The Art of Flight Page #2

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- I know you don't know.

We'd have to look at it. We'd have to look at it, of course.

Maybe this is a very big river. I don't know, I don't know.

The only problem is that there's absolutely no backup if some thing happens.

The first thing,

we follow through with our plan that the pilot has approved.

Don't forget I am in f***ing charge of what's going on here.

Then let's go get tons of fuel and go here.

What planet the f*** are you from?

After a long discussion, we decided to try.

It's 6:
00 a.m. and we finally have no wind.

This is some of the gnarliest weather that I've ever dealt with.

We are going to...

..one of the sketchiest areas down in the southern tip.

Really variable weather conditions.

It can change like that.

We have 40 minutes of working fuel once we are out to the Darwin Range

and it's gonna take an hour to get there.

But he's not gonna shut the helicopter down and It's gonna be a time crunch.

It's a strange thing, you know,

the first time we laid eyes on Darwin.

It was a real just position of

the surrounding terrain -- mountains

to this iced-over island.

You know, there is just this ominous feeling that hangs over the whole place.

So when they first decided to shoot,

I was saying:
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Looks pretty gnarly right there.

I think these clouds are moving pretty quick.

All right, guys, we're already running low on fuel here.

We're gonna have to get this going.

Are you ready?

I think we'll be ready in about...

..maybe 5 minutes.

Sh*t, man, there goes the f***ing sun.

Keep quick.

OK, we're just about out of fuel, here.

All right, copy.

Step. Can you make it to my step?

Right here. hold on.

And there was quite a deep river,

where they need to swim,

this very cold, chilly water,

to get to the helicopter.

Oh, good job, guys.

That was very interesting.

Oh, man, that was heavy.

Feel like we just got away with murder.

Just to ski here, to snowboard here,

to do one line, to ski one line here in this incredible place,

that's what we live for.

Even sometime you are suffering and you say:

"This is the last time I will do that."

But after this feeling passes,

you are wondering what will be the next.

Home.

It's good to be home.

Yeah, it's powerful here.

I've seen a thousand times, but...

I still try to see it anew every time I come back.

Right on the edge of the biggest volcanoes in the world,

it's lively, it's electric.

I've dedicated a big part of my life to riding here.

Now this place is a part of me as much as I am a part of it.

I don't think I've ever approached a winter like I have this year.

You've got the time and effort to put in, the right crew,

this is the best backcountry park in the world.

In my short 28 years in Jackson,

I've never seen a winter like this.

Conditions of all-time.

These are the days we kill for.

Why'd he do that?

Dude, I took a trunk down with me!

Yeah!

I took a piece down, I didn't...

I thought I just bounced off it, I didn't realize I broke it.

Yes!

I don't even know what's going on right there, man.

I saw him flipping, a tree snapping.

That was chaotic.

Let's go!

Help!

Help!

Oh, guys, help!

Travis, we need you down here.

How does my jaw look?

I hit my head really hard.

Yeah, just relax for a second, bud. We'll get you out of here.

Don't lie to me. How do I look?

I think I broke my jaw. I bit my tongue.

I hit my head, hit hard.

I'm... ringing. I just want to get the fuckout of here, dude.

I wanna go.

Advil, Advil, I need some Advil. Do you have any Advil?

I've got Vicodin in my bag up top.

Can somebody go get it?

Maybe just hold off on that.

Let's just get the f*** out.

Oh, it can be such a love-hate relationship.

I need to throw up.

You know, it's basically you against yourself.

You know, unfortunately, injury is sometimes a part of what we do.

So, this is the 3-D reconstruction of your CAT scao.

You know, you're gonna take beatings.

It's written in our DNA, you know. You go down,

you get up. That simple.

Gnarly.

What the f*** are we doing?

This is a heavy-ass f***ing jump, man.

For sure.

North,

every year, as the snow melts,

we start our migration up to British Columbia.

Everything we do is dictated by the weather and snow conditions.

Sometimes you get it good and sometimes you don't.

This year, we have been hearing

that Canada was having some of the worst avalanche conditions in history.

But conditions can change quickly

and we knew the only way we were gonna get any real data was

by going up and setting foot on slope ourselves.

Nelson traffic, C-golf-Yankee-golf-kilo.

Yeah, we're going to Gold Range, guy.

Most of the landings up there are around 9,000 feet.

Our fuel is a little heavy coming out of Nelson,

but by the time we get up there, it should just work out about right.

The fog around here and the clouds and everything

is just very unpredictable.

and just rolling in and out the entire time.

It's really weird.

I've never really seen this type of fog that we encountered.

We're up pretty high on a ridge

and we were just scoping out some lines.

You know, the bad spirit coming in, you know, like those movies, like...

That stuff is coming straight up valley.

We decided to pull off because the fog was coming in and coming in higher.

It wasn't a shut-down location.

I was worried about going over backwards above a huge cliff.

I don't know what that drop off would've been, probably maybe 400 feet.

Sheer rock. There was no snow on it.

I want four guys sitting on the front skids here.

I'm pretty scared shitless sitting down here.

Here we are in this ice fog

laying on the heli, keeping the thing from slipping off the ridge.

Okay, I want you guys to tie this thing down, too,

as soon as he's finished up.

He climbed on top of his helicopter

with a shovel handle.

I've never seen ice like this, man.

Just banging on his blades.

It was a scary moment. We didn't know if Ken was going to make it.

I'm gonna be almost straight up and turning it out.

Everybody untie the machine.

Get this thing rolling.

Once I'm at 100%, let go of the machine.

Roger. I'm doing this solo.

Do you need some spot?

You know what, close the door for me and we'll totally get ready.

And he was supposed to give us a nod or something

if it was good to go?

There was no nod at all.

Ken made it out and so did we.

He picked us up 20 minutes later like nothing happened.

We all have our boards ready to go

and the helicopter just comes in,

blades are spinning a couple of feet away from the slope.

The whole basket, the whole door is just in the air.

And below us are those cliffs.

Just the nose barely touching to the slope.

You get that helicopter go kuh-kuh,

you know, you are dead.

We didn't realize what we were on top of

until we actually lifted off.

It was a bad situation that could get a lot worse.

In the mountains,

learning from your mistakes can be

extremely costly.

You just never know when it's gonna happen.

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