3456 feet

To fight one’s way hundreds of meters up a mountain for hours long only to ride down for a few seconds—that might just sound crazy to some people. For a snowboarder, it can be a way to take a first step against today’s environmental crisis. Between the desire to achieve something and the actual accomplishment lies the pathway to get there. It may be short or long. For a snowboarder, this journey can mean 3456 feet. An apparently insignificant altitude difference, which is not realized in lightning speed by some resource-intensive machine. An altitude difference that must be surmounted with one’s own strength. This is done quite consciously, to descend the mountain only one time. To summit only one time, and thereby feel and respect nature’s rhythm.

Production
RIDE GREENER is an association of avid snowboarders and skiers who promote climate friendly snowboarding and skiing as well as environmentally conscious conduct in the mountains. Advancing global warming and its related negative consequences for the mountains and our sport is causing us great concern. We wish to show how, in simple ways, you can minimize your CO2 footprint and stop the trend towards snow-poor winters.

Filming
During filming, great care was taken to limit CO2 emissions to an absolute minimum. Flights, helicopters, and snowmobiles were never used.

Produced and directed by
Ride Greener

Edited by
Matthias Berger and Christoph Gerber

Filmed by
David Doom
shadowplayfilms.eu

Stephan Hermann
Philipp Eyer
coupdoeil.ch

Music
"Wolf Song"
by Stepehen Bartolomei
freemusicarchive.org

Featured Rider:
Ride Greener and Patagonia and Jones Snowboard Ambassador Sten Smola has been journeying to the Alps for over 15 years, using mainly public transportation, and summiting countless peaks on foot. He consciously refrains from flying around the world to chase the everlasting snow. In doing so, he makes his own very modest contribution not to further accelerate global warming.