Austrian freerider Mitch Toelderer and a crew of like-minded riders who aren’t shy of snowboarding’s more mountaineering-orientated side recently undertook one hell of a mission in Ecuador to raise money for the summits4kids project. The mission? To climb the 5897m volcano, Cotopaxi. It’s one hell of a daunting-looking hunk of earth that spikes skywards from the plains, and they had to negotiate high altitudes, yawning crevasses, unstable snow and a bunch of other hazards as they strove to accomplish their mission. Check it out…

The Lowdown on the YES boys’ big mountain performance board.

Last year YES had one line with different board shapes and characteristics depending on which length you opted for, but for the 10/11 season the boys went back to the future and released 5 lines with a bunch of lengths in each. In keeping with their team, the boards are mostly focussed on park and backcountry freestyle, but there is however a model that’s there to be taken out for speed mission and those first bin days – the Optimistic.

Built with a directional shape and flex to give it the perfect characteristics for shredders wanting to up their game on the big mountain’s wide canvas, there’s what they dub a freeride CamRock base profile (mixing camber under the feet for pop with rocker in the nose and tail to float you in pow and give a fun ride) to give you performance no matter how steep and deep it gets. It’s got high-tech guts too – a full tip-to-tail wood core is wrapped in torsionally responsive N-Tech custom weave glass and topped with carbon stringers to increase snap and satisfy demanding riders, and it’s bottomed off with a high-grade stoneground sintered base for a super slick glide.

We had a razz on the more powder-focussed YES back at the Shops First Try board test, so here’s what we made of it:

“Not for rookies, but if you’re a decent rider this would be a good choice for someone who wants to do it all. Though directional in shape it feels twin-ish so switch stomps will be handled and when going forwards felt solid, stable and lively for ollies while edge-to-edge was smooth and quick. Not very twitchy and fairly friendly but requires bit off effect to reign in. Rocker felt fun and floatey. A nice all mountain stick.”

Lengths: 156, 159, 162

They’re in stores now, so if you think the Optimistic’s up your street, you can buy it now.

Shit your pants as Xavier points it to take first place at the Xtreme Verbier.

Though it starts more reserved as he negotiates the exposed upper portion of his gnarly line down the Bes des Rosses, once he points if off the 10m cliff the De Le Rue afterburners are firmly on. He posted the fastest run of the day, took an original line and sent it off a huge cliff that’s not been done in the 15-year history of the contest. Mental.

Yet another episode from the making of Jeremy Jones’ upcoming movie project ‘Deeper’.

Jeremy and Xavier decide in this edit to tackle one hell of a steep face in the French Alps. Once again it is astonishing to see the amount of preparation and guts it takes to ride this kind of terrain. The view down from the top is priceless.

Here’s the film crew describing this episode: “Jeremy Jones and Xavier De Le Rue wanted to get way off the deck. The French Alps are the biggest mountains Jeremy has ever seen and he wanted to experience what looking down 9000ft at the valley floor was like. Him and Xavier climb the north face of Tour Ronde, a 60 degree slope that has Jeremy sick to his stomach during the climb.”

Photo: Cole Barash.

Remember a couple weeks back we put the shout out to you guys to fire in your questions for big mountain legend Jeremy Jones?

So we hooked up with Jeremy at ISPO fresh off the plane to promote his new board brand Jones Snowboards, and put what you wanted to know to him. Some we cut but most are left in. That dude’s got some great answers for sure.

Now hear what the man’s responses were…

Part 1

Up first, Jones hits you back about his boards, tight pants, Deeper, the other Jeremy Jones, and whether you can get free stuff amongst other gems.

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Part 2

In this second installment, Jeremy tackles your questions about his potentially meeting his maker, Protect Our Winters, how to evaluate risk and much more.

Now that the Oxbow Back To Powder 2010 is wrapped up and we have the videos of the jazz, here’s what went down over the five days  in Areches-Beaufort, France.

The idea of Oxbow’s Back To Powder event is a straightforward one, albeit with the übermotivational prize of a trip to Hawaii at stake. Two of Oxbow’s premier riders, Christoph Weber and skier Lolo Favre, were allowed to invite six riders each to head to the small but epic terrain of Areches-Beaufort in France to battle it out on the steeps, put it down on backcountry kickers and get their jib on in the wood zone. With a fresh dump just before the event began and renowned shaping crew hO5 in charge of features, it was bound to be legit.

For the snowboarders, Weber had recruited German buddy and snowboard innovator David Benedek, Norwegian styler Fredrik Evensen, and Frenchies David Livet, Alicia Bonnaud, Thomas Delfino and Valerian Ducourtil. Each night the crew would meet to discuss forecasts, safety and to review the day’s footage with two guys to be awarded with ‘Lines of the Day’. Here’s the haps in words and video, and a gallery of shots at the bottom…

Day 1

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Day 1 was Freeride day with all the riders heading up to Les Tetes Rouges (which sounds suspiciously like a Frenchie nickname for the English) to rip the smoothest lines they could and mix in some creativity on the ride down. Unfortunately the afternoon’s plan of hitting the backcountry kickers had to be postponed as the big wedges were buried by the recent snowfall but a team effort saw them dug out in, well not quite no time but they were ready to be sessioned later in the week.

Day 2

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The second day saw the riders take it to the jibs with some feeling the effects of a few too many Genepis from the night before. There’s no better way to blow away the cobwebs than getting the shred on, though, so before long everyone was taking on the wood zone with Fredrik Evensen and Valerian Ducourtil standing out.

Day 3

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The third day was set aside for the highly anticipated Perfect Jump day. The 21-metre rounded shaped tabletop built by hO5 didn’t seem to cause many problems to David Livet and Fredrik Evensen, despite the long airtime and the high speed required on the in-run. Thanks to the soft landing created by the perfect shape of the jump, some solid riding went down.

Day 4

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Day 4 involved a short hike in the beautiful surroundings of Areches. When they got to the drop in zone, riders faces were split into grins that would have the Cheshire cat envious: the riding area had 6 kickers in a row on the same backountry slope, radness. An epic end to a killer week of rider-focussed competition and fun.

Day 5

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The last day was the rider’s vote day, to determine who ripped the hardest. And coming out top was…. Fredrik Evensen who got voted by his peers as the standout rider of the contest and will accompany skier Arnaud Rougier to a trip to Hawaii, surfing with all the Oxbow surf team.

See you next year for the BTP 2011.

Gallery

All Photos: Elina Sirparanta/Oxbow
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More behind the scenes from the making of Jeremy Jones’ upcoming movie project, Deeper.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that in snowboarding, especially big mountain riding, getting to the spot to shoot is half the battle. But with this, frankly insane, Blanche de Putrey face in the Mont Blanc range, the crew had to spend the night before in an eagle’s nest of a hut tagged on a tiny crag. It gives us vertigo seeing it on the internet…

Here’s what the film crew had to say: “In this episode the crew heads to the La Fourche Hut in the Mont Blanc region. No ordinary hut, it requires being fully roped up and climbing a rocky, knife ridge to get there. The hut only being part 1 of the mission, the crew eyes a face called Blanche de Putrey. This face saw a first descent in 1978 and has never been repeated. Take a look at this gnarly face, it has Jeremy losing sleep…”

We’ll be posting the video of Jeremy answering your questions asap too, so check back for more JJ goodness.

Jeremy in AK. Photo: Cole Barash.

Your chance to ask Jeremy Jones a question has arrived…

Remember Crossfire from the mag a couple years back, where we gave you guys the opportunity to pose your questions to a selection of pro shredders? Well, we reckoned it was time to bring that mother back in a web 2.0 way so we’re kicking off by giving you the chance to put your thoughts to big mountain gnarler Jeremy Jones.

Jeremy’s been putting down eye-popping lines on sketchy faces for more years than we care to remember, he was instrumental in launching Protect Our Winters and has recently launched his own board brand, Jones Snowboards. Not only that, he’s mid way through filming his two-year backcountry project, Deeper, that will come with Onboard next season.

So, post your questions in the comments, we’ll put ‘em to the main man and hit you back with his answers to the good ‘uns next week.