These
winter athletes have experienced first-hand the impact of climate
change, inspiring them to work hard to protect our Earth.
By Mary Kate Campbell
For Jeremy Jones, snow is not just a sign of winter. To the 38-year-old
Truckee, California, native, snowfall is a symbol of his career, his
passion, and his lifestyle. Jones, a 10-time Snowboarder Magazine big-mountain rider of the year and a National Geographic
Adventurer of the Year nominee, worries that climate change will
prevent future generations from experiencing the winter season as we
know it today.
Jones founded Protect
Our Winters in 2007 to unite the winter sports community against climate
change through education, activism, and community projects. The idea
was that winter athletes were the best spokespeople for this topic. They
experience first-hand how climate change is impacting their sports and,
on a larger scale, affecting the Earth.
Carbon
emissions, often produced by burning fossil fuels (like gasoline, for
instance), have contributed to global warming. After seeing resorts
closed and areas that once had great jumps for snowboarding shut down
due to insufficient snowfall, Jones realized that climate change was a
crisis that needed to be addressed. "Our mountains are fine in the
immediate future," Jones says. "I will have snow to ride on, but this is
for the future generations."
Since
2010, Jones has visited Washington, D.C., three times to spark
conversation and bring awareness to Protect Our Winters' cause. Jones
says he can see the issue making progress, as more policy makers see
that climate change can impact everything from the environment to the
economy.
However, the nation's capital
is not the only place where change is taking place. Protect Our Winters
partners with The North Face and Alliance For Climate Education to visit
schools through their Hot Planet/Cool Athletes program. Protect Our
Winters educates students about the issue, using an interactive
presentation with stories from professional winter athletes to inspire
kids to make a difference. Jones says that paying attention to little
things in your day-to-day life can help the environment, too. For
example, he limits his "carbon footprint" by buying locally grown food.
And instead of using snowmobiles and helicopters to get up mountains, he
hikes for his snowboarding adventures. "This is the planet you are
inheriting" Jones says.
Since founding Protect Our Winters, Jones has become a frequent Capitol Hill visitor.
Courtesy Protect Our Winters Protect Our Winters (POW) founder Jeremy Jones was named one of President Barack Obama's "Champions of Change" this spring in a White House ceremony honoring 12 Community Resilience Leaders.
Jones -- 2013 National Geographic "Adventurer of the Year" nominee
and Snowboarder Magazine's 10-time "Best Big Mountain Rider of the Year"
-- started POW to address the effects of climate change he was
witnessing and experiencing firsthand during the filming of his
"Deeper," "Further," "Higher" backcountry snowboarding movie trilogy.
His last trip to Washington, D.C. was to present a study commissioned by
POW and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) detailing the potential economic and job loss in the winter-sports industry and the many towns that industry supports, as snowfall gets increasingly sporadic and unpredictable.
Jones left for a three-week splitboarding adventure in the Eastern
Alaska Range shortly after his trip to the White House, but we managed
to track him down just as he was prepping for his next mission to
Alaska's Denali National Park. XGames.com: We haven't caught up with you since you were honored
at the White House. You've already made several trips to meet with
lawmakers on Capitol Hill. At this rate you're going to need to find a
suit and tie sponsor for all your trips to Washington.
Jeremy Jones: I still don't know how to tie a tie, but maybe a
couple more trips and I'll have that down! The White House Champions of
Change recognition was a huge honor, even though we didn't actually get
to meet Obama.
I've been to Capitol Hill a handful of times now, and it definitely
feels like the conversation about climate change in Washington has
changed a bit in that time. Eight years ago this would have been a
harder Champions of Change group to pull together, and now there are
hundreds of good people out there working on these issues.
I was honored to be among the 12 highlighted this year, but it also
makes it all the more frustrating that we really haven't had any big
victories yet. There's a lot of work ahead of us on every front.
"Less than one
percent of all skiers and snowboarders have gotten involved with our
efforts, and less than one percent of all companies in the snow or
outdoor adventure industry are part of POW."Jeremy JonesAre you surprised by how quickly opportunities like this have come up since starting POW?
In certain matters, yes. Going to the White House? I definitely never anticipated that.
But then again less than one percent of all skiers and snowboarders
have gotten involved with our efforts, and less than one percent of all
companies in the snow or outdoor adventure industry are part of POW.
We have an annual board meeting at SIA and the reality is that there
are still only about five companies who meaningfully support what we're
trying to do.
So this whole thing is really in its infancy with a whole lot of
untapped potential and whole lot still to be done, and you try not to
let walking into the White House go to your head. What are you optimistic about?
We have a couple different efforts that we're doing on the political
front and we continue to get better at that, but what I'm most excited
about is our Hot Planet/Cool Athletes school program, where we go in
with an athlete and a climate specialist and do an interactive
presentation to school kids.
The message is, "Hey this is the world you're coming into and here
are some people doing some great things to solve some of the problems,
and we need you to step up and face this challenge."
You can really knock your head against the wall in Washington, but
seeing how enthusiastic the kids are and how ready they are is where it
gets uplifting and gives you some hope for what's next. "Higher," the third installment of your movie trilogy, is now
under way. What's different about your approach to this project compared
to the first two films?
I've learned so much over the last five years about going into the
mountains on foot, finding really special lines, and documenting them.
We're just getting started on this two-year project, and already it's
been incredible for us.
I was able to ride off the Grand Teton in knee-deep powder on a line
I'd been trying to put together for five years now. And the other trip
we did this year was in the Eastern Alaska Range.
We thought we'd go in there for 7-10 days and it ended up being 20
days. I rode the biggest and most challenging line I've ever ridden in
Alaska. I feel like we're really hitting our stride, and the attitude
and vibe of these trips has been really special. While you were in Alaska in April you got word that your Jones
Snowboards sales rep Joe Timlin and some other friends and colleagues
were among the dead in the avalanche on Loveland Pass in Colorado. How did getting that news affect that trip?
Courtesy Protect Our WintersA
"Champion of Change" is an honor given by the White House to 12
citizens, businesses, and community leaders who are working to prepare
their communities for the consequences of climate change.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time I've gotten a call like that.
But that doesn't make it any easier. I was literally driving to the
airstrip and got the call an hour before I was going into the mountains
for three weeks.
The last thing I wanted to do at that point was go into the
mountains, and I pretty much crawled into them that day. I would say
"timid" is an understatement.
But as sad and horrific as it was for us, and the mood of the camp at
the start of that trip -- which was at an all-time low -- crawling into
the mountains is actually the attitude you want to have. You don't want
to come into serious terrain full of testosterone, over-amped and
overconfident.
But being out there was also a good place for us to work out those
thoughts in our head and begin the healing process. I went and rode the
biggest line of my life, and did it thinking of Joe and those guys.
It was very emotional, and we ended up naming the mountain Mt. Timlin
out of respect. All five of those guys were in our thoughts that whole
trip. Is there any one message you really hope comes across in your films?
The bottom line is I've made thousands of good calls in the mountains
and they don't mean anything tomorrow when I go into the mountains.
We're all one bad call away from not coming home.
The dangers are real, and rule No. 1 is: Come home. The words
"ride to live another day" probably go through my head a hundred times
every day when I'm making decisions in the mountains.
Our list continues with big mountain powerhouse Jeremy Jones, a true snowboarder's snowboarder.
Welcome to Redbull.com’s World Top 20 Snowboarders. What
follows is a rundown of snowboarding’s best pipers, jibbers, big
mountain slayers and jumpers. It is a contentious list compiled by a
panel of industry no-gooders, who by all accounts should know their
tindies from their tailgrabs.
Jeremy Jones is more than just your average professional snowboarder. He’s a father, environmentalist, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year nominee, company owner and Champion of Change. Jeremy
is one of the few that explore the places we all dream about, spending
weeks winter camping in Alaska, hiking and shredding new peaks in the
Alps and dodging polar bears in far away Svalbard. Jeremy is taking
snowboarding to new places and bringing freeriding into the mainstream.
Jones has long been one of the best freeriders in the world. There
are very few who can match his skill and control on a snowboard, and
even less who will drop into the type of lines that Jones feels
comfortable on. He grew up on the East Coast, where board control and
learning to turn on any type of terrain is essential just to make it
down the hill. Like many from the right coast, migration west drew Jones
to bigger mountains with better snow and once there he found his place.
There are not many professionals that have the film history of
Jones, who’s logged parts in films by Standard, Teton Gravity Research
and Brain Farm. His most impressive project started in 2010 with the
release of Deeper, the first video in a three-part documentary that
follows Jones as he adventures around the globe to places off the map
for most snowboarders. The movie was absolutely insane and in 2012 it
was followed up with part two in 2012, Further. Both films were game
changers as Jones demonstrated that even the harshest environments and
mountains have the potential to be ridden.
One characteristic that sets Jones apart is his commitment to the
environment. Let’s face it, climate change is becoming a large issue and
is starting to drastically affect the landscape that us snowboarders
love. Jones realized that something needed to be done to help combat
this issue and out of this ideology Jones started the non-profit
organization Protect Our Winters.
With the support of the winter sport community, Jones and POW have been
working to fight against climate change to keep our winter’s epic.
Jeremy Jones has moved big mountain riding and exploration to levels
beyond any other snowboarder, blah, blah… he’s a living legend, blah,
blah… you don’t need a tutor to bring you up to speed on this concept.
However, the process of taking his missions Deeper, then Further and
now, Higher, must reach a zenith, right? Well that’s what they said
about freestyle and now look at it, we can’t even give those new tricks
cool names anymore, they’re just based on math. In the freeriding arena
it is no different and as long as Dr. Jones is at the helm, it’s safe to
say he’ll be getting after some terrain that was never designed for
human consumption. Though a turn will still be a turn by any other name
and if he gets even more gnarly or goes super fast we will simply add an
“er” to the end of the word to describe his feats. With the beginning
of his new project about to fire, I caught up with the man and Grilled
him with a few simple questions I was curious about. What has impressed you recently?
This year I have been riding with two younger kids, Frank Knaab and
Jimmy Goodman, both 21, out of Mammoth. Their diversity as top tier
freestylers, and jibbers to charging lines and becoming really
proficient backcountry riders is some of the most diversity I have seen
in a really long time. And I’m not just talking about riding down
either, but their whole approach, attitude and all. They are not afraid
of long, big treks into the mountains to get the goods. What does snowboarding need more of?
More rider owned companies. Less of?
Mega-corpo companies. What do you think about the Olympics?
I think they are really fun to watch on TV! I think they have changed
competitive snowboarding pretty drastically. One cool thing though is
the offset of the über Olympian deal with these incredible soul comps
like the Dirksen Derby. Snowboarding has naturally kicked itself in that
direction as a result I think. Photos: Jeff Curley Do you have an agent?
Negative. What is your best pow day so far this year?
The last one! I think there’s a level of days that hit that top tier
and it’s almost disrespectful to the others to claim, “Toady was the
day!”
Do your musical choices vary with terrain and/or conditions?
If it’s like the “day of days”, meaning it’s two feet of really good
powder and stable, that day I’m naturally on such a high because they
don’t come around all that often. I know already that I’m going to send
it those days, so I’m listening to some real mellow stuff just to calm
myself down internally. And then on those hardpack resort days it’s more
of a heavy metal vibe when I need to get amped up to charge some
groomers. What is something you never leave home without?
Ideally my boots… but unfortunately I have left those behind a couple times. What is the business plan over at Jones Snowboards?
I started Jones snowboards because I wasn’t getting the product that I
wanted. I didn’t go out and have any roundtable meetings with shop guys
or reps and ask them what would sell. No, my boards come directly from
me and what I want to ride. All of the shapes are extensions of me
saying, “I want to ride this kind of board.” Hopefully other people
like them too, but it’s really starts with myself. So it’s a selfish
business plan I suppose. Deeper, Further, Higher… what more realistically will you do with this next movie?
As with my entire life in snowboarding it’s just a continued
evolution, both mentally and physically. Climbing that internal ladder,
hitting more dream lines and coming home safe.
We’re coming into time of snow decline, but it’ll be offset by punk rock kids who think going outside is cool.
In 25 years, we’ll be in the hands of the next generation—the generation of kids that Protect Our Winters
has been talking to at school. That gives me some hope that we’ll see
some definitive change as a society. Our school programs lay it out:
this is the world you’re growing up in, here are facts, here are
solutions. We’re working to raise awareness in kids, working to get the
next generation to embrace the outdoors and the mountains. It’s a
simple concept, but a super important one.
I dream that in 25 years we’ll be fully embracing
green tech, clean energy, energy independence and everything along those
lines. But if our ski areas all go to solar and nothing else does, it
doesn’t mean a damn thing. In a perfect world, ski areas and skiing and
snowboarding come together and demand we make changes. Collectively, we
could be a powerful force and have a big voice on Capitol Hill, with the
ultimate goal being clean energy throughout every facet of life.
On the equipment front, we’ve come a long way. Jones Snowboards
uses FSC wood cores, recycled sidewalls and bases, wood topsheets. The
next improvements are going to be trickier; the big stumbling blocks are
the resins used in laying up boards, the glues. In 25 years, there will
be a spotlight on manufacturers environmental practices. In the future,
companies won’t be able to get away with cost effective prices with no
concern for the environment. Skiers and riders are going to demand
environmentally produced product, and all products will fit this
description. Sustainably harvested wood cores will be the norm, not a
category.
In 25 years, the snowboard boot/binding interface will
change—we’ll have other options. I would have lost a bet 20 years ago
that that interface would be different. I am willing to re-up on that
bet.
In 25 years, the backcountry segment will have grown
significantly. It’s already happening. Sugarloaf, Maine, did a
sidecountry expansion, Burnt Mountain.
It doubles the resort’s terrain without a single new lift. It’s
progressive thinking. Fifteen years ago, I’d ask, "Why didn’t that lift
go to top?" Now I like it better if there is a half-hour hike. Closed
gates need to go away. Resorts need to embrace the rich 40-year old who
embraces powder and wants to go into the backcountry.
Everyone will have an airbag in 25 years and we won’t
be bombing for avy control. We’ll have automated snow control, like on
Teton Pass, but everywhere.
The next generation will be full tech and social media
addicts, but eventually this trend will ebb and flow, and social media
will be lame. We’re coming into time of snow decline, but it’ll be
offset by punk rock kids who think going outside is cool.
A huge thing I dream of is that mountains will embrace snowparks.
Right now parks are one-dimensional. I’d like to have skatebowl-inspired
parks, like in Japan—surfy-snake
enhanced groomers. You need to be really advanced to go high, but
anyone can ride them. There will be quarter pipes cut into the edge of
trail. Instead of smoothing out the terrain, it’ll be an enhanced cat
track with playful elements. Jeremy Jones is the owner of Jones Snowboards, Big Mountain Rider and founder of Protect Our Winters.
Washington, DC - April 12, 2013 – Jeremy Jones, pro
snowboarder and Founder of the global nonprofit, Protect Our Winters was
honored yesterday at a White House ceremony along with other “Champions
of Change,” in recognition of “ordinary Americans doing extraordinary
things in their communities to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build
the rest of the world.”
Jones is being recognized for his contribution to raising awareness
about the impact of climate change on the winter sports industry by
creating Protect Our Winters, a foundation established in 2007 to unite
and mobilize the global winter sports community against climate change.
The ceremony took place at the White House on Thursday afternoon.
Twelve Champions of Change were honored for working to prepare their
communities for the consequences of climate change. These individuals
are leaders and innovators working tirelessly to build community
resilience by preparing for increasingly extreme weather and other
costly climate-related impacts. The Champions of Change program was
created as a part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative.
“As we take action to reduce carbon pollution and speed the
transition to more sustainable sources of energy, we must also take
action to prepare for the impacts of climate change we are already
seeing, including more frequent and severe extreme weather,” said Nancy
Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
“This week, we look forward to welcoming Champions of Change who are
doing smart, innovative work to protect the health, safety and
prosperity of their communities in the face of climate change.”
“This nomination and to be recognized by the White House is an
absolute honor for me. It’s also a testament to the work that we’re
doing at Protect Our Winters and how important fighting climate change
is to the future of our sport and economy,” said Jones.
Additionally, earlier this week, Jones and 75 other winter sports
athletes also sent a letter to President Obama today urging the
President to take action on climate and clean energy. The letter was
hand delivered to the White House in a separate meeting after the
Champions of Change ceremony.
“Without a doubt, winter is in trouble,” the letter states.” At risk
are the economies of tourist-dependent states where winter tourism
generates $12.2 billion in revenue annually, supports 212,000 jobs and
$7 billion in salaries. Those are the jobs and businesses owned by our
friends and families, generators of billions in federal and state
income.”
The letter calls on Obama to follow through on the promises he made
in the State of the Union address to fight climate change. He can do so
by using executive authority currently available to reduce carbon
pollution emitted by America’s power plants, the largest source of
carbon pollution worsening climate change, and by rejecting the Keystone
XL pipeline, which would add millions of tons of new carbon pollution
to the atmosphere.
Winter may be coming to Westeros, but here on Earth, it's in jeopardy.
That's the message of some 75 professional skiers, snowboarders and
climbers – Olympic medalists, world champions and X Games winners among
them – whose chosen sports' dependence on snowy winters makes them
particularly worried about the effects of climate change. The athletes have signed a letter to President Obama
"on behalf of 23 million of us who love winter and depend on it for our
economic livelihoods," asking him to live up to his inaugural promise
to take meaningful action to slow climate change. Specifically, they ask
him to block the Keystone XL pipeline, which would import
carbon-intensive oil from Canada's tar sands, and to require carbon cuts
from power plants. "Without a doubt," the letter states, "winter is in
trouble."
"It wasn't hard to get people to sign," says Jeremy Jones, a 10-time Snowboard Magazine "Best Big Mountain Rider of the Year" and the founder of Protect our Winters,
the nonprofit group that coordinated the letter. "We could go out and
get 98 percent of mountain guides to sign on tomorrow. People who are in
the mountains on a daily basis see undeniable changes to our winters."
Jones will deliver the letter today while being honored as a White
House "Champion of Change." He founded Protect Our Winters after being
shocked to witness the loss of snowpack in northern Canada in 2005. "It
was a slap in the face," he says. The Fossil Fuel Resistance
The letter notes that a changing climate won't just harm winter
sports fans; it will also threaten jobs and small-town economies across
the country. A report by Protect Our Winters and the Natural Resources Defense Council
estimated that winter sports add more than $12 billion to the U.S.
economy and support more than 200,000 jobs. A number of studies have
shown that climate change is not likely to be kind to the ski industry,
which is already struggling through short seasons and unpredictable
snowfall – the result of drought as well as milder winters. According to one study,
no resorts in Massachusetts or Connecticut are likely to survive the
next 30 years. Park City, Utah, may have no snowpack left by the end of
the century.
Of all the expected casualties of climate change, the winter sports
industry may not be the most morally or existentially stirring. But its
importance to fans makes it a rallying cry –and the same changes that
threaten its long-term viability also put drinking water and agriculture
at risk. "If we get to the point where the ski resorts all close
because there's no longer any snow," says Jones, "the least of our
worries will be that skiers and snowboarders don't get to go play in the
mountains."
Jones has long been one of the best freeriders in the world. There
are very few who can match his skill and control on a snowboard, and
even less who will drop into the type of lines that Jones feels
comfortable on. He grew up on the East Coast, where board control and
learning to turn on any type of terrain is essential just to make it
down the hill. Like many from the right coast, migration west drew Jones
to bigger mountains with better snow and once there he found his place.
One characteristic that sets Jones apart is his commitment to the
environment. Let’s face it, climate change is becoming a large issue and
is starting to drastically affect the landscape that us snowboarders
love. Jones realized that something needed to be done to help combat
this issue and out of this ideology Jones started the non-profit
organization Protect Our Winters.
With the support of the winter sport community, Jones and POW have been
working to fight against climate change to keep our winter’s epic.
