Original subtitles

A great skier once said,

"sliding on snow is a special gift

of the relationship between earth and sky."

It only comes in sufficient amounts in particular places

at certain times on this earth.

And people devote their whole lives to it.

We are all eternal here,

in this place with epic storms,

bluebird backdrops and the paint desire of alpine glow.

There is something bigger than life in a trip to this place,

where the earth and sky collide.

Whoa.

Yeah, I'm fine.

- Come on!

Is that everybody?

Yeah.

Are we ready to rock?

Teton gravity research has called Jackson home

since we picked up our first camera 25 years ago.

Unrivaled terrain and snowfall has allowed generations

of unknowns and icons alike to hone their skills here,

surfing storms that never seem to break.

Not since the winter of '96, ninety-heaven

had Wyoming seen such copious amounts of snow.

The echo of patrollers' bombs rolled

like thunder in the darkness,

and locals reveled in the seemingly endless bounty.

The latest information on

the significant winter storm still anticipated tonight,

through the day Wednesday and into Thursday.

We're anticipating strong winter storm conditions

and blizzard conditions.

One of the strongest and potentially deepest low pressure

systems in years is projected to intensify.

Travel Wednesday and Thursday is

extremely and highly discouraged,

and if not, should be canceled at this time.

Overhead, go left!

Overhead!

Word is biggest February here in history,

and I believe it.

There's no reason to leave.

It just kind keeps dumping.

Nice!

Thank you.

Yeah, dude!

- Yeah!

It was good to get after it,

and have a fun crew to do it with.

This season they knew that Jackson was the place to be.

Jackson hole is the shaggy,

untamed unicorn of the rockies.

With a backyard so big, it's a national park,

and a back country so legendary,

it's become a training ground for some

of the best free riders in the world.

Despite historic amounts of snow stacking up

across the tetons, for brief moments between storms,

the home lavatory sparkled like a diamond.

Pretty much anyone who wanted

to have a good time and heard about our amazing season

came out and shooshed around Wyoming.

Just cracked blue after 18 inches.

Buzzing energy up here.

Ha ha!

Three, two, one.

Whoa!

Left!

I'm good.

Oh, my god!

Three, two, one, dropping.

That was big!

Yeah!

Okay, I'm going up.

Three, two, one, dropping.

Dude!

Oh yeah, dude.

Good work everybody.

That was sick, dude.

- Waiting for Timmy, since he doesn't ever get back

to me when I message him.

I've got him right here.

Dude, it looks like he's getting really close actually.

Waiting for Tim, man.

Story of my life.

Yo, dude!

Who are you waiting for?

You.

You were waiting for me?

Tim, where's your stuff?

Where's your stuff?

- You did it, dude.

I'll check your backpack.

What about here?

Where's my gopro?

He lost it.

There it is!

But you know what, it's always worth it.

I'll wait for Tim any day.

- It's alive.

- Whoa!

Yeah dude!

- That was epic!

Sick!

Tim, here, is crazy man.

Yeah, boy!

Europe, the old country,

where the names of storied ski areas

sound like breathless foreign prayers.

Saas fee, chamonix, verbier, and kitzbuhel.

As if just uttering them would give you the strength

in your heart to set an edge on slopes as sheer as steeples,

with only heaven above and wine and white glory below.

While relentless early season mega-storms continued

to line up like soldiers,

and with local ski legend, fabian lentsch,

already poised to show US his homeland,

we led out to immerse ourselves

in the fabled magic of the alps.

I feel like a modern ski bum at times.

I love living in a Van.

Can just base out of the bottom of the lift,

and then if the snow comes from the other direction,

you just move over there.

Yeah, that's the way to go in Austria.

Just boutta be out in the middle of no where,

sleep there, get up super early, ski lines.

We got here in the middle of January,

and Austria was having pretty much the best season ever.

It was almost too much snow.

Villages were shut off because of avalanches.

By the time we showed up,

things had settled down a little bit,

and we were pretty poised to tee off a bunch of lines

that rarely, if ever, get skied.

It's been crazy.

In January and February we get that amount

of big mountain skiing.

Nice to be out on a little morning stroll.

Okay, he's going real fast, huh?

Yeah!

That was exciting.

Even though we've been at resorts,

we've hiked every single line.

There's no way.

Fuck!

Oh, that was intense.

Some of the hiking's been like the most exciting things

that happen during the day.

I wanna report I'm 100%.

Yeah buddy!

Oh, my god!

Yeah!

Woo!

We had all gotten our lines,

and smoothy was kind of frothing a little bit for one more,

so went back up,

got a couple turns, cut out this big pocket that propagated

and all this stuff, and the entire face is on the move

and waterfalling down over the cliffs at the bottom.

The whole face went.

I'm gonna re-drop now.

Oh, my god.

Smoothy, smoothy!

You're good.

You're here.

The helicopter's on the way.

You're right here with me.

- Yeah, so we saw smoothy go down,

and I was the first one in so I ran up to him

and rolled him over and saw that he was completely seizing.

Eyes rolled up in the back of his head, jaw locked shut.

It was pretty--

it's not a good day in the mountains.

When you show up to somebody and they're in that state,

pretty somber afternoon there with the rescue

and not knowing how it was gonna pan out.

Even though Sam turned out to be more or less fine,

he had a trauma induced seizure.

Smoothy definitely got away with one that day.

Kind of a wake up call to everybody

to just keep the ultimate goal in mind,

which is come home safe at the end of the day.

I was like talking to wolves yesterday.

- Wolves or walls?

- Wolves, I actually saw wolves.

I've been on my own too long.

- We miss you though, buddy.

- Yeah buddy.

Hey, thanks for the call guys.

Have a good time tomorrow, and we'll talk soon.

Luckily smoothy's greatest quality,

his sense of humor, was in tact.

That definitely made it a little bit easier

to continue on with the trip,

but you still have this loud reminder

of what could go wrong and how fast that could happen.

Putting on the vert, go up that way.

Looks deep and steep.

Why are we doing this again?

Cause it's fun.

We're up here climbing suddenly.

Oh yeah, feels good.

Let's top out!

Yeah!

Come on, buddy!

One of the highlights was for sure skiing

that big facing kitzbuhel.

Apparently nobody skied this middle part,

the line off the cross of the summit there.

Woo!

Epic summit.

Yeah, buddy, nice one!

All right, made it to the top of my line. Looks exciting!

Three, two, one.

In Austria, skiing is for sure a way of life.

They're really serious about it.

There's chair lifts everywhere.

People love it.

And for me, it was a cool experience

to have an American crew here

and to get a different perspective.

It's always the people who make good places,

and that was for sure the case.

Canadians pretty much invented heli-skiing,

and no where does whirlybird, snow cat,

or snow pony assisted powder turns

come together any better than British Columbia.

These laid-back bad asses have led the way

in providing easy access to the high alpine.

Bc is home to close knit friend crews,

who go way off the grid

seeking the ultimate winter playground.

With clear skies and cold snow,

we decide to link up with Nick mcnutt

and a few of his infamous friends.

We are in squamish, bc, Canada.

Where I live is one of the better places I've been to ski

in the back country.

I love seeing new terrain and riding different stuff,

but there's also something to be said

for riding your home terrain.

This year, skiing with Ian,

I got to explore a little bit further than I've been.

Mac knows just like kinda every corner

and what's gonna be around the next corner.

It's cool, too, cause I've got a fresh set of eyes,

seeing this stuff for the first time,

versus him seeing it for the twentieth or thirtieth time.

Some of our objectives were basically

about as deep as you can go.

He's so sick.

- Three, two, one, drop.

That was rowdy.

- Hey!

- Hey.

Yeah!

I don't know how you land switch anyway.

Makes no sense to me.

After spending a few weeks on the coast,

I ended up heading east to stellar heli skiing.

Linked up with sage and Johnny for a camping mission.

Yeah, we're going there.

Into them hills.

All you really know is just waking up,

getting warm, warming up your ski boots, skiing all day,

eating, and repeating.

Welcome to camp!

So deep.

- When you first get that glimpse out in a new zone,

that first spark that you get, that feeling is so good.

- Look at the glory look at the sparkles!

Nice!

One of the cool things about camp

is all the trails we have.

We got trails going to jumps over there,

trails going down valleys over there,

trails going up ridges over there.

Three, two, one, drop.

Woo!

The temps were kind of ranging

from negative 28 to negative 25 at night.

Store in a cool, dry location.

Cold and wet, does that work?

- Oh, it's lit.

It's lit!

We can start like this.

It's cold.

Step two, you kinda like...

It's gonna be about a good 30 minute chunk of the day.

We camped on this crazy cool Ridge.

We called it spooky Ridge

cause it was like the knife edge between light and dark.

This whole mountain side seemed

to create its own weather patterns.

We'd skin out in these trees to set up these sunny shots,

and just like that a big cloud would move in.

Every time we'd kinda get into position,

it tends to cloud up or fog up or something.

Was that a fart?

- Yeah.

- Sick.

Three, two, one.

That was sick!

Two, one, dropping.

Yeah!

Whoa.

That was super awesome.

Pretty fun to get out there with sage and mcnutt.

I kind of felt like I was on one of those dream trips,

you know?

Sage is totally, he's like full wizard if stoke.

I mean, he's been going for so long.

He's kind of the first guy I ever got inspired by

when I was a kid.

19 years later, here he is,

still beating US all to the top of the Ridge

at the beginning and end of the day.

- Top of the subway couloir.

Check that thing out.

- We'd wake up in the morning, and it's like six A.M.,

and you're like oh, I better get some breakfast and stuff.

And then you look up, and you're like, what the hell?

Three, two, one, dropping.

The dark subway!

That was tight.

Pick me up, leaving this.

Sounds good, we'll be there in five.

Thanks!

Really cool to see his love for skiing

still burning super bright, and that definitely filters

through to everyone else.

- Ah, yeah, crazy.

It's happened.

The mission's happened.

Norway.

Land of fjords, vikings, and endless waterfalls.

Mountains rise like mist from the sea.

It is one of the cradles of skiing.

At first embraced as a mode of travel,

and later loved for the thrill of speeding downhill.

Each spring, this hallowed ground becomes an epicenter

for foot powered experiences.

These new mountaineers travel across Bridges

and in small boats.

With long elegant strides,

they rise to the clouds to stand atop snow sparkled summits.

Norway is one of the birthplaces of skiing.

It's just cool to be in a place where you know that even during the viking era,

people were using skis to get around here,

and you can kind of feel it within the place.

You're somewhere with no real ski resorts,

and yet there's skiers everywhere.

Day one, I'm excited.

Today I have high hopes that we're gonna get up high.

This is my third time here,

and every time I've come,

I've always felt like you're really immersed

in the ski culture.

Look where we are!

Woohoo!

Three, two, one.

Three, two, one.

Some of the kind of iconic aspects of this place

is that there's this huge history of fishing.

People came here to codfish.

Look at this big, long mamajama.

That's the kind of COD you wanna catch right there.

It's one of the really unique places

where they can preserve COD in the wilderness.

So, it's basically out in the villages being hung to dry.

- For COD's sakes, let's go.

Two, one, dropping.

Three, two, one, dropping!

Norway, baby!

- These guys are gonna go look around the corner. I'm gonna go for this couloir.

Woo!

Very icy.

Nice!

He's off by himself for like, several hours,

not having anyone to talk to.

He likes to be part of the pack,

and when he was away from his pack,

he just started talking to himself.

Woo!

How's mack and stomp doing over there?

He's been alone for a while, no one to talk at.

Almost!

They line up through the earth from one, two, three turns

and make it look so good for the big, ski movie.

Big ski star.

Do a little dance, ski a little line,

eat COD tonight.

Eat COD tonight.

- Crew is reunited!

The capital of Norway is one of the oldest

and coldest major cities in Europe.

Oslo is a sprawling epic of norse sagas, long winter nights,

and centuries of ski history.

Legendary ski jumpers hurl themselves into space,

reaching for the moon,

as cross country skiers race

across the landscape like locomotives.

Amongst the hustle and bustle in the heart

of this medieval city,

a fresh breed of urban adventurers hope to ski

where most Norwegians wouldn't expect.

- Me, cam, and Clayton have been skiing together

for a really long time,

so we've had our programs pretty dialed

for how we get this stuff done.

You know, people know Norway for skiing.

Not that many people travel to this specific location

to hit hand rails.

You know, it's a little bit different

to take a place that has a lot of ski history,

and do some different types of skiing here.

We're in the back of this big department store.

We got a big rail, so hopefully we can get this built

and get it done before anyone else wonders

what the heck we're doing back here.

Just a little bit trespassing.

- Yeah!

Well, the rail didn't slide today,

so I'm taking my edges off to see if I can make it happen.

Yeah, dude.

Big mountains breed big ideas.

When skiers discovered Alaska,

it was as if the snow sports world had discovered

some shredding shangri-la.

Starting in the late eighties,

the world's best riders got the fever

for dropping huge lines draped with deep, stable snow.

The gold rush for first descents began,

and they inspired a whole new wave of rippers,

film makers, and rock hunters to follow.

There's a lot to be discovered here.

It feels like it's just so untapped.

It's really a special place to go skiing.

We've got a sick crew.

We've got Griffin post, angel collinson, and Elyse saugstad.

We got so lucky with just rolling straight into like,

oh yeah, that stuff is good to go, and it's on.

Alaska day one.

You know, I had a couple warm up rounds,

and now we're just gonna, yeah, go for it.

So, it's fine, it's skiing.

Dude, that was so confusing.

I'm a hiking, camping guy, not heli guy.

I forgot how intense that is.

You can ski a lot of terrain in like a week's worth

of terrain if we were camping.

So, yeah, gotta get used to that.

Yeah, exciting!

That looked really exciting from here.

I'd almost describe all three

of the people I'm here with pretty similarly,

they like to go fast.

Angel wants to get into the gnar and go fast.

Elyse just wants to go fast anywhere.

It's a pretty sick crew.

Standing on top of my first two lines,

like, oh my god yeah I'm in Alaska

and stepping into the steepest, biggest,

gnarliest terrain that I've ever stepped into in my life.

Elyse, are you thinking of skiing

down that way?

Yeah, I mean going through these rocks,

and then just basically straight down the gut.

Lightning fast.

Keep this together.

- It sounded like you said shredding naked facing together.

- Oh, wow.

We're gonna go tear that sh#t up.

Whoa, easy tiger.

Three, two, one, go go go.

Oh, my god!

You got it.

You got it, you got it, you got it.

No!

No, no, no, no.

Stop.

Are you okay?

Yeah, I'm all right.

It was savage.

She tomahawked almost that whole face.

How do you like my hair?

That was gnarly.

And unfortunately she tweaked herself pretty hard,

but we're so happy that she didn't get more hurt.

It could've been a lot worse.

My favorite place in the world to ski is Alaska.

It terrifies me the most.

It's the most beautiful, and I think it always has been

and it always will be.

She's blue again.

Oh yeah, look at down in there looks pretty bad.

I wanna ski that thing.

Which one?

I wanna start there.

The top is kinda gnarly.

Definitely.

If I were to fall,

the biggest concern is like this little region.

It's definitely one of the more exciting things I've done,

is flying in a helicopter with no door on it

and just getting dropped off on some peak

and carefully climbing out of there.

It's kinda anything goes up here.

If you see something you think you can ride,

chances are you can get in there and try to ride it.

A little spicier than I thought getting in.

Wow.

It's kinda gnarly.

Don't fall on the first move.

Three, two, one, go go go.

What's up, rock star?

Yeah buddy!

- Feels good to be down here, kinda. - I bet it does!

Yeah, buddy!

That was a fun zone.

Certain places have a magnetism

that continually draws to return.

One such mountain has become a trophy heli-ski descent.

This perfect line was carved from chaos.

In the early 1900s, deep in the chugach mountains of Alaska,

a falling star forever altered a peak

we now know as meteorite.

Under the cloak of night,

Jeremy Jones and Cody townsend set out

to diverse eight miles and climb over 6,000 vertical feet

to explore the limits of both stone and space.

- It's all up hill from here.

- Glad we set the course last night

cause there is no moon and it's pitch black.

We got a monster day ahead of US.

A lot to do before we're back

on this road again walking the other way.

It's still as cold as yesterday.

Ow!

Ah!

Oh, my god.

My whole body is shaking.

Walking through thick woods like this

at two in the morning is generally ill advised

when it comes to bears, so keep your head on a swivel.

Hey, oh!

Five after four.

About 6,000 more vert to go.

People ask me, what's the best run in the world?

I've always said meteorite.

It changed my life.

We're just reaching glacier,

so we're getting on the rope.

We're behind schedule.

My first ever heli-skiing trip in Alaska was here in valdez.

We flew by meteorite, and I just remember thinking

to myself, no way would I ski that.

15 years later, and I haven't ridden it,

but we're trying it from the road.

This thing just goes on and on and on.

Yeah, fricken does.

The very first time I came to valdez,

my brothers picked me up from the airport,

and as I was driving up the road they pointed out this peak,

meteorite, and I just couldn't imagine

that you could ride something like that.

End of that trip, I ended up riding that with my brothers.

I remember going, everything's changed.

I am now definitively, without question,

setting my life up to come to Alaska every spring

and snowboard here.

That was 25 years ago, and I've done just that.

I wanted to come back to it,

but I really wanted to hike it on foot.

Feeling the power of the mountain now.

Every step.

Just listening, feeling, head on a swivel,

thinking about this for a long time.

Holy hell does this feel good!

Wow!

Holy crap.

We're a long way from home.

Yes!

Yeah, buddy.

Bring it in.

That was awesome.

That was an amazing climb.

I am kicked in.

You're right, she did not want

to be given up easily.

Oh, my word, man.

That was a super grind, very intense,

edge of the world for hours.

Yeah, buddy.

I love when I get in the mountains,

and I'm like I couldn't have gotten here a day earlier

in my life because I needed every bit of knowledge

to be here right now.

Yes!

Conditions are perfect.

Three, two, one.

Yeah!

We did it!

Yeah, buddy.

That was so fun.

We grossly underestimated

how long this was gonna take.

We're at five and a half miles from the summit,

and we're four miles still away from the car.

A lot of bush whacking.

Man, I feel like I'm gonna puke.

A day to remember, but I am feeling it.

I am crushed.

Two am start, and it is now seven fifteen.

More than 17 hours, so, yeah, cheers to that.

Well deserved beer.

- It is a well deserved beer.

- Cheers.

Years of unbridled nature, cold woken senses,

and moving like ghosts through the snow,

makes a moment in this place feel like forever.

And the friends and family soaking up this moment

is what makes the magic.

The second and third generation,

the sons and daughters of patrollers, instructors,

and bartenders, are making their own tracks

and finding their own style,

bracing winter's never ending gift.

I've been watching my dad's movies

ever since I was a little boy.

When I was like two, I just dreamt of skiing spines,

and I was like, I really want to do that someday.

I'm gonna aspire and train and work.

Let's get stoked.

- Fired up!

I'm gonna try to go to the moon!

- What's your favorite planet?

- Um, I like Mars a lot.

It's a really interesting planet.

- We should send it to Mars then.

Tim has been the biggest influencer that I've ever had,

and I'm really grateful that Tim is just there

by my side teaching me.

I'm gonna go do it!

Sick.

- Think I got it?

- Oh dude, you got it.

Yeah, dude, how's that feel, man?

Oh, that was really good.

Oh yeah.

Dude!

Good job.

Good job, buddy.

♪ Cash in now honey

♪ cash in miss Smith

♪ cash in now baby

♪ oh, oh, oh

- ready to go to ak?

- Oh, yeah.

All right, Kai, here we go.

Let's do it!

- I wish I was doing this when I was 12.

Oh, my goodness.

This is so sick!

Welcome to Alaska, Kai.

This is completely unbelievable.

I'm mind blown.

The mountains just go on forever and ever.

Super fun to be at the top of the line with Kai

and feel his confidence.

It's amazing to be around that energy.

All right, Kai, let's have some fun.

Yeah!

- This is what we came here to do, baby.

- Put your binos on the dash, dude.

I got my own cameras to deal with, kid!

- Just above camp.

Looking above, straight down,

and some little nortlers and nugs.

Couple knifers.

Government.

Over-yoink.

Nug-mobile.

Dog-NATO.

Snowcoast.

Return of the donks.

Hot pocket.

String cheese.

Doink.

Fantasy nugs.

All right.

What was that?

- Do I look like a tree?

Yeah, kinda.

- Cool.

- Yeah, we got a little stir crazy now.

- You all right?

Yeah, I was ragdoll.

All packed in the wan.

Oh my--

- That was easy.

- Just out here in the valley.

Fingers crossed it clears, man.

I'm gonna go up.

- Well that was cool.

- We just found tgr's biggest fan.

Who's your favorite female snowboarder?

- Female snowboarder?

I don't know, but I gotta tell you--

- you're clipped.

He's clipped.

Clipped.

- Could this be Sam smoothy's gopro?

He hit this last year.

What'd he do?

Like a Superman front flip off it?