ESPN.com - Mt. Shasta Solar Eclipse Party

Jeremy Jones' Mount Shasta Convergence

By Seth Lightcap

Jeff CurleyHigh fives all around for Jeremy Jones and crew as they prepare for a 7,000 foot joyride off the summit of Mt. Shasta during the solar eclipse.

While most pro snowboarders flock to the terrain parks of Mammoth Mountain and Mt. Hood for their end-of-the-winter celebrations, backcountry ripper Jeremy Jones is not about to drag his BBQ to the side of a booter and call it a season.
The earn-your-turns hero took advantage of prime spring snow conditions in the Cascades and a rare opportunity to view an annular solar eclipse, hosting his second annual season-ender party on the massive flanks of Nor-Cal's Mt. Shasta over the past weekend. Jones' invited a wide swath of his shred community including pro-riders, photographers, shop owners, reps, friends and mountain guides to climb and ride the 14,179-foot tall volcano in the rarefied light of the eclipse.
The overnight mission brought together over 30 people onto the lofty summit, including many of the featured riders in "Further" -- part two of Jones' movie trilogy which will debut this September. Josh Dirksen, Lucas Debari, Ryland Bell and Forrest Shearer were among the attendees who made the long drive to rip the 7,000 foot descent with Jones.
"Shasta pulled everyone in this year," said Jones. "The party got way bigger than we expected. People traveled from as far away as Canada and Utah. Below average backcountry snow conditions elsewhere, coupled with perfect conditions on Shasta made the motivation easy to make the party."
Located 77 miles north of Redding, Calif., Mt. Shasta dominates the Nor-Cal horizon and was an ideal location for Jones and the crew to view the eclipse. Their vantage point allowed a 96-percent-complete view of the celestial phenomenon -- close to the best view in the Western U.S. Many of the party-goers chose to wait atop the peak and ride down after 6 p.m. when the eclipse neared its max totality. Odd crescent shadows and strangely overcast light filled their goggles as they made their way down a cruisy, yet epically-long descent.

Jeff Curley

 Could you convince 30 of your friends to climb for eight hours up 7,000 feet? Jones can. 

 

Photographer Jeff Curley was along for the mission and noted that the light during the eclipse was unlike anything he'd ever seen in the mountains before.
"When the eclipse maxed out it got colder and the shadows became three-dimensional. The light on the snow was unreal. Pretty spooky actually," said Curley.
The alignment of the sun and moon that day were undoubtedly auspicious, but the convergence of his crew for a last lap on Shasta was surely special to Jones for other reasons. Perfect corn snow conditions on the descent made every uphill step worth the effort and the adventure also celebrated the last weeks of production for "Further." After two years of chasing around the globe, Jones expects to put away the boots soon and clam up in a Teton Gravity Research editing bay to help dial in the final edit. Further will feature expedition style backcountry freeriding in Norway, Austria, Japan and Alaska.
The offer to shred with the crew without the pressure of stomping lines for the cameras was not lost on Ryland Bell, the upstart AK freerider who will star alongside Jones and Lucas Debari in the Alaska segment of "Further."
"It was really cool that Jones could pull together such a great group of shredders for something like this," said Bell. "It wasn't even about summiting or riding anything gnarly. It was all about surfing long lines with good friends. That was the last run I'll do this year and it was an awesome way to finish the season."