The North Face® presents Degrees North

On Mar 4, 2015 The North Face® explorers and big mountain freeriders, Xavier De Le Rue (France), Sam Anthamatten (Switzerland), and Ralph Backstrom (USA), will be embarking on the final leg of their two-year expedition, Degrees North, in search of steep angles in Svalbard and Alaska. This expedition is a project driven by the team’s will to explore—exploring places no one has ever seen before, exploring new ways of riding through new terrain, and exploring new ways to document it all.

Starting at the Port of Seward, the team will hunt for progressive terrain with high riding potential by boat– a 43-foot Delta Charter Vessel nicknamed “The Viking”. The team has scouted potential zones to explore with Google Earth and recognition flight during their preparation, and these areas are accessible only by boat and shore. As the team aims to fully utilize the unique landscape of Alaska, they focused their search on places where they can freeride peaks with the ocean in the background, and ski spines that dive into the water. Aside from exploring peninsulas and islands by boat in March, the team will also venture inland in April to ski new and untouched terrain.

To document the pioneering foray into uncharted parts of Alaska with a fresh and innovative perspective, the team will be paragliding with dual paramotors, and using long-range drones to capture 4K cinematography.

De Le Rue visualizes the upcoming journey perfectly–“Riding a 50° spine above the mysterious Alaskan sea in the morning, and catching a wave in the 3°C water in the afternoon, it is all degrees of the north.”

For more information, please visit: www.thenorthfacejournal.com/degrees-north