For two decades, the Swiss skier tackled some of the most difficult mountain faces around the world. “If you are afraid,” he said, “it’s over.”
A view of the Tete Blanche snow field below the Dent d'Herens mountain, in the background left, in the Swiss Alps, near Sion, Switzerland, Monday, March 11, 2024.
“There’s really only one way out: Don’t fall down,” he wrote in the 1970 book “Skieur de l’impossible,” co-authored by French journalist Paul Dreyfus. To cope with the pitch of the mountains, Saudan developed a style of leaning back on his skis to slow his speed while swiveling his ski tips in what he called “windscreen wiper turns.” He streamlined his ski boots to remove sections that could bump against the steep slopes, and he added ultra-strong bindings capable of handling high stresses without popping open.
In 1979, he set off for Nepal in hopes of starting a ski run from above 8,000 meters, or nearly 26,247 feet. On the Dhaulagiri massif, his team reached 7,600 meters before their planned push toward the summit. A sudden storm closed in, he recounted. Winds ripped at their tents.
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