No one seems to declare how steep a slope must be to mark the threshold of sick snowboarding. Here’s a fair nonspecific measure: if the snow you kick up keeps chasing down the mountain and passes you, that’s sick.
It seems that the film “Deeper” should be called “Steeper.” Each far reach quests for “lines” that seem more and more like cliffs. Only one scene in the film mentioned a number: “Is this going to be 80 degrees, totally unrideable?”Somehow, whatever the slope, the boards cling to the snow, carving big time.Here and there they jump where they have to but also when it’s cool to.
The film is called “Deeper” because Jeremy Jones and his guys constantly seek locations that are further into untouched territory and more embedded in the ethic of earning it. That not only means coming down, but getting up.Watching swoosh after sick swoosh plays deeper after watching them trudge, step by step for hours, up to what will last only minutes. It works more fully after seeing that they sometimes wait a week or more in boring bivouacs until snowstorms yield to sunny days.
And amidst the thrill of the hunt and the sweet sick feats, the sights are pristine and stunning. From Chamonix, France – the birthplace of extreme skiing – to Antarctica to the perennial and remote discoveries in Alaska, “Deeper” puts on an awesome display.