This is a fairly succinct summary. http://snowboardmag.com/stories/jeremy-jones-higher-premiere

The crowds were pretty relaxed and it was a great time. We got there early and had a great spot near the front on the KT terminal side. I almost felt like I should be lining up for a powder day, LOL! Good to see old and some new friends as well. Finally met BCrider as well, nice to meet you Chris!!

The movie was a great swan song for Jeremy, and more introspective about his career in snowboarding, what motivates him, and how that has changed over the years. Oh yeah and some pretty damn heavy lines with high exposure and consequences.

Overall a great flick and messages, I had some wanderlust afterwards for sure.

Good to met you too tiltedworld! Well said.

It always grinds my gears —for three movies now— I’ve long pre-ordered the flick and am staring at an Estimated Shipping Date (Subject to Change), then the week before shipping, TGR releases it on iTunes. Well shoot guys. You coulda advertised it as, “Pre-order now available (Unless you want it sooner and just download it for less money).”

I’m such a sucker :banghead:

i admit, i was pretty over it – but after seeing the movie… pretty f’in rad!!
Does a great job showing off how gnarly JJ is… both old and new footage.

Yes, it’s more of an introspective into JJ’s career – but dedicates a good amount of time to the 3 trips (AK, Himalayas, Jackson). The AK/Himalayan lines are out of this world and do a good job relaying the intensity of the situations.

You can definitely see the differences in JJ’s riding – old vs. new. The natural evolution of getting older and being more careful is obvious. However, i think his (current) cautious style is necessary for the lines he is riding – some next level shit, yo!

all in all, i dig it.

Best moment of the movie:

When JJ got sluffed off the face on Shangri-La. Holy shit that got my heart rate going. Scary! To have his helmet cam audio running with the shot was genius.

Overall I think Higher is a great conclusion of the trilogy and I’m glad they changed the format a little bit instead of ‘just’ more of the same. In fact they’ve added just enough drama and insight to the Alaska section to not make it a repeat of the mission in Deeper.
I especially enjoyed the Shangri-La approach section. I’ve read quite a few Everest books and getting such a great visual of the whole trip to get there was great.
The production quality is pretty high end. I like it :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

(sorry for the long write-up, but it was a welcome distraction while laid up on abx and painkillers from an infected tooth 😥 )

Thoughts:
– It was a blast to see how they incorporated some of the archival TGR footage. Having grown up in Jackson, my connection to TGR was pretty strong back in the day and I always looked forward to watching Jones’s segment in their films. That stoke definitely dampened and I stopped caring in about 2005 due to the aimless globetrotting and formula-driven process that dominated major ski flick producers and stuck to watching the smaller, more local projects. That changed when Deeper came out.

Thoughts:
– It’s been fun to watch not only the evolution of his riding style and “expeditions”, but also the entire filmmaking process, especially the cinematography. I went back to Deeper after watching Higher and it’s very cool to see how far the average shot has come between the two movies.

– I had mixed feelings after learning that Jones (and the Guch!) made the first snowboard descent of the Otterbody on the Grand using guides. While obviously one hell of a feat (especially in such conditions!), since a major part of the trilogy’s storyline has been self-sustained, human-powered adventures in the mountains, it struck me as odd that he would utilize guides on a route that would be majorly featured in his film. I thought it would be cooler if he had “simply” climbed and shredded the Ford/Stettner or something similar, leading the pitches himself, etc… I also thought it was a bit of a shame that the first snowboard descent of such a heady, committing route was made as a guided descent. Lastly, I know both of the guides who were up there with him and still think that this holds up more as a testament to the next-level, Alps-esque guiding skills of Brendan and Z than as a noteworthy snowboard descent. I hoped they would be given a fair portrayal of their roles in the film.

– Fast forward to a week ago when I watched Higher. In the context of the film, I see that Jones wasn’t out there necessarily to nab a coveted first descent, but had wanted from the get-go to feature the Tetons in each of his films. Since he had the resources and the weather window, the Otterbody is a super cool objective. I love that he did it with the Guch, keeping with the theme of getting some of the legends out of their elements (a la Terje in Further), and I love that Brendan and Z got portrayed rightfully as a couple of the most badass ski guides in the country.

– It’s cool to see how these movies have helped bring splitboarding to a more mainstream audience. I realize not everyone wants that, but IMO more splitters=more capital for companies to experiment with and help push things forward. Even cooler, it’s nice to see Jones using his relative star power to help raise awareness of one of the most important issues facing our generation.

I love he film, but for different reasons than the other 2. The production quality is the best in higher. The story telling was pretty good but the riding didn’t get me as stoked to ride as the others. The movie did give me the feeling that Jones was getting ready to leave his throne…but we shall see.

Deeper is what got me into wanting to split, higher was probably my favorite of the 3. Glad I could see them all. I need more like this. 😥

So for those who don’t polish Apples knob and ordered the dvd (according to a website retailer), The new expected release date is Oct 23rd. Thanks TGR for keeping us all informed!

@rughty wrote:

The new expected release date is Oct 23rd. Thanks TGR for keeping us all informed!

^ this
@bcall8 wrote:

Deeper is what got me into wanting to split

^ and this

January 2 2010: I had just driven 2000 miles with my girlfriend (now wife) from Stephen’s Pass to LA. I updated my status on Facebook and spotted a targeted-ad for either Deeper or Splitboard.com (one lead to the other; I can’t remember which).
I had been “slackcountry” snowboarding for years, constantly in search of that feeling I experienced my first day boarding of moving through three dimensions of powder; I’d skied for decades before and never experienced it.
A month earlier (Dec 09), I had just discovered a winter route up Blue Ridge from Wrightwood which opened up loads of terrain; and “my list” was born. Suddenly, Pine Mountain became possible. (Of course I had no idea anyone else did this… probably mostly b/c I live in LA!)

Jones’ introduction to the Deeper trailer was like he was speaking to me…personally. He took the words on my heart, out of my mouth, and uploaded them to YouTube before I had had the chance to act on them. I still get goosebumps watching those first 30 seconds. I had never been affected by an advert so powerfully before.
And —how blessed was I?— that here’s Splitboard.com: a community to show me the ropes. I knew splitboarding was the answer and this is the place I had to be.
I owe a large part of my happiness to Jones’ Deeper project and what it introduced into my life; which is so much more than a film trilogy and fancy snowboard…and I’m kinda looking’ forward to that introspective legacy/family conclusion thing.

Frack! Is it snowing yet!?