Sylvain Saudan inspired a generation of young skiers before the term “freeride” existed. He was also the first to complete a ski descent down an 8,000m peak, Gasherbrum I. He died last Sunday at 87.
Those familiar with this true adventurer may doubt this sad news — not surprisingly, since Saudan was supposed to have died several times before. A block of ice fell on his tent on Dhaulagiri, killing two partners. A plane he was in crash-landed on Monterosa, in the Italian Alps.
Years later, he led a heli-tour in the Indian Himalaya when the helicopter crashed. Saudan was 71 at the time. The media announced the crash as fatal, but Saudan escaped unharmed. He was fit enough to lead his clients on skis away from the crash site. When they made it safely out, he read his own obituaries.
“I am one of the rare people who already knows what will be written about me after my death,” The Financial Times quoted him as saying.
It thus seems almost odd that, when the end came, he was peacefully at home.
Pioneer extreme skier
Saudan’s reputation did not come from his brushes with death but from his extreme ski descents. If 50º is still considered steep today, imagine that angle with the material and techniques of the 1960s.
Saudan was raised near Verbier, Switzerland. Like nearly every child in the area, he learned to ski at a very young age and soon became a ski instructor. However, he eventually far surpassed his colleagues in skill and daring. In 1967, he skied down local couloirs and faces that were so outrageous it prompted his neighbors and fellow skiers to say, “That’s impossible” — hence his nickname.
For a time, he went from stunt to stunt. He even trained on rock and pebble slopes, claiming that if he could ski on such a surface, he could ski on any kind of snow. Check the video below.
In 1967, two 45º descents in the Alps were his way of training for his first great feat: the 55º degree Couloir Spencer on the Aiguille de Blaitière in the Mont Blanc massif. More dramatic descents in the Alps, North America, and the Himalaya followed. In Pakistan’s Karakoram in 1982, he achieved his most famous descent: Gasherbrum I.
It was not only the first complete ski descent of an 8,000’er. At the time, it was also the longest 50º degree slope anyone had ever skied. The descent required that Saudan link 3,000 meters of jump-turns, a technique he invented that revolutionized steep, narrow ski descents.
