Sam Anthamatten and Victor De Le Rue explore the wildest corner of Alaska, in search of the craziest spine walls to ski and snowboard. A bush pilot drops the small crew of 5 on a remote, unexplored glacier to establish a base camp. They attempt to conquer the spine walls by foot, in a series of ascents, each time always more committed. Narrator Jérôme Tanon explains from up close and personal, with honesty and a touch of sarcasm about what exactly is going on here. The film is aiming to get you to feel as if you were in their shoes and what it’s really like to surf such mountains; to understand what so called “free riders” are made of, and what could be the purpose and the beauty of “freeriding”.
This film was part of VIMFF 2023, VIMFF 2023 Tour and is no longer available for viewing.
Jérôme Tanon is 36 years old, was born in Paris and lives in Annecy. Jérôme has been a snowboard photographer since 2007. A couple of years in he switched from digital to shooting solely on film with old cameras. Self-taught, creative in the darkroom, his timeless and intimate creations are easily spotted, with a typical grain and black and white look. He is mostly known for his works with double exposures, silver-gelatin lith prints, bromoils and etchings. His photographs are exhibited regularly and published in snowboard magazines around the world. Besides his personal projects such as “Emperor” and “Singes”, in 2016 Jérôme released the self-produced documentary : “The Eternal Beauty Of Snowboarding”, an instant classic reaching millions of views on Youtube. His second film “Zabardast”, an epic freeride expedition in the Karakoram, was released in fall 2018, and also gave way to his first photo book. The multi-talented artist keeps working on what he loves without compromise. His latest work “Heroes” on women in snowboarding took two years to complete, with the publication of an art-book and upcoming art shows.
