Snowboarding
In Ode To Muir, Jeremy Jones and Elena Hight follow the grandfather of conservationists into the wilderness and learn surprising lessons along the way.
Established in 1964 and over half a million acres in size, the John Muir Wilderness, located between the Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, is one of the largest unbroken wilderness areas in the lower 48 states of America. It’s also got some of the highest peaks and most radical freeride terrain in the country. But who was John Muir, and what does he mean to Jeremy Jones, snowboarding’s greatest living freerider?
The Mountains are calling, and I must go...
Watch snowboarding epic Ode to Muir featuring Jeremy Jones here:
Be sure to download the free Red Bull TV app and catch the best snowboarding action on all your devices! Get the app here.
Let’s start with the biographical details: born on April 21, 1838, in Dunbar, Scotland, John Muir immigrated to the United States when he was 11 years old. A gifted writer, illustrator and inventor, Muir grew up in a strict, religious household, and his passion was the great outdoors. A student of botany, Muir spent his early adulthood investigating the natural world during long walking tours throughout North and Central America. In 1868, Muir visited California’s Yosemite Valley for the first time, to work as a shepherd. It was to be the start of a lifelong love affair that would culminate with his founding of the Sierra Club, and the establishment of the Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.
This is the story of America’s original environmentalist, and the wilderness he fought to preserve.
As a naturalist, Muir’s scientific theories about Yosemite’s geological structures being formed by glacial activity were groundbreaking for the time. But it’s for his writing that he is best remembered. From the 1870s onwards, Muir enthralled millions of American readers with beautifully penned accounts of his solo wanderings. His musings on the role of wilderness as a place of healing, beauty and nurture are as relevant today as when he wrote them, 150 years ago. So while you may not have heard of John Muir, chances are you know his most famous words:
Watch Jeremy Jones explain why he had to make the film Ode to Muir:
Jeremy Jones, for the freeride community at least, needs no introduction. Founder of Teton Gravity Research, Jones Snowboards and Protect Our Winters, Jones’s freeriding career spans decades, and his CV lists too many seminal video parts, first descents and industry firsts to list here in any detail. For a man so unequalled in his own field, it’s perhaps not surprising to find that Jeremy’s idol is John Muir – especially when you look a little closer at their similarities:
In every walk with nature, one receives more than he seeks.
Both men are synonymous with foot-powered missions into remote mountain zones. Both men dedicated their lives to exploring mountainous regions few will ever venture into, and both spent 90 percent of that time in California’s Sierra Nevada range. Last but not least, both share a talent for bringing their passion for the mountains into the mainstream consciousness: Muir through his spellbinding words, and Jones through his inspirational films.
In Ode to Muir, Jones embarks on a seven-day split boarding expedition deep into the high-altitude terrain of the John Muir Wilderness, joined by ‘current day John Muir’ Nick Schneider, and pro snowboarder Elena Hight.
At first glance, Hight seems like an unlikely choice for Jones’s venture into remote big mountain terrain. She’s had a long and illustrious career… riding halfpipe, basically. But while a 2017 X Games gold medal doesn’t count for much in the backcountry, Elena’s board skills, fitness and can-do attitude count for a lot. And, after all, who needs experience when Jeremy Jones has got your back?
For us, the viewer, there are two particularly enjoyable aspects to having Elena in the cast. First, there’s no mistaking her enthusiasm and delight to be so completely out of her comfort zone. And secondly, there is something inspirational about watching a backcountry novice (at least compared to Jones) taking her game to the back of beyond and absolutely loving it – suddenly, the idea of strapping on a splitboard and getting a first descent of your own doesn’t seem quite so crazy.
Ode to Muir isn’t your typical adrenaline-fuelled foray into deep pow and gnarly chutes. It sets a gentle pace, focusing on the wonder and delight these three feel as the wilderness does its healing work, washing (as Muir would have put it) their spirits clean. Along the way, we’re treated to poignant Muir quotes, breathtaking scenery and plenty of steep lines to fantasize about hitting. Along the way, Jeremy comes out with a few lines that, while not quite as lyrical as Muir’s, hit the nail on the head:
Finding happiness for me is so easy to achieve and doesn’t cost a lot of money. How lucky I am for that.
There’s a serious environmental message in there too. Back in 1890 when the Yosemite National Park was created, John Muir’s main goal was to protect the region’s ancient forests from the advance of logging. Today, those same trees are now under threat from a much more complex problem: climate change. To make matters worse, Jones observes that the political will to tackle the climate challenge is far weaker now than in Muir’s time.
Perhaps it’s Elena Hight, the rookie, who took away most from this journey. After failing to qualify for the Winter Games, Elena found herself facing something of an existential crisis, as Team USA headed to PyeongChang without her. About this time, the Ode to Muir film project came along, and the timing couldn’t have been better. A split boarding mission into the High Sierra wilderness turned out to be the best antidote she could have wished for.
I was beat down, but now, seeing this, being able to walk to your own beat and clear your head, has exceeded my wildest dreams.
And in the end, isn’t this what John Muir wanted us to do all along?