Deeper....

Deeper is definitely the word. Two weeks ago, Jeremy Jones showed up with his filmer Chris in Bruson Switzerland to film the last segment of their season. The goal of that mission was quite unclear, ride some steeps, use no heli, sleep in the mountains.... As I arrived on saturday morning with my daughter from the Pyrenees, I did not know what to expect from that trip. The weather was pretty unsure for the next few days and after discussing the whole situation, it seemed that all obvious options had to be done with at least one overnight in a refuge. No way we could get that first window on the next morning. Fair enough, we decide to go climbing in 'La fully » that nice big boulder facing one of our projects: 'L'aiguille de la Mone ». That face looked big but totally doable in terms of conditions. At five o'clock, as it's time to go home, we look up one more time and decide that there is no way to seat around and miss that short but good window. We're gonna go for it, and in the worse case we won't make the summit.... that's not the end of the world... At least, we're gonna start getting things going.

Three hours later, after a rich swiss diner, we leave our car all geared up. We're all excited with the mission... it's 10 o'clock and we have 9 hours ahead of us to get to the top of the run at 7 in the morning.  I'm not going to mention that we got lost around the car for over an hour until we found the right trail, but we finally got to find it and get things going. It's amazing how time goes by quickly when you climb at night. Our rythm is great and after 6 hours of hiking, the sun starts to give the first colors far on the horizon. We finally reach the base of our face, it's just gorgeous. Enormous galciers surround us and as we keep on hiking, and going over Bergshrungs and crevasses to reach the final big hanging snowfield, we get enchanted by this most incredible sun rise painting us with pretty much all the colors of a rainbow. We get to the top a little later than expected, around 8 o'clock. Jeremy gets to see what the Alps can offer in terms of steep riding at this time of the year. We are surrounded by the most incredible panorama. Bassin d'Argentiere, Triolet, Mont Dolent, Aiguille Verte.... And l' »aiguille de la Mone » that's standing under our feet...

The ride is amazing. At that time of the year, snow conditions become way easier to read and to trust and really allow you to enjoy safely these kind of exposed runs. It feels great... Mission #1 is accomplished, the trip starts right away with an epic adventure. When we reach the car at 10 am and that the clouds start to cover the face, we can feel really thankfull that the mountain didn't shut us down. There's gonna be two days of bad weather, two days to rest from that big first one...and all that with a big smile on our faces.

Our Next mission is gonna be on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. The Benedetti couloir on the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey. That line has been riden once in 1977 by Mr Benedetti him self, and has never been riden by any one since then. It's quite rare to have such an impresive and obvious steep line that hasn't been riden much in the Chamonix area. We are about to find out the reason why. The first day of access to the hut is already a mission in it self. From the punta Helbronner, above Courmayeur, we get to split for around two hours accross the glacier to reach la Combe Maudite and this big range of « small » couloirs below the famous Kufner ridge, one of them giving access to the our hut, the Bivouac de la Fourche. At the bottom of the couloir, Jeremy, fanfan and I get to cross the bergshrung and start hiking in the steep when we hear that woom noise. It takes us a few seconds to realize that Chris just disapeared into the crevasse. The reality of the high Alpine strikes us and brings us back to reality. Chris is safe, and shortly out of the whole, but we just got to be reminded that no rules have to be forgotten up there. Being happy and all motivated, we've started that climb without all the needed attention and right away we get this (luckily with no consequences) huge slap in our faces. It's just the begining. And it appears that this area is really wild and demanding, especially at this time of the year. It's incredible how strongly we've had had these signals that reminded us that there is no way relax up here until we would get our foot into the actual cable car. Between huge hanging seracs, slabs, bergshungs, falling stones, crevasses, corniches.... there's been messages all the way. We've had to be 100 percent focused on what we were doing as well as on the environnement surounding us. We finaly get to that hut and it's definitely mystical. it's basicaly a little box hanging on a rock that is supposed to be able to « lodge » 12 people lying, .... 8 people beeing already almost too much, but anyways we didn't get the chance to test that limit. At 3 o'clock when we got out of it for our first attempt, it's been really cool to start the day ( night) with a rappel in the dark with the board on the back, crampons ice axes... At the end of the rope we would land into this 45 degres icy couloir. Pretty interesting to ride that in the middle of the night. Slide sleep would be more of an appropriate word for  the technique in that passage. After crossing the big Brenva Glacier and all the hanging glaciers, we quickly got to realize that less and less stars would shine upon us and that slowly the clouds were getting stuck on the Mont Blanc above us. By the time the sun would rise, those few clouds became a snow storm.... retreat was the only option. The next few days would be bad and going up in bad weather was not an option. Out there, the way back is pretty much a mission too. Between steep mixed climbing, decending an icy couloir and crossing these exposed glaciers... it's only a good five hours later that we get to the torino hut, ready for our descent to the valley. After three days up there, that face is definitely a major goal for us. We've studied it under all possible angles, we know all the accesses, the timing the conditions, all we got to do is to get it right. In that period, Jeremy and I got to feel quite confortable about riding that face, all the mission around it became less and less mysterious for us and seemed totaly doable. After that bad weather, we got to face a really hot south weather getting us to postpone such a big project. We still chose a two days period to get up there and ride some smaller lines in the Combe Maudite. As sonn as we start accessing the goods, La Tour Ronde area becomes more or less our zone. Our first run is a quite open 300 meters face with the usual nice open bergshrung at the bottom. At the top we get to climb our first pieces of blue glacier ice. It's good to be in more human sized runs, and definitely a great way to feel the atmosphere and get used to cruse around up there. Jeremy and I start to get well connected in the mountains and we get to have the time to rallye up the Gervasutti couloir on the west face of the Tour Ronde right after that. 450 meters of a nice long straight couloir. By the time we reach the summit, snow is falling, but the visibiliyty in the couloir is still great...  and so is the ride. Our first run together on nice firm and soft corn snow, really enjoyable...

The next day aims us towards the North Face of the Tour Ronde. Jeremy is not really confident about it but once more, it seems to be adequate to start hiking and see on the way up if we reached our limit or if the conditions start to be critical. The middle part of the face is a steeper blue ice section needing ice screws and proper belayed climbing. Jeremy is really stocked to get to discover all these new alpine mixed climbing techniques, and when we get to the top to get the board on our feet, it seems more than comfortable to ride down that face. After a few hours the whole ascent has gone more than smoothly and it's great to be at the top of the run and know exactly what you're gonna get on your way down, definitely something we don't have when we hit these big faces with a heli. 

At that time, the Italian couple we passed on the steeper section is still hanging on the ice bellow us in the middle of the face, and it seems that Chamonix on the week end makes these pics quite busy when you start to see all these roped up teams showing up from all different directions... After some discussions and being able to get infos from the film team that these guys are well protected on the belay, I  get to ride and reach  these two Italians, that finaly (after discussion and help) decided to turn back and not keep challenging that big snowfield leading to the top in the middle of the afternoon of one of the hottest days in the month. It was quite difficult to see how stuborn and most of all not at their place on that day these guys were. 5 hours to climb half of the face and wanting to continue at twelve oclock on the warmest day.... They were not happy that I made them turn back, but I'm glad I did...

Anyways, La tour Ronde is standing in our back now. It's been great to get that piece of run and climb behind us and the Benedetti couloir seems to be the next objective.These two days definitely got us more confortable and prepared to go and hit the big one. It's been definitely a great thing for both of us to process that way slowly but surely. It seems quite obvious to us that as soon as we step into our boards we have absolutely no problem to feel confortable in these steep runs even if the conditions are not perfect. The combination of a good front side edge with the two ice axes is definitely rock solid. It's been an option not to use a rope on the way down and straight line the piece of ice but that whole dealing with the italian made us want to go down and maybe not challenge the whole thing too much. That North face is quite impressive when you look at it from the front but it's still way easier to get down there surely than to hit some wicked film lines with big jumps high speed and tons of pow.... As stupid as it sounds it's a good thing to feel as it is pretty much super important to kow your possibilities when you get into the steeps.

Looking back towards these two days, it seems that it's been great to get these into the process to go back to la Blanche de Peuterey and that we're gonna benefit a lot from that time spent up there.

A few days later, that colderfront shows up, after a pooring thunderstorm. It seems to be the window that we've been looking for. We get to reappeat the whole process to get to the hut. The whole film crew is really well dialed up and fully independant to capture the run on the next early morning day. Same thing, an hour later this time because of the colder conditions. At 4 o'clock, the sky is cloud less and everything seems to be lined up to get to our goal. When at 7 we start to climb the final steeper pitch of the face, we realize that the 50 km/h north wind that's blowing on the face and that's gonna intensify through out the day is unabling the snow to soften up. It's been snowing less than what we thought and that old snow won't defreeze today. Jeremy and I still see the descent possible. Snowboarding is a great tool in the steeps, especially with ice axes, but at that point, there's no way to split up the team. The out run is pretty much the sketchiest open glacier  and we'll have to stay the three of us till we get to the dry valley floor. The vibe between us becomes strange at that point.  Everything looked great up to then but suddently that weird feeling comes when fana fan starts to  doubt big time on the evolution of the conditions. It's really hard to take decisions but after a while,  we choose a more « tranquille » option and the col de Peutery becomes our B plan. Way less interesting, the snow is kind of brownish but it seems that within a small hour we should be able to reach the summit and get ready to ride. The way out of that zone is really exposed and as time goes by it seems that this easier option becomes the only reasonable option. Everything seems clean but on our way up I get hit on the arm by a flying stone and we all three get to barely avoid that slushy slide that's descending in our way. At that point, it's already 11 in the morning and it becomes clear that we should head down. Too many signs play against us and since we've given up our main objective, the motivation is definitely not the same any more. The way down is by far the most radical open glacier run I've ever gone through. Until we get through these two really chunked up portions, we don't know if we're really gonna be able to make it through. After crossing this huge mined serac field, we get to ride... descend... roped up over all these whole and below these exposed slopes to reach the bottom of one of the most impressive glaciers in the whole area. Quite an adventure. When we get out of the ice, the first thing that comes to our mind is of course a little regret. Sooooo close.... It's hard to say no in the mountains especially when you get to feel the whole thing really possible and that no real obvious sign get you to turn back. It is still obvious that we could have done it, but it also appears clearly thatin a long term perspective you wanna have such a grandiose line in good conditions before you get to hit it and have the whole team fully ready to commit to it. You can always go for it and most of the time get away with it, but at the end of the day, Jeremy and I feel right... We didn't force it. We tried hard, but not too hard. And as basic as it sounds, we got down in one piece, knowing that this pretty lady would still be there in the future and that we'd still be there as well to go and get aquinted with her.... Two hours later, as we called Anselme Baud to share a moment for an interview to hear about his long term steep skiing experience I get the news that one of my very good friends and one of the strongest female snowboarder in the world, Karine Ruby just died falling 20 meters into a  crevasse after her two clients next to the Tour Ronde. It's just incredible, her, on that totally armless glacier roped up, disppearing like that so suddently when we get to go, at the same time, through the one of the worse places in the whole area. There's definitely a message there, but at the same time we just don't know what to think any more. So much beauty, so much crualty at the same time. That place is seriouly wild and even if we got to spend one of the best trips of our lives, it's just almost impossible to get confronted to such reality. It's summer time... time to let time help us digesting this horrible but really important lessons...

A week after coming back from Valdez Alaska I got the chance to get invited on that trip to the West coast of Greenland to shoot a film called “lives of the artists” picturing three different  dimensions, three ways of life expression: surfing music and snowboarding. As I thought I was going to get to another wintery looking place to get to struggle in some wind blown conditions, I got really shocked as we were on our way to land in a small fishing town on the western fjords of Greenland called Maniitsoq. The ice cap being so huge and flat gave us really low expectations until we reached the coastal fjords range that welcomed us with a really powerful terrain, full of really long straight couloirs pointing down into the ocean and surrounded by these gigantic glaciers, not to mention the beautiful polished orange granite and that amazing arctic light that really make the place special. Already from the plane we could definitely notice that it wasn't just another white mountain environment trip but definitely that life time experience that started tickling us when we first heard we would have the chance to go discover Greenland. We landed at two o'clock in Maniitsoq and got enough time to get dressed and geared up. An hour later, we where flying into the heli, reaching the slopes of “Eternity” Fjord. As I started to walk along a snowy ridge towards a small spiny line I started to think about the fact that 24 hours ago I was in tee-shirt wandering around the streets of Toulouse France and that there I was, in Greenland for the first time about to drop into that line in the middle of these amazing fjords of Greenland.
 

We got to stay in that little village of Kangaamiut 15 mn of heli flight away north of Maniistoq. Around 400 people live in that tiny village on a tiny tiny little island where these colorful houses  with  hanging dead animals on the outside make that rounded granite island a very interesting and exotic place. Winters seem to be quite long in this place. You get to realize that when you see the number of children playing the street as well as some guys that seems to not be walking that straight already early morning. All in all, I really appreciated the local people. I really like there cold but true manners that definitely fit really well with their amazing environment.  

After two half days where we got to discover the area, these incredible fjords and the really inspiring terrain, we got to experience a true wintery storm. Two days of rest where we needed to stock up layers every time we had to go out. We still got to go around to look for some cool litle terrain to play around with. We ended up straight lining these huge stairs above the village and despite the late season and us preferring to be at this moment in a warm environment, we really enjoyed being out in this big storm in this part of the world where mother nature  definitely speaks up once in a while...

The storm eventually disappeared pretty much as suddenly as it started and a beautiful sunshine welcomed is to go out and go to experience these unforgettable sunset riding over the ocean. From there on, the trip pretty much rolled out and we got to ride and film these incredible landscapes with a changing but fairly good powder. At some point we had found this 800 meters long straight couloir where the only way to get in there was to get the top of that long really impressive ridge leading to a rappel a the top of the couloir. That ridge was a pretty impressive one with vertical huge walls on both sides and everything looked really fine and doable from the heli until i got in the middle of it. There was this roundish steeper section that I got to where I got really surprised of the amount of fresh snow that was sitting there on such a wind and sun exposed ridge. There was basically a sick thighs high layer of snow on a really exposed ridge, pretty much the biggest amount of snow we'd been encountering in the whole area. I still don't understand why but that's the way it was so I stopped as the heli was turning around my head waiting for me to keep on riding but I just decided to trust my feelings and to stop right there and see what the guide's opinion, Hans, would be. 

I really expected him to be quite mellow about it but as he came along and checked that slope, it was nice to see that he had the exact same bad feeling and it felt great to share my impressions especially at the top of such an exposed line. It's not always easy when you're on your own to know if your feelings are right or if you mind is just playing with you. Anyways, I really felt there that maturity that I got after last year big avalanche. It's really tricky to decide to stop in the middle of the run when you've already pressed the on button at the top of the line.  I felt generally really safe on that trip and the connection with Hans was great on that point. I'm really happy about the way that I just don't go for it as soon as I see any obvious uncontrolled ridk on the face and at the end of the day, it doesn't affect the results. It feels good and I really believe that it's the way to go to keep on being able to enjoy and to push freeriding in such a way.

It's been an incredible experience to discover Greenland in such cool conditions. We got pretty lucky with the conditions, we had the chance to have a really great crew and at the end of it I really feel that I've been doing one of the best trips of my life.

I'm Right now sitting in this hotel room in anchorage. I just left Valdez this morning after a bit more than two weeks of trying to get some good riding with the standard crew. That crew included two legendary riders being Kevin Jones and Johan Olofson. Being the cameras, we had Chris ondercin for motion as well as Jeff Curley for all the still side of it. We've had quite a few windows in the last two days. We've been out three half days and one full day in these last 15 days. We've been doing some nice stuff and got the chance to discover the amazing potential that belongs to the place but I'm a tiny bit disppointed with the fact that we didn't really get it as epic as it can get.

We 've been at fist struggling with snow stability wich has made us take the whole thing really carefully and try to step it up slowly. We've also been facing the fact of having a totaly new crew with not 100 percent of full on big mountain knowledge but it's been cool especially the last day to feel that things where getting to gether on that side. It's been really encouraging until the wind basicaly shut us down and made us not being able to go any further. I've had the chance to hit that really long couloir that looked sick and a few small lines here and there that were interesting but I defently don't come back home with the feeling to have had done what I really wanted to. That's the way it worls anyways in the mountain. Filming bigmountain is definitely a mission wich can be painfull but at the same time so rewarding when things go well along.

Kevin definitely had to learn his way up. He's been freeriding a bunch this season but f and needed some time to feel comfortable up there .Filming lines is definitely a very specific type of riding especially when it's not a usual thing to ride such big and impressive terrain. Johan just there for a few runs, but we could definitely that he was looking forward to some fun and that filming was not the main priority. It was still nice to ride with these guys that really inspired me back in the days. It's too bad that we didn't get the chance to get to the point where shit is really happening... We'll be back for sure. That place is sick and I'll make sure to come earlier and the right amount of time. I'm already looking forward to put that sick segment that I've been waiting for so long. I know that I definitelt jave the potential right now, all I need is to get things right. Patience will be the key I guess. In the long term, it's not a bad thing. Definitely something that I need to work on....

Suivez Xavier sur  le swatch pro team avec seb michaud, thomas diet et phil meier pour le swatch snow mobile.

Une course de snowmobile par equipe au milieu du village de hinterglem en autriche qui va se derouler ce week end avec 20000 spectateurs attendus.

La finale sera dimanche soir en live sur www.freecaster.com

du gros en perspective....

cheers

L'infos continue sur votre téléphone mobile.xvierdelerue.com

It's been a ridiculous week down at the Swatch snow mobile in hinterglem.
With the rest of the swatch pro team, it's been a week of really fun time on that unbelievable high standard evenet. A really cool track in the middle of town with jumps, really good sleds, and an amazing paddock to chill out. Actually the paddock that's on the F1 circuit all season long.
Anyways, lots of drinking, going crazy on and off the sleds and a really cool human experience with the rest of the team.
We got only 2nd but who cares....
xv 

Day of the big avalanche:

It was the second day that we were filming in southern wallis next to the little town called orcieres. I was out with my mate, professional freeskier Henrik Windstedt, on a photo shoot with Christopher Sjorström and Miriam Lang Willar and a mountain guide, for two days in the area near Orcières, close to my home in the border region between France and Switzerland. We had a helicopter that was able to bring us quickly upwards and to take shots from the air. After skiing four smaller lines, I looked at a spectacular north face that was about 2,500 metres high. The snow conditions were quiete stable and got us more and more confident but we still knew that there was a sketchy layer underneath that last big snowfall and that we still had to be carefull. We took off quiete late, around 12 cause the heli was not available before and up there in these north faces we didn't really feel the temperature rising. We were riding these minigolf lines that felt just great and the only sùall slap that went didn't really warn us that much and we didn't feel like taking that much of a risk going in this face...that was partly already tracked. As We were getting filmed from the heli and as the lines were not extreme at all, we took it quiete easy, doing some nice turns, probably way less focused than earlier in the day. At the top of my line, I ddidn't really take the time to get to feel and study deeply my line. The heli was standing in the air waiting so I kind of had to hurry to strap in and drop into the shred. When that small slab broke I just pointed down towards my right, and kind of got away from the big cloud. I tumbled and kept going but I still had some advanace to reach that spine where I would be or think to be safe but here is what I diodn't expect: the small avalanche put pressure on the bottom of the slope wich released all arroubd me. Suddently all I could see was just a giant pûzzle and of course no escape. It felt natural to just pull the handle of my abs and hope for the best. As the udge washing machine tumbled me like I never felt anyhting close, I just fell unconscious until they found me arround 10 mn later. I was a wreck. Henrik had luckily found me and taken out the snow from my mouth and cut the strap of my helmet that was strangling me. I didn't respond for 15 mn. It must have been the worst time for these guys... I have very vague memories of this phase as well as some from my heli ride with the rescue team that arrived maybe half an hour later. I can still remember the noise of the heli with the wind in my face as well as the guys that were with me. When I got to hospital, everything started to get better and better. I remember fighting in my head to really get everything back which came along with the positive results of all the scans and test they would have done on me. My wife was there on my side as well as a lot of friends that were filming in the area. It was just a miracle... I looked pretty bad with my red eyes that I kept for about a month and the only injury I had was a torn internal ligmant on my knee. After two km and 1200 meters getting smashed in the biggest avalanche... All I can say is that some miracle happened that 29^th of march... It was not my time to leave that day...

ABS: So if it's not too impertinent a question, how can such a thing happen to an experienced professional like yourself?

Xavier: Mountains always involve danger. Even in the best conditions, you can make a wrong move on your descent and trigger an avalanche. It’s something you have to be aware of constantly. That’s why I look at the line very closely, and I check where I could escape to if the slope suddenly slides or if too much snow starts to move. Unfortunately, I didn’t check closely enough that day. You should never forget the rules, especially when you want to push yourself to your limits. The whole situation showed me that, no matter how careful and experienced you may be, you can never be 100 per cent certain, so that’s why you must always take precautions. Avalanche beepers and airbag rucksacks are therefore also always part of my equipment.

ABS: Can you describe what happened in more detail?

Xavier: At about 2 p.m., I got the signal from my crew to start my descent. Everything was being filmed and photographed from the helicopter. The timing and the light are extremely important for a shoot like that, so I didn't have much time to double check. On the upper section, a small slab of snow came loose between the rocks, which didn't really worry me too much. I often say in such situations that speed is your best friend. This time, even that didn’t help. I picked up my pace until I was going along at a fair speed, and at first everything indicated that I'd managed to get away from the white monster and I'd be able to laugh about it all afterwards. Then I noticed this huge cracks everywhere underneath me. The entire slope suddenly contracted in fractions of a second, and there was absolutely no way, even at full speed, I was going to escape. When I look back now, I simply didn’t take enough time to check my line and consider good escape routes. So I’m doubly thankful that everything turned out OK in the end.

ABS: What then? How did you survive?

Xavier: When I realised that the mountain was pulling me downwards, and I had no chance of escape, I pulled the release handle on the airbag rucksack. I just reached for it intuitively – I didn’t even think about it. Then I felt myself tumbling over several times. It almost seemed as everything was in slow motion. Afterwards, I still have a few memories of how my friends found me about two kilometres further down. My first proper memory, though, is in the hospital.

ABS: …wow, two kilometres! How did the others find you?

Xavier: I was very, very lucky. The airbags protected me from being overwhelmed by the mass of snow. I lay on top of about six metres of hard-packed avalanche snow. If I’d been under this pack of snow, I’d simply have been crushed. Although I lay on top of it, my mouth and nose were filled with snow. I was unconscious and my helmet was strangeling me so that I couldn’t breathe. It took about ten minutes for Henrik to come down to where I was. He saw the red airbags in the snow, but actually they thought I was much further up the slope and were going to look there. Nobody really believed, though, that I could have survived.

ABS: It sounds so dramatic. What have you learned from this, and what advice would you give to other skiers who go freeriding?

Xavier: Take things one step at a time and always image the worst-case scenario when making decisions. Most of all, don’t rely on your equipment. We talk about people taking more and more risks when they go off freeriding. It’s definitely the wrong way to go, whatever the situation. We had the same discussion a few years ago about avalanche beacons. For me, the airbag and the pieps have become essential parts of any skier's equipment, and I always carry them. This doesn’t mean that I take more risks when it comes to decisions about mountains, but when something goes wrong, they help me out. It’s also why the ABS Airbag has now become hugely popular among professional freeriders. I actually feel rather uncomfortable now if I don't have the airbag rucksack with me, or if I've forgotten my beeper. However, both things are very different. The avalanche airbag is very easy to use and can prevent you from being buried under the snow, which is the most important thing. You need practice and experience for the beeper, and you can be found more quickly if you get buried by an avalanche.

Do you still think about it a lot:

pretty much especially cause it's being shown arround in mags films and stuff but I feel quiete fine about it. I know the first few times on top of big lines after a big snowfall are going to feel strange but I'm quiete confident and I still feel that there is stuff I have to do up there. Even a few days after, I already wanted to go back which to be honest surprised me quiete a bit.

Will it effect your riding in future:

It will not effect my riding at all but it will defenetly effect my routine especially when filming. I'm really carefull with the conditions usually and rarely take the bet on a run when I don't feel it. But when it gets to filming you sometimes get into this acceleration that makes you do strnage things. I will defenetly be couscious with that..

How did you think about danger and avalanches before your accident? and has there ever been a time that you been really scared? how do you deal these kind of moments?


I've always been quiete scared of avalanches, and that since I was a kid. In the last decade, I've been able to understand better that phenomenon and getting close or living it quite a few times.
Two years ago I got draged into some cliff bands by a small but badly placed snow pocket that broke. I really saw myself gone, and to be honest it's been quite hard after that. Way harder than this time. maybe because I then did an obvious mistake, maybe because I really had some time to see the cliffs coming... who knows, it took a long time before i could love snowboarding and feel confortable with avalanche danger. The strange thing is that I don't really anything like that this time eventhough it's been way more radical...
Anyways, even when I ride for myself, I don't really push the limit by trying to open this or that run. I'm quite mellow and i do narly stuff only if I really feel it. I try to get away from these groups that push it all the time, I mean everyday, that routune is something that I find dangerous. These film sessions are for me these times of the season when I kind of go for it and I like the fact to not abuse of the good star that could shine upon my head... On the other hand, I like to spend time up there to get to feel good in all the winter environnement, get used to the snow, to the conditions... this is how you get confortable and I would say more in control of the terrain and all the risks... there is a limit to that that brings the danger back as soon as you feel too confortable. It's tricky all this. It's a lot about feeling and discipline at the same time. Two opposite attitudes, but you can't be up there without using both of them...

                                           NEWS du 31 Octobre - ANTARCTICA - Xavier raconte: 
                                                                                                                                                                                             

On est a Ushuaia depuis hier soir. Le bateau est sur le point d'arriver avec un retard de près de 12 heures du a de mauvaises conditions de navigation. Si vous regardez la carte en pièce jointe, vous vous apercevrez que la traversée que l'on s'apprête a attaquer se trouve juste sous le cap horn en direction de la penincule antarctique, notre destination. Cette traversée porte le nom de drake passage et est réputée être le traversée la plus mouvementée de la planète. Maintenant si l'on étudie la carte de plus près, on s,apercevra que la tache rouge que l'on s'apprête a traverser correspond a une hauteur de vagues d'une quarantaine de pieds, soient dans les 13 mètres de vagues. Donc vous l'aurez compris on est contents de monter sur le bateau, certes, mais on sait malgré tout qu'on va se sentir sacrement bouscules dans les prochaines 40 heures et qu'en plus du swing on risqué bien de profiter au moins une deuxième fois de notre dernier repas, et ce pendant un long moment. Enfin bref, on va certainement passer un mauvais moment mais ce qui nous attend de l'autre cote a l'air d'être sérieusement intéressant.

Plus on s'en approche, et plus on prend conscience de le chance que l'on a et de la rareté de ce que l'on va voir.

On est une des premières équipes a aller la bas avec l'intention de rider des pentes, et de façon plus sure la première équipe de riders professionnels. Le terrain a l'air d'être vraiment plus qu'incroyable, avec de  belles montagnes avec un aspect similaire a celles de l'Alaska en terme de topographie donc parfait pour faire des images sur des runs a taille humaine si je puis dire mais avec vraiment du caractère. Ces pentes sont toutes bien agrémentées de gros glaciers qui se jettent droit dans la mer et toutes sont bien sur vierges de toute  sorte de "descente humaine".

On se sent presque gènes d'avoir accès a ce sanctuaire de la nature, d'avoir brûle tout ce kérosène et d'aller s'introduire dans ce paradis, un des rares a n'avoir aucune empreinte humaine.  Pour cette raison, on est tous détermines a tirer le meilleur parti et profiter pleinement de ce périple. Cela fait longtemps que je n'ai pas ressenti cette sensation d'aller vers l'inconnu en partant sur un trip ….

Allez c'est le moment d'y aller, le bateau vient de pointer le bout de son nez au milieu des fjords qui nous entourent. On n'a plus qu'a espérer que la traversée sera clémente et que les conditions nous montreront que l'on est les bienvenus dans ce no mans land.

Prochaines news, avec peut être des bribes de premiers runs…

I'm going to Antarctica in a few weeks and to be honest it's one of these places that you would never ever think you could access until one day a friend comes and tell you that there is this boat going there in october, in the right place..Fire! It's a life experience that we're about to get. It's been forever that I haven't felt like that before taking off on a snowboarding trip. this is the kind of trip that makes you wonder what the hell are you going to find down there. Pinguins whales, nice wicked lines above the see.. a different world for sure.

Results :
2008 FREE RIDE WORLD TOUR CHAMPION
2008 BEST LINE OF THE WHOLE FWT TOUR
2008 1ST FREE RIDE WORLD TOUR TIGNES
2008 2ND SWATCH ONEILL BIG MOUNTAIN PRO
2008 2ND FWT SOCHI
2007 1ST XTREME VERBIER
2007 1ST BIG MOUNTAIN PRO…SNOWBOARD AND OVERALL !!!
2007 1ST BOARDER-X WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
2005 1ST XGAMES BOARDER-X
2005 1ST GRAVITY GAMES BOARDER-X
2004 3RD XTREME VERBIER
2004 – 2003 1ST FIS WORLD CUP BOARDER-X
2003 1ST RED BULL HIKE AND RIDE
                                                                                   2003 1ST ARLBERG FREERIDE TROPHY
                                                                                   2003 1ST XGAMES ULTRACROSS
                                                                                   2003 – 2002 – 2001 1ST BOARDER-X WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
                                                                                   2002 1ST MOUNT BAKER BANKED SLALOM

 28 TIMES WINNER AND 42 PODIUMS ON INTERNATIONAL BOARDER-X WORLD CUP CONTESTS

Results :
2008 1ST FREE RIDE WORLD TOUR TIGNES
2008 2ND SWATCH ONEILL BIG MOUNTAIN PRO
2008 2ND FWT SOCHI
2007 1ST XTREME VERBIER
2007 1ST BIG MOUNTAIN PRO…SNOWBOARD AND OVERALL !!!
2007 1ST BOARDER-X WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
2005 1ST XGAMES BOARDER-X
2005 1ST GRAVITY GAMES BOARDER-X
2004 3RD XTREME VERBIER
2004 – 2003 1ST FIS WORLD CUP BOARDER-X
2003 1ST RED BULL HIKE AND RIDE
2003 1ST ARLBERG FREERIDE TROPHY
                                                                                   2003 1ST XGAMES ULTRACROSS
                                                                                   2003 – 2002 – 2001 1ST BOARDER-X WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
                                                                                   2002 1ST MOUNT BAKER BANKED SLALOM

 28 TIMES WINNER AND 42 PODIUMS ON INTERNATIONAL BOARDER-X WORLD CUP CONTESTS

Jeremy Jones & Kaj Zackrisson win Big Mountain Pro 2008.

Full report & all results follow tomorrow morning. We're partying at the moment. Snowboard 1. Jeremy Jones 2. Xavier de le Rue 3. Mitch Toelderer Ski 1. Kaj Zackrisson 2. Aurelien Ducroz 3. Phil Meier

Jeremy Jones & Kaj Zackrisson win Big Mountain Pro 2008.

Full report & all results follow tomorrow morning. We're partying at the moment. Snowboard 1. Jeremy Jones 2. Xavier de le Rue 3. Mitch Toelderer Ski 1. Kaj Zackrisson 2. Aurelien Ducroz 3. Phil Meier

Pour voir la vidéo cliquez-ici