A Heavy Climb: Words From Jeremy Jones

Jeremy drops while Chris Figenshau looks on from the top of Space Needle, the most technical line in terms of both the ascent and the descent from TGR’s trip to the Wrangells. “After 20 days of searching in no man’s land, I found this line in the sea of gnar,” Jeremy says. “It was a needle in a haystack of terrain that we had considered unrideable for most of the trip.” Jeff Hawe photo. 

The mood is light for the first two hours but quickly becomes serious when we enter the tiger’s pit and cross under an inactive serac toward the bergschrund. It is the biggest yet with 50-foot walls. A piece breaks off 100 feet away and, for the first time during the climb, before it has even really started, I think of turning around. Figs sets me up on belay for a safe crossing. A steady stream of light sluff continues to pour down the face and into the hole. From now on we will be in a no-fall zone. 

Next up is unexpected white ice. We cut steps for 10 feet. Again, I ask whether we should turn around. The face is big. Our line looks vertical and questionable. But the conditions improve and we climb straight up for 45 minutes. At the second crux, Figs deals with more white ice. Should we turn back? It is getting cloudy. “No way,” I tell myself. “I am not repeating this climb—I have made a few moves I do not want to repeat. I need to put a track on it and release it from my brain.” 

Figs and I do not talk, but we are thinking the same thing: one more hour of climbing. The main crux looks questionable and that is where we run into the first sugar snow. I move right and find good footing. Approaching 60 degrees now. A small, smooth rock band, maybe five feet high, reveals itself six inches under the snow. There is no purchase for my plastic Verts snowshoes and limited holds for an axe. I place the Vert on smooth rock, dispense weight on two bad axe holds and one bad foot and move up. I have to do this about eight times. Figs moves out of the way in fear of me falling and taking him with me. We are 1,000 feet off the deck un-roped, but calm and focused. 

Five feet from the summit spine we swim through sugar for five minutes and make no progress. Cut left to the western aspect. Cross the face. The snow is good and gives access to within three feet of the summit. The sun pops out for the first time in four hours as it nears the horizon. With an anchor set, I change over to my snowboard then drop into pink spines holding perfect snow. The crux is technical and sluffs fast, but the line is set up perfect with a double fall line on my toe edge. 

No Words for the Way Down is available in the TGR store right now.

The run lasts a long time before I re-cross the ‘schrund. I have to unstrap and run uphill. The restrap point is over a hole and I ride as far into the flats as my P-Tex will take me. It’s a 90-minute skin back to the saddle, then one final move in the dark: a 30-foot, 50-degree heelslide over a hole, then traverse above the ‘schrund and glide down the glacier. I take in the silhouette of the western peaks and the stars above. It is 10:45 p.m. 

At camp, Edmands’ birthday dinner is on the stove. Ryland greets me with soup. The stoke is there, but subdued. Everyone is spent. Anything that looks like it may be a “little weird” is very scary. Everything is bigger than it looks and takes twice as long as we think it will to climb. Three weeks in and I’m still getting caught off guard. 

We are surrounded by a massive mountain that holds the most uninhabitable/unnavigable terrain I have ever seen. Our camp is in the one semi-safe spot on the whole thing. I am having a hard time figuring out why the climb felt so heavy. Can I feel the energy of the no man’s land? Was it the ‘schrund? We were also breaking protocol. I do not like riding serious lines late in the day, let alone at sunset. If something goes wrong, rescue is not coming until the next day. 

We turn a pancake into a birthday cake and sing Edmands happy birthday. I am mentally and physically drained.

This is an excerpt from Jeremy Jones' No Words For The Way Down, a book that goes deep into Jeremy's mind-set throughout the six years of filming the Deeper, Further, Higher trilogy. Read excerpts from Jeremy's personal journal entries, see stunning, never before seen photographs, and access exclusive footage. Books are on sale now in the TGR Shop.

Thanks to our partners—Swatch, O'Neill and Clif Bar—for making this project possible!