that perfect,” says Chilean surfer Ramon Navarro of the wave he caught off the Fijian island of Tavarua in June 2012. “That was the best wave of my life.”

On June 8, Navarro, who is known as a big-wave specialist, exploratory surfer, and conservationist, paddled into a wave at the barreling surf break Cloudbreak. Thinking he had a smaller wave, Navarro took off deep, placing himself squarely in the gut of the wave as it surged into a 15-foot face.

While there are bigger waves, this wave was a perfect, curling tube big enough to drive a semitruck into. To the onlookers, it seemed as if Navarro would be dragged over the wave, pummeled by millions of gallons of water and slammed into the coral reef just beneath the surface. For several seconds Navarro disappeared inside the tube, only to burst out onto the shoulder in a surge of spray and wild cheers.

Some in the surf community have called it the best tube ride ever. Hyperbole aside, it is certainly a wave that will continue to live on via YouTube clicks and surfing lore. And it almost didn’t happen.

With weather reports showing the potential for huge swells and at the urging of his friend, surfer Kohl Christensen, Navarro hopped a last-minute flight to Fiji from his home in Punta de Lobos, Chile, to arrive at 2 a.m. Two hours later, Navarro was on a boat speeding toward this left-facing break.

An Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour event was slated to be held the day Navarro arrived in Fiji. After conducting just two heats, organizers called off the competition because of dangerous conditions. This allowed Navarro and three dozen or so of the world’s best big-wave surfers, including Kelly Slater, to enter the water without interfering with the competition.

Typically, the competitions are webcast around the globe. With the day’s scheduled competition postponed, organizers left the webcams running and fans worldwide were treated to a spectacular session.

“It was the most expensive ticket I’ve ever bought,” says Navarro, the son of a fisherman. “I would have paid twice as much for that moment.”

Navarro’s passion for surfing is complemented by his commitment to protecting the ocean around his birthplace of Punta de Lobos. Navarro succeeded in stopping a sewage pipe that would have pumped untreated waste into the bay by reaching out to local politicians and international organizations, and organizing surfers and locals.

With that battle complete, Navarro is in the midst of working with the Chilean government and conservation groups to turn this rugged stretch of coast into a national park, which would stop encroaching development. With the prospect of megadams threatening Chile’s Patagonia region, the population has embraced conservation as a way to bring in tourism. It’s a trend Navarro has embraced to protect his own corner of Chile.

“The Chilean people have been really involved in the environmental movement,” says Navarro. “If we protect our land, take care of our country, we will have a better standard of living.”

“I don’t like politics,” says the 32-year-old. “I don’t want to do it, but there aren’t many places like this in the world.”

THE INTERVIEW

Adventure: It’s five months later and people are still talking about your wave at Cloudbreak. It was your first trip there. How did you score such a good ride?

Ramon Navarro: The wave breaks to the left. My home wave also breaks to the left, so I felt comfortable. The water was warm. I didn’t need a wetsuit, so I felt light. It was paradise. When I saw the wave breaking I knew I was going to get some good waves, but I never knew I was going to get a wave like that.

A: Do you think people are going to remember this wave for a long time?

RN: Probably until the next big-wave session [laughs]. Everyone talks about your wave until the next big wave comes. A lot of media and people online were talking about the wave. The wave was big news in Chile, in the newspapers. Still, mostly just surfers know about that wave. I’m still the same guy.

A: When did you learn to surf?

RN: I started surfing when I was 12 years old. I came from a poor family here in Chile. All my family members are fishermen. It was a really good education for me. My mom, my dad taught me to care about the ocean. The first thing I knew in life was the ocean and how to live with the ocean. I was with a friend, and we got a surfboard, and we just jumped in like little kids in a playground. It was easy for me because I knew a lot about the ocean because of my dad.

A: You’ve been active in the Chilean conservation movement. You’re currently working on turning the point and bay near where you grew up into a national park. Why?

RN: For me it’s a part of life. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. We have to do this the right way the first time. If the government doesn’t hear us, or we try to make money, build houses, it will be wrong. The point is empty. Just cliffs and waves. There is so much sea life. I’d like it to be there for the next generation. There are not many places like this in the world.

A: You are still looking for new waves in Chile. How do you go about finding new surf breaks?

RN: We fly a little Cessna down south. There’s not many people looking. There are no roads. No places to land. Maybe a few small villages. We’ve found a couple of spots and are waiting for the right conditions.

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Photograph by Tim Kemple

Ultra trail runner and adventurer Lizzy Hawker wins the holy grail of epic trail races for the fifth time.

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When Lizzy Hawker first entered the famed Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), a staggering 103-mile race with 31,168 feet of uphill running—more than the equivalent of running up Everest—through the mountains of France, Italy, and Switzerland, it was a simple afterthought to a ten-day climbing vacation. Just ten days before the race, she decided it would be wise to purchase trail running shoes.

“It was my first mountain race,” says the 36-year-old Brit, who now lives in Switzerland. “When I entered in 2005, I had absolutely no idea whether I would even finish. I’d never done anything like that before.”

She did more than finish. She won. Since then, Hawker has won the UTMB an unprecedented five times—a feat that no man or woman has done in a sport where it is difficult to stay uninjured and continually run at the highest levels.

This year’s race was particularly stressful. Strong winds, heavy rain, and snow forced race organizers to shift the course from high passes and shorten the distance to 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) at the last moment. It meant for a faster race, where Hawker’s experience on the course wouldn’t be as much of an advantage. The second-place woman finished 45 minutes off of Hawker’s time. Still hungry to run the full 100 miles, she followed her UTMB finish with a decisive victory weeks later at Run Rabbit Run in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Earlier in 2005, the same year she began making her mark as a top endurance athlete, Hawker was finishing up her Ph.D. in physical oceanography and working for the British Antarctic Survey. She deployed research instruments and conducted data analysis aboard a ship skirting the edges of Antarctica to study climate change, yet her love for mountains kept calling her away from the academic world.

“I realized that I wasn’t cut out to be a research scientist,” reflects Hawker, who altered her life to spend more time in the mountains, either running around them or climbing them. With more time to focus on running, backcountry skiing, and climbing, Hawker began to tap into her incredible endurance with victories at some of sport’s most difficult races. In 2007, she set the record time for running 199 miles between 5,361-meter Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu, Nepal, in a record of three days, two hours, and 36 minutes.

Hawker continued to grow as a runner even while fighting injuries. In 2011, she set the women’s world record for distance run in a 24-hour period with 153.5 miles in Wales. She also bested her time to set the overall record on the Everest run—this time with a time of two days, 23 hours, and 25 minutes. In the same year, Hawker attempted to run the entire length of the Great Himalaya Trail only to be thwarted when she lost a pouch carrying her permits and satellite phone.

“I still feel like I have more potential to pull out of myself,” says Hawker. “I’m always thinking that I can do more. It surprises me when I look back at what I’ve done.”

THE INTERVIEW

Adventure: A lot of endurance athletes are meticulous with the number of miles they do for training. What’s your approach to training?

Lizzy Hawker: I absolutely have no idea how much I run in a year. I’ve reached a high level of endurance now. I really tailor my training to the race that is coming up. I also do road running. I love a variety of running. If I were to guess, I average 80 to 100 miles a week.

A: Do you do anything outside of running to prepare?

LH: I love ski alpinism and ski touring and cross-country skiing. I love climbing and mountaineering. For me, it’s really important to get some mountain time.

A: Does that help with the running?

LH: It’s good for endurance. Running is so specific that you need to run to train—especially if you are working on speed. At the same time, I believe that all your experiences make you into the person you are. If you’re ski mountaineering a lot, apart from helping with your basic endurance, you are exposed to the weather. You are out for long hours on your feet. The more bad conditions you are exposed to, the more you know you can cope with it.

A: You tried to run the Great Himalaya Trail while carrying all your supplies. That’s a massive undertaking that stretches the length of Nepal. What happened?

LH: I managed to lose the trail. There are lots of old hunting trails. The animals have worn parts [of it] as well. It’s very easy to get off the main trail. I was in really steep old-growth forest. I managed to lose a small bag that had the satellite phone and permits for the entire journey. At some point I realized I was feeling light. I was sending messages back to North Face every day and also to a friend in Kathmandu. I told them to give me two nights’ grace. By the third night they would be getting worried. I couldn’t tell them I was OK. If I had sprained an ankle there is no way anyone would have found me.

A: That’s some pretty remote country to be lost in. Were you afraid?

LH: It was a hard experience, but at the same time I knew that I would be OK. It was so disappointing because the journey was going well, and I was loving it. It’s just natural to me to be moving quickly in the high mountains.

A: Do you think you will to try it again?

LH: I want to. At the moment Nepal has said that it’s going to bring a rule of no solo trekking. My dream is to make the journey solo. I might need to have someone with me most of the way. I’d love to go back possibly next year.

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