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-What do you think, Dave?
DAVE HATCHETT: I think it's time to go off, off the
Richter scale, that is.
If you flash a line 15, 20 years ago, and it's a big,
gnarly line in Alaska or wherever, and you flash it
clean, what's the difference between then and
20 years from now?
You could put it in a segment today, and a lot of the riders
would love to have that in their part if they
rode it that well.
MIKE HATCHETT: I can go back to "TB5" and watch a movie.
And I'm not trying to sound arrogant or whatever on the
filmmaking point of it, but I can put in
"TB5" Alaska footage.
And I can put in Alaska footage from this year, and I
can be like, I don't see a difference.
In fact, I think the stuff from '95 is almost better.
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DAVE DOWNING: Yeah, "TB5," Johan part
was the one for sure.
It still is.
You look back at that part, and if he filmed that right
now, it'd still be a groundbreaking part
right now, I think.
And that's pretty cool to witness that firsthand, see it
with my own eyes.
JEREMY JONES: He's like a wild animal.
He'd get to the top and just be like, cameramen, media,
this is Johan.
I'm dropping in 10 seconds.
And cameramen are just scrambling.
No back and forth.
That would be the only communication
you'd hear from Johan.
And then he'd go do something that no one's ever done before
on a snowboard.
And half of his best riding probably wasn't on film,
because he didn't feel like waiting for cameramen.
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EIKI HELGASON: Yeah, this was the first Standard movies from
one to six just a few weeks ago.
And man, the riders there were just standing it for the
sketchiest jumps and bigger then than they're doing today.
It's so sick.
I got so pumped just seeing back flips
off the biggest cliffs.
And front flips.
They're standing it.
I like that.
JEREMY JONES: Noah's descent in "TB5" on Super Spines is
hands down--
changed what that dream run was in big mountain
riding in one line.
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DAVE HATCHETT: Definitely my most famous first descent is
the Mendenhall Towers.
And that was in Juno.
We had a heli, and we were like, we want to go there, we
want to go there.
And we just started pointing at the mountains, which are
all basically now the runs that are right off the road.
But at that point, they were all--
a good portion of them were first descents.
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JEREMY JONES: I would say both of those descents, the Super
Spines descent and the Mendenhall Towers descent--
before those guys did that, no one thought that you could
ever ski or snowboard down something like that.
It just shattered the ceiling and was like, we were all
looking over this way, they go and do this, and we're like,
OK, that's what we should be looking at.
JIM RIPPEY: And as I would talk to people who would watch
the videos--
it's usually those one or two shots where you almost kill
yourself and you're just totally, totally going for it
that they remember.
LONNIE KAUK: Yeah, "TB4" was the one.
Like, you see Rippey doing that big old
back flip off of there.
And it was just like next level.
You're like, I want to be that dude
snowboarding in the video.
JIM RIPPEY: We got out of the helicopter.
Terje saw something he wanted to do, some turns down below.
And I didn't really see anything.
So I kind of walked over to the ridge, and I saw this
perfect cliff.
I've always loved jumping off cliffs, because what you get
when you jump off a cliff is, you get that acceleration
experience where you're going from going really slow and
just feel that drop rate.
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TERJE HAAKONSEN: If I remember, we did a run right
next to it, like first time I went on a big mountain that
was that long and that steep for that long.
And what I remember is just doing airs on the way down on
small, little bumps.
And you would just fly for so long, because it was so steep.
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JIM RIPPEY: I remember him being like, this is sketchy,
this is sketchy.
Like, of course it's sketchy.
We're flying around in a helicopter looking over these
crazy peaks.
TERJE HAAKONSEN: The whole intensity level when you go
first is obviously a little higher because what's going to
happen and stuff.
We tore airs up there, too, and Jim.
I'm like, yeah, sure, you could go first.
And then Mike on the radio, Terje, you're going first, and
you're going now.
I'm like, OK.
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DAVE HATCHETT: This looks so easy.
You're like, I could do that.
But you don't really realize, or maybe you do, what could
happen if something went wrong.
And that's when you watch the bail segments, and you watch
Tom tumble through rocks, or some of Jeremy's close calls.
And you really, really realize what could happen if you hook
an edge in the chute or a rock line.
And all it takes is one tumble onto a rock, and you're toast.
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LONNIE KAUK: They'll show a video, and people will just be
like, oh, dude, I would've done that, or I would've went
there, I would've done that.
You're like, dude, you got no idea what it looks like when
you're riding down that.
Like, dude, you're either scared as shit, or you just
forget where you're at.
And it freaks you out.
And then everybody's like, oh, dude,
you're just riding along.
It doesn't mean anything.
It's like, dude, you have no idea what it takes to freaking
do that stuff.
It's gnarly.
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JEREMY JONES: The thing with riding these serious lines is
crew is everything.
And Mike and Dave are some of the best, most experienced
guys in the mountains in the world.
So when I'm on a line and need to get advice, I can call up
the cameramen and they're giving me world-class, on
point feedback.
MIKE HATCHETT: Even me, I'll let my guard down, just not
thinking, hey, is that guy in the right spot to respond to a
rescue or whatever?
You see people, and there's just three dudes on the slope
at the same time, and that guy's in the way of the
[? abbey, ?] and there's some guy standing on the cornice,
and that guy's snowmobiling here, and just no one--
they're just like, dude, what if something happens?
Is anyone ready?
Is anyone even paying attention here?
JIM RIPPEY: They take the back country seriously.
They assess the snow conditions.
And Mike is always taking that very serious, way more serious
than I did.
There was a lot of times where Mike and I would almost butt
heads, because I'm like, let me do this.
And he'd be like, no, it's not safe.
JEREMY JONES: watch a kid be lining up a gap or something.
And I've seen them time and again be like, you know what,
I haven't seen enough out of you that tells me that you're
going to make that gap.
You came up short on this jump, you overshot this jump,
and there's a five foot sweet spot.
And if you don't get it, you're going to hurt yourself.
I'm not shooting it.
DAVE HATCHETT: I've definitely seen and witnessed a lot of
really close calls with me filming other riders with
trees that have been way too close for comfort.
TOM BURT: We were trying this follow-cam shot through this
little slot rock.
But it had a little wave in it, it's a wind wave, but it
was almost like a kicker.
DAVE HATCHETT: We saw a little wind drift at the bottom, and
we threw snowballs at it.
And it seemed soft.
The snowballs disappeared, and we all agreed it
looked like it was OK.
There was a tree kind of in the fall line to the right.
But we all thought, oh, we'll just hit that little snow
drift, and we'll just ride right over it.
TOM BURT: And so I went through.
And I don't want to hit that lip.
I got bucked, but when he hit it, he was
trying to save the camera.
And he got whipped around and lost his edge.
And then he slid down the hill and slammed this
tree that was there.
DAVE HATCHETT: He must have missed the tree by two to six
inches, maybe.
I just grazed the tree with the tail of my snowboard, kind
of sliding butt-first down the hill.
Luckily, that's how I hit it, tail first.
And it was actually enough force to break my femur.
And it broke my femur and my hip.
So of course, I was completely out that year.
And it was definitely a pretty big blow to me.
Physically, it was an insane injury to come back from.
And after that, I wanted to come back, and I wanted to do
everything I was doing before.
But by the time I came back from the injury, it was
another year and then another year after that to even be
100% again.
And at that point, I was a couple years older, and I just
kind of realized some things.
And I kind of lost the desire after that.
I would say that, in a sense, breaking my femur put an end
to my snowboard career.
So definitely, trees don't move when you hit them.
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