I arrived in Geneva on March 5th and the week started off very well with the 2nd descent ever of the Aiguille Croche in Megeve France. After doing it last year in nasty conditions, I decided to get it done with perfect weather and to top it all, we shot it from a speedflyer flown by my friend Stefan Laude.
We dropped in the face and the first 5 turns were on pretty bad snow but after that, it was the best pow of my life.
As we charged the face it started sliding but we were going so fast that we were able to outrun the slide catch 600ft of air and fly safely into the valley and over the spray of the avalanche.
The following day involved skiing off in Chamonix (Argentiere) but jumping in front of the serac of the Argentiere glacier and landing near the crevasses at the bottom.
We got two descents in and the camera crew was super STOKED!
We took a day off after that and headed to Magland to jump off a 1500ft cliff to do a regular BASE jump and then headed to ski in Zermatt, Switzerland.
We met with Simon Anthamatten, Swiss mountain guide and brother of Samuel from the Freeride World Tour. We booked a heli ride with Air Zermatt to do the first ski BASE off the Matterhorn (Mont Cervin in French).
As we arrive, I quickly realized that the mountain is a big pile of rocks more than a nice snow field.
The pilot winched us down onto the face since he couldn’t land and we found a nice diving board following a direct line through the rocks.
The line looked good from the heli and when I dropped in, it was a really fast line to the edge.
Unfortunately, a rock that was hidden behind the jump hit my right ski.
It came off and sent me in a double mistyflip/cork 720. I managed to pull my chute in between flips and get out of a few line twists.
The rest was a sweet flight into the valley. This mountain is made for climbing not skiing but at least I can cross it off the list!
It was a very humbling experience and a wake up call. Even when analyzing mountains and doing your homework, the smallest thing can throw you off and turn your sweet ride into a highway to hell.
Next we are heading to the European X Games in Tignes to ski a few lines with Victor Galuchot and Fabien Maierhofer – stars of the show Bon Appetit, produced by Nico Favre.
After that, it will be time to go relax in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland for some BASE jumping and go back to the US on the 20th to pack my bags again and head to Red Mountain, BC on the 24th to attend The Gathering at Red Mountain with Powder Magazine and present a video!