Growing up on Cape Cod, it may seem unusual that young Jeremy Jones gravitated towards sliding on snow. But family ski outings led to his passion for snowboarding. Today, Jones is one of the world’s most well known names in big mountain snowboarding. 

But as he saw his season shortened and glaciers receding, he decided to fight back. He started Protect Our Winters in 2007, uniting skiers and snowboarders in the fight against climate change. Today, POW has become a driving force for systemic change.

While Jones finds his true home in the mountains, he has become comfortable in Washington, speaking to Congress and advocating for legislation. His background in storytelling and film has led him to pushing his message out in features like the 2020 release of Purple Mountains.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll learn in this episode of Last Chair with Jeremy Jones.

Jeremy you’re one of the planet’s most well-known big mountain riders. How did it all begin?

My parents fell in love with the mountains later in life, and they basically started dragging my brothers and I. We grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. We would go up to Vermont, where my grandfather had a house (Stowe). I think that it's probably just the creativity of it and that connection with nature and it's always changing, you know, just overtook my life and still has to this day.

What first triggered your awareness of climate change?

As a teen, I remember that we always had a newspaper at the table in the morning. I saw global warming in the paper and I was like, ‘I don't like the sounds of that.’ At that point I was snowboarding the golf courses on Cape Cod, and I'm like, ‘why doesn't it snow anymore? It always piqued my interest because I never liked the sounds of global warming.

How is Protect Our Winters making a difference?

At Protect Our Winters we only have so much energy, so we have to focus on the big levers. Large scale CO2 reduction needs to happen through policy. We're not going to recycle our way out of this climate mess is the reality. And that's why we focus our attention at Protect Our Winters on policy. It’s understanding who your elected officials are, what their stance is on climate.

Check out more with Jeremy Jones on Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast presented by High West Distillery on your favorite podcast platform. Subscribe to get first access to every episode.