Jeremy Jones' Higher

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09/19/2014 The final installment of snowboarding legend Jeremy Jones' Freeride trilogy, Higher takes us to new heights, both literally and figuratively, with some the biggest, steepest and highest first descents ever attempted and captured on film. From his backyard Californian slopes, to the Alaskan back-country Mecca, all the way past the 20,000 foot mark in the Himalayas, Jones' pushes the limits of what is possible both in the world of snowboarding and winter mountaineering. If you've seen the other installments of this series, Deeper and Further, you know that the usual snowboard movie tropes will be few and far between; technical big air tricks, rails and urban riding and a long list of big name riders are noticeably absent here. Higher focuses far less on who is riding (notice the absence of names like Travis Rice, Terje Hankinson and Xavier de Le Rue) and far more on what they're riding. Every ascent and decent look absolutely suicidal, and I found myself muttering "no way" or "that's insane", along with everyone else watching at the premier. The riding in Higher isn't about who can hit the best line or land the best trick, it's about survival. With the premise behind Jones' movies firmly established in the previous films, Higher focuses on Jeremy Jones himself, chronicling his snowboarding career up to his highest point (literally) in the Himalayas. Candid interviews with Jones and his family expose the tensions and moral struggles that come with such a dangerous line of work. Grappling with the loss of fellow riders to the hazards of the back-country, and the tightrope walk between Jones' love of Freeriding and his biggest fear of leaving his family without a husband and father, adds a philosophical layer that heightens the tension of watching the dangers of his climbs and descents. And you will be watching a lot of climbs. Jones states several times throughout Higher that he has come to realize that for him it's more about the journey than the destination, and you see a lot of the journey in this film. The mountaineering aspect is as big a part of the movie as the actual snowboarding. Seeing how much effort it takes just to climb to the summit, you can't help but marvel at how these athletes find the stamina to ride back down some of the most technically demanding terrain imaginable. I hesitate of label Higher as a snowboarding movie. It features snowboarders, it has some of the most insane lines ever done on snowboards, but the focus is really on Jeremy Jones; his story and his vision. Higher is more of a documentary about one of the world's best snowboarders, not the guys who grab the public headlines or win all the contest medals, but the guy who pushes the boundary of what is capable in the sport. As a rider myself, I found my jaw clenched and my knuckles white as I watched Jones' and his crew find a way up and down the biggest back-country lines ever ridden. I do get the feeling that people who don't take part in the sport may not appreciate the scope of what is being attempted in the film. The pacing does seem a bit slower than the previous installments, but the scale of what Jones' does in Higher is beyond comparison. Jeremy Jones' Higher is not your typical snowboarding movie. It focuses on the vision that one of Snowboarding's best riders, and his enduring pursuit of the biggest lines and best descents. The film focuses as much on the journey to the top of the world as the ride back down, which flies in the face of typical snowboarding movie conventions and this may leave some people put off by the pacing. If you want to see the worlds best snowboarders ride the worlds most difficult terrain, if you want to see the absolute pinnacle of modern day snowboarding and mountaineering, if you want to question what human beings are really capable of, you will find all of that in Higher. See more Read all reviews

Jeremy Jones' Higher

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