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Jeremy Jones, always ready to shralp.


The Inertia

“The more I learn, the more I realize that I know nothing.” 

Socrates

That’s a quote that has been remixed by everyone from Shakespeare to Einstein, and even the band Slightly Stoopid. You can now add backcountry snowboarding legend Jeremy Jones to the list. However, instead of a simple quotable line, he penned a 290-page book sharing his earned wisdom in The Art of Shralpinism: Lessons From the Mountains.

The book is part memoir of the past 30-plus years as one of the world’s top pro snowboarders, part campfire stories of his adventures, and part handbook on how to shred the world’s toughest lines and come home afterward. “I wanted a really approachable book that you could dip in anywhere,” he told me. “I always envisioned it in that manner where there would be a bit of an arc to the book, but kind of told in different manners.” 

Thanks to color coding and his handwritten font, you get a sense of the flow and are able to compartmentalize the stories from not only himself, but from a laundry list of friends and cohorts. Everyone featured has rightfully earned their legendary status through slightly different methodology – but all share a common, deep passion for climbing and shredding the world’s biggest mountains, and thus are all by virtue some of the world’s top Shralpinists.

There are no experts in the mountains, but there’s no better scorecard than time. The longer someone has been doing this, the more respect I have for them. I watch them closely, ask questions, and listen. A track record matters in the mountains. But, even then, the mountains don’t care. Those who are still climbing and riding at 70 usually know what they’re doing. If I compare what I’ve learned from my dozens (and counting) of avy, medical, and mountaineering courses with what I’ve learned directly from mentors and riding partners, it’s not even close.

This is no textbook. And that’s because there’s no textbook method of interacting with an environment that is never the same, day to day, no matter what you read in a bulletin or had someone tell you in a course.

The Art of Shralpinism serves as a manual for those who learn by experience rather than a classroom. Truly, in essence we must all learn mountain sense in this way. To gain an understanding of the raw power and beauty of the mountains we must live with them, which fosters an instinct to peacefully coexist with them. 

The man can certainly shralp. Photo: Screenshot

No amount of reading can give us this instinct, indeed it must be earned through experience. But that is not to say that our tools can’t get sharper along that journey. “A person who aces the avy course isn’t necessarily the most effective Shralpinist,” Jeremy says. “It’s a great tool in the bag but there’s more to just knowing every fine detail of the snow crystals in terms of succeeding in the mountains.”

This is where the book shines. Jones helps elevate the base level of mountain awareness to a point where others after him can learn from the mistakes he and his contemporaries made along their journey, and hopefully empower the next generation of Shralpinists to go further down the road that they have paved.

Jones guides readers through his archive of journals, poetry, interviews, and lessons that can only be learned through the pain of mistakes. Coming from Mountaineers Books, which has published some of the world’s top technical manuals from Freedom of the Hills to The Avalanche Handbook, Jones’s book offers the other side of what it takes to be successful, which requires a whole lot more than book smarts.  

But it’s more than that. It’s a deeply personal account of his journey from his icy Massachusetts backyard to the pro race circuit, and on to new frontiers in Alaska, Nepal, and pretty much anywhere else we find big mountains with gnarly lines. And along the way you gain insight to what got him to where he is now, which boils down to mindset. He summarizes in the book: 

Embracing the journey, focusing on things in my control, accepting what I have no control over, acknowledging missteps, doing the best with the hand I am dealt, and focusing on the process not the end result — this is the essential mindset with serious Shralpinism.  

But beyond the poetic, philosophical angles, he features real-world lessons that include tragic outcomes. But he doesn’t dwell on the single mistake, but what led to it: 

“When there’s an accident in the mountains, we get caught up with berating that one missed call, which is understandable – but I think about what led to that missed call? What was the mindset that someone missed some signs — and often, it’s very educated people — missed some signs that maybe cost them their life.  And that’s the stuff I think hard about — that I’m going into the mountains and bringing that right mindset every day.” 

We chatted for close to an hour and I came to understand that his positioning comes as both a father and as a pro athlete in transition. Knowing full well that his biggest cliff-hucks are behind him, he wants to inspire the new generation (of which his kids are a part of) to keep looking out, to keep going for big lines, which he referred to as the “Wonderful Problem.” “There’s dozens upon dozens of the best lines in the world where they’ve never seen the step of a human before,” he said. “You finally work so hard to go stand on this line, and you get to the top of it, and then you look out and you see see 10 more, and the list actually get’s bigger.”  

You interviewed Hilaree Nelson in the book, who recently passed in the mountains. Is there anything that you would want to say about her now that she’s gone that wasn’t included in the book?

It was wild because I got the first copy of the book when she had gone missing. But I loved her words so much that I included more of her in the book than almost anyone. I’ve read that interview a bunch since she passed. And I think it’s a true interview, meaning I wouldn’t have changed it, and I don’t think she would have. Because she also…she knew she was…she was conflicted like so many of us — especially those of us with kids — are conflicted about… I still think she was operating at the highest level that she’s ever operated at in the mountains. And you know, unfortunately she was playing a super-serious game, and it cost her life. But she wasn’t totally naive to the dangers of what she was doing.

How would you sum up her legacy?

She was one of the best that I’ve ever been in the mountains with. Her ability to both suffer and her comfort with exposure, and her demeanor out there was incredible. And really kind in the mountains, too. Very helping, and really the ultimate partner. You know, she just had — at the root of it, there was this love for the mountains — these big, wild, crazy mountains. And they were deep down in her soul, and she just couldn’t stop. And she had a lot of time in the mountains, and it cost her her life. Bold, but humble – but also kind, and just so good at serious Shralpinism. 

Was there anything in the book that you wanted to have in there that someone said, “no, you shouldn’t — or can’t — print that?”

No, Mountaineers Books was really awesome to work with. They just helped facilitate my vision every step of the way. But the most discussion in finishing the book was when the editors kept trying to maybe dumb it down a little bit to a broader audience, and I kept going, ‘This is for that person waiting in the lift line for the mountain to open on a powder day, the people at the trailhead, these people where being in the mountains is a central part of their life.’

What could Shralpinism’s gift be to the world? 

There’s a lot of stuff on mindset that goes beyond the mountains. I think to be a good Shralpinist is so much more than how you make a turn and how you dig a snow pit. It requires a very grounded, open-minded, knowledge-seeking human. Those are traits we all want to see in society. 

What would you say is the essence of Shralpinism for people to take away from this book — the elevator pitch, if you will? 

It’s like, being really present, super tapped in with nature. The last page sums it up pretty well. ‘Sometimes bold, but always humble…’ You know, you should really just read that last page because it sums up what a good Shralpinist is, and those are traits that you’d want in all facets of life.

Editor’s Note: Purchase The Art of Shralpinism here.

 
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