In the 1960s skiers began to wonder if some of the classic climbing faces could be skied. Sylvain Saudan, qualified as both instructor and as a high mountain guide and one of the original extreme skiers pioneered many of these routes. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1936 Saudan grew up near the tiny village of Verbier where he skied to school during the winter.
During his travels he was increasingly drawn towards the backcountry and descents of previously unskied slopes. Nicknamed The Skier of the Impossible he put up a first descent of the direct 45 degree line of the Couloir Sans Nom on the face of the Rothorn in the spring of 1967.
This was just the start. The following year the Couloir Whymper on the Auguille Verte and the Couloir Gervasutti on the Mont-Blanc du Tacul fell. To ski at angles of more than 50 degrees Sylvain realised that normal parallel jump turns were not practical. In the period of free fall the skier picks up too much speed to control his descent and at altitude they are too tiring. Instead Sylvain developed the windscreen wiper turn where the skier turns on the backs of the skis. Armed with these skills Saudan skied the couloir Marienelli on the Monta Rosa and the North West face of the Aiguille de Bionnassay in 1969.
Saudan’s tentative first curves on the Bionnassay
In the early 1970s the south west face of the Eiger, the south face of the Grandes Jorasses and the couloir of the Tournette on the south west side of Mont-Blanc all fell to Saudan. Then in the winter of 1971 he was invited to The Meadows ski area in North America. The technical director thought he might be interested in Mount Hood. This 3419 meter volcano, flanked by 8 glaciers and situated just 175km from the Pacific coast and its weather systems, had only been climbed 20 years before. Now Saudan was considering a descent by a challenging couloir on the Northeast side where nobody had yet set foot.
On the 3rd of March, after two weeks of delay the weather cleared and a helicopter was called. Meadows had already received over 17 meters of snow and a climb was impossible. The small, two seater Bell, finally arrived at three in the afternoon. The pilot had been busy with a film production on the coast. Sylvain climbed aboard. “We’ll try to go up, but there’s not much chance, too much wind”, the pilot screamed over the noise of the rotors. The flight gave Saudan his first good look at the couloir.
The first couloir was 300 meters long but the descent was blocked by cliffs, Sylvain had to traverse to a second couloir. But he entered too high. On the diamond hard ice there was no chance to turn or even make a conversion, he would have to back up. Digging the edges of his over 2 meter long skis as hard as he could, his pole tips barely gripping, the operation took the best part of 30 minutes. To reach the second couloir Sylvain once again had to cross this icy trap then below him the slope opened up, 1500 meters of vertiginous descent to Clark Canyon.
In 1982 Saudan descended from the top of the 8068 meter Gasherbrum I in the Himalayas. Today he runs Himalaya Heliski based in Srinagar offering heliskiing trips in Kashmir region.
Sylvain Saudan, Skieur de l’impossible, Paul Dreyfus, published by Arthaud in France, 1970
