It’s a common dream: Pack up everything you own, hit the road and embrace whatever comes. Take that grand adventure, the one where all is left behind, only to be built anew along the way. Perhaps it is our innate destiny, those intangible forces that drive us to seek new sights. When that idea sets in, there’s no escaping it. In this particular case, it was a snowboard movie shot entirely on film with my two best friends. It would take us around the world, from Salt Lake City north to Alaska, across the Pacific to Japan, and south to Patagonia. From freezing nights camped out by the dump in Cooke City, MT, to sleeping under the stars in the Argentine alpine, we had no plans, no timeline and no fixed address, but knew we would find our way to the right place at the right time. More than three years later, we had FREE.

EPIPHANY

FREE began on a long and desolate drive up the AlCan Highway in March 2012, en-route to Haines, AK. It was just me and Wyatt Stasinos in his worn but trusty gray 2001 Toyota Tundra. In the heart of the Yukon territory, we ate half-cooked freeze-dried meals while watching the sun set over a small Inuit village along a frozen river. The cold was almost debilitating. It was silent and tranquil, and we were content. We began to laugh, then howl like mad wolves. Why not continue this way of life that was beyond stress and regret?…

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Good things happen when you embrace the elements and take whatever comes. Nick Russell on the search in Chillán, Chile. Photo: Andrew Miller