I was pretty blown away by how vast and aggressive the terrain is in the Japanese Alps. You're looking up at peaks, and it's like Alaska seeing all kinds of amazing stuff that looks ridable, but it's 70 percent death defying; only a small percentage really goes.

I knew Shin [Biyajima] a little bit early on, but it's funny because where I really met Shin, and where he made a strong impression on me, was in Jackson Hole. I sledded back to a secret zone way deep in the Jackson backcountry to some freeriding. I got out there and followed some snowmobile tracks figuring it's just some snowmobilers.

When I finally got to go ride the mountains in Japan, it blew my mind.

There's no doubt 'normal' is changing - spring actually came a month early in Alaska, for example, and we had to stop filming.

I find I enjoy myself most on those days when it's just me and a couple close friends away from it all. True human interaction in a day when we are all spread so thin.

I've been to Japan so many times, but I still constantly stumble across things that are so foreign to me.

Now you're gonna take beatings. It's written in our DNA, you know. You're gonna go down. You get up, it's that simple.