The Fourth Phase

[WOMAN WHISPERING] All around you.

[WIND BLOWING]

[CELESTIAL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]

TRAVIS RICE:
To seek is not

to be content with where one is.

To seek is to fantasize

that there is more.

I am a seeker.

[MUSIC]

PROFESSOR:
We all learn that

water has three phases.

The solid state, the liquid state,

and also the vapor state.

You can't explain

all the known properties of water

with three phases alone,

you need a fourth phase.

As children we have this natural

tendency to explore.

And then we go to school and we

have to give the right answer.

This has a tendency to squeeze out of us

the truth-seeking nature

that comes as a human being.

[MUSIC]

Because of the institutionalized

nature of science,

scientists have become more hesitant

to challenge perceived truth.

[CRACKING]

If we want to get to real truth,

we have to dig down beneath the foundations.

[WIND BLOWING]

[MUSIC]

[PANTS]

[MUSIC]

[MUSIC]

Yes!

Yes!

[BOTH EXCLAIMING]

That was beautiful, man.

- We stomped?

- Yeah.

F***, yeah, dude.

Oh!

[MUSIC]

TRAVIS:
There is absolutely

an art to building jumps.

Excavating efficiency,

structure, architectural sanity.

It's kinda like our arts and crafts,

to do the trajectories right,

do the transition...

- It looks sweet, it's just...

- ...not too much compression.

A little bit of late pop.

Building jumps, man.

That's what we do and we do it well.

I think we can do this in three hours.

PAT MOORE:
Working with Travis is kinda

like banging your head against the wall

over and over,

until eventually

your brains spill out. [LAUGHS]

It's a pleasure building jumps

with you in the backcountry, Pat.

It's a pleasure working for you.

[BOTH LAUGHING]

["IRON SWAN" PLAYING]

Welcome to Wyoming!

Better act accordingly.

[MUSIC]

[MUSIC PAUSES]

[MUSIC]

[WHISPERING] Got to whisper right now

'cause I can't talk too loud.

He's getting excited.

[MUSIC]

MAN:

It's crazy to think it's been 11 years

since Travis brought me out to

the backcountry, that first time.

He's just kinda,

like a older brother to me,

always pushing me a little bit further.

Just gave me the glimpse

of what was possible.

[MUSIC]

[MUSIC]

BRYAN IGUCHI:

Business as usual, man, [LAUGHS]

blowing my minds the first time

we went out on his jump.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]

BRYAN IGUCHI:

Travis and I definitely share this path.

It's kind of a migration

based on hydrology.

TRAVIS RICE:
I was just obsessed

with the processes of nature.

I remember, as a kid,

watching people surfing,

the water, how good it felt to play...

I realized that the storms that were

providing this great surf would provide

amazing snow in the mountains.

I had this epiphany.

I was dedicating my life to this process.

It's just like a natural instinct,

there's something primitive,

something that goes a little bit deeper

than just playing or just riding.

The laws of nature are the most

powerful laws in existence.

[INSPIRATIONAL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]

TRAVIS:
Water evaporates...

Clouds form...

Life begins.

The snowstorm atop high peaks...

falls heavy...

settles...

melts...

flows through tributaries,

streams...

into rivers...

and finds the sea...

then returns to the air.

This process we follow,

this cycle we ride.

["WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE" PLAYING]

Travis!

# Where #

# Do we go from here? #

Yea, Guch.

Excitement and discovery is, like,

the best thing about being out here.

You can't do it all in a lifetime.

Dude, I think that's an arch.

It looks like it goes.

What do you think on approach?

So coming up the same way we went

and then just hike up

that ridge down all the way.

MAN ON WALKIE-TALKIE:

Travis, are you ready?

TRAVIS:
Ready.

# Where #

# Do we go from here? #

# Oh #

# Where #

# Do we go from here? #

# Oh #

# Where #

TRAVIS:
Bryan Iguchi showed me a lot more

than just how to kick out a method.

You know, he handed down the modus

operandi, a certain way of living.

He is the humble master.

I had a vision of what the potential

of snowboarding could become,

and he realized it.

Travis became the snowboarder

I always wanted to be.

Here we are.

We're about 11,400 feet,

continental divide.

Beautiful spring day.

So basically, the snow

that falls on this side,

melts out, flows down into the Gulf

of Mexico and on into the Atlantic.

Then the snow on this side flows

into the Pacific, and around she goes.

# Come on #

Ooh, dawg.

# Ooh... #

# Oh #

# Where #

# Do we go from here? #

# Where #

# Ooh... #

# Do we go from here? #

# Where #

# Do we go from here? #

BRYAN:
Travis took this idea

about the hydrological cycle

and turned it into this epic journey.

TRAVIS:
This hydrological cycle,

it's easy to just write it off as, well,

that's the weather.

We steal a lot of the magic

from things that we give names to.

It's this beautiful,

choreographed cycle of life.

If you were standing on the moon

looking back at Earth,

at one point during the day,

you're looking at a blue planet.

The ocean traps the sun's heat energy

and turns it into a solar engine.

A system of ocean currents

called the North Pacific Gyre

moves in a clockwise direction, driven

by wind and the rotation of the Earth,

distributing this heat energy

around the planet.

This helps fuel the storms

that drive our winters.

I realized, by combining my love of

the ocean with my love of the mountains,

it might be possible to actually follow

the flow around the North Pacific,

travel with the water that melts down

from the Continental Divide,

sail with it as it sweeps

across the ocean,

and turns into the snow

that blankets Japan.

The cycle swings up and tears

past the Kamchatka peninsula,

and then finally banks into the catcher's

mitt that forms the Gulf of Alaska.

These charged weather systems coming off

the ocean hit these coastal mountains,

which ring out precipitation

like a sponge,

creating some of the most incredible

snow formations on the planet.

The most extreme example of this is in

the zone in AK we named, "So Far Gone. "

[CAMERA CLICKING]

I've never seen a place like this before.

The way this snow sticks to the mountains

creates these pillowed spine lines

that are totally sci fi.

Since the first time I saw it

I haven't stopped thinking about it.

The whole area has ice up high

that forms these natural kickers.

It's subtle, but this allows you

to do tricks you couldn't pull off

in a normal AK style line.

I look at mountains

and I ride them in my mind.

The possibilities for progression mother

nature has provided here, it's unparalleled.

This area is so remote, we have to camp,

and because it's protected wilderness,

we can't use helis.

We have to hike.

It's a purely human-powered mission.

GUCH:
Once Travis has an idea in his head,

it's really hard for him to let it go.

I think the only thing

Travis is afraid of is failure.

[MUSIC]

It's incredible...

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