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Snowboarding
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Jason Schutz goes to Peru!
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Jason Schutz is one of the most recognized extreme snowboarders on the planet. He has made lines all over the world, mountains that nobody thought that could be done. In this
short interview he talks
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about his experiences riding the peaks of the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca, in a trip that he recalls as the highlight of his life! Thanks for visiting Jason!
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Name: Jason SCHUTZ
Date of Birth: 02.08.69
Nationality: USA
Snowboards since: 1981
Other Interests: Kayaking, skateboarding, climbing, carpentry
Sponsors:
Arbor Snowboards, Da Kine, The North Face
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What was your best back country experience?
It would have to be a trip to Peru. I was down there about four or five years ago with Tom Burton, Jim Zellers and Tom Shay--who, to me are the grandfathers of
the sport. They are the soul of the sport. They always break the boundaries and show people what's possible. I saw this peak--about a 20,000-ft. p eak across the way--and it was about 60 degrees. It was the most aesthetically beautiful peak and
I was like, "We need to be over there." They were laughing at me as I'm hurling everywhere. We had a wonderful trip, and I ended up going back with that peak in mind. It had
been skied in the seventies. Down there, the glaciers are eroded because of the intensity of the sun and the ozone layers and stuff. It has become less and less possible to ski it, and nobody had ever ridden it. I
ended up goin' down there with a great, strong posse and doing a documentary. It was a total dream realized. It was eight people who had never really done anything together--skiers, snowboarders and
photographers--and it just meshed.
If you put your mind to it, anything is possible. When you have that much group coherence and focus! you can do f*cking anything. It was really cool. Not just the snowboarding, not just the life
experiences, the surfing, the trekking and meeting people, it was the huge learning process. I snowboarded and skied a 20,000 ft. peak. We spent like four hours on the summit waiting for it to clear. It was
one of those things where you climb it and then look down and say, "Can we really do this? Is it possible?" It was rad. That was the highlight, probably, of my life at this point.
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What about the first trip?
Peru was in quite a rough state of social and political unrest the first time I went. We got off the bus in Northern Chile because we had heard that people had been
shot. It's as real as it gets. The bus got shot up and stuff. It was crazy. That is the picture that people see of Peru. What they don't see is that it's no different from any other country. They are
real people, they're hard working, they're honest, they're open, they're
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expressive, you know, they have kids too. They do the best that they possibly can. It was definitely an eye-opener.
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Were you scared at all?
I'm never scared, just really blown away. Every day, every hour is a new experience. It makes you reflect on what we have and how lucky we are!are we really lucky? They
have a simple life down there. They're not caught up with cell phones and traffic--the machines that we have basically created. Their focus is their health, their families, making sure they have enough
to eat. When you look at it,
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what else is there? It changed the way I looked at traveling and snowboarding.
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