It’s now been almost two weeks since we were in Stubai to ride and review 15 great snowboards (more about that later this week!). One of our riders in Stubai was Seb Jam, a French former pro snowboarder is also a gifted filmmaker. A while back Seb, together with his girlfriend, the Dutch snowboarder, digital nomad, travel blogger etc Myrte van Dijk (also a recent addition to the GearLimits crew) went on a very cool splitboarding adventure in the high mountains of Mongolia. Accompanied by Dutch boarders Stephan Verheij and Rens de Wild, they met, among others, Munk Ghund and Battulha Woogie, two Mongolian boarders. Together they climbed some wild and high peaks and made challenging descents. Gorgeous views, the crazy Mongolian throat singing, broken boards and an insight into how Mongolians looks at the mountains.
“It takes four days of travel to reach the untouched mountains of the Mongolian Altai. Before setting one step on the glacier that leads towards the lines that have never seen a snowboard before, you need four different flights, a Russian Furgon van for a seven-hour drive and a bunch of camels carrying your base camp while hiking up a five-hour long trail. At least, that’s the scenario in the long run, because time has a different meaning on this side of the world.”
Some visitors of the Freeride Film Festival felt that there was not enough snowboard action. But it is not an action edit, but a film about a journey to another world, and a journey into a different culture. And about how these cultural differences are transcended by travelling together and riding together creating a mutual bond and understanding that goes beyond language and culture.
The 25-minute film that they produced now runs at various film festivals. It can’t be viewed online yet.
Among other things, it was shown in the beginning of November at the recent Freeride Film Festival in Tuschinski (where we saw it). But there are more dates and places where the film is running. In the meantime, Seb is also busy with submission to other festivals in spring 2018.
For now we can enjoy the beautiful trailer. But as soon as the complete film is available somewhere, we’ll let you know.
Compliments to Seb, Mirte and all riders on a brilliant film.
