Sylvain Saudan | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Switzerland |
Occupation(s) | Alpine Skier and Mountaineer |
Known for | Extreme skiing |
Spouse | Marie-José Valençot |
Sylvain Saudan (born 23 September 1936 in Lausanne, Switzerland) is an extreme skier, dubbed "skier of the impossible." He is noted for skiing down large and steep mountains, including those in the Himalayas, North America, Asia, Africa and Europe. In 1982, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for descending the highest and steepest slope ever skied.
Saudan was raised near the village of Verbier in Valais, Switzerland, where skiing to school during the winter was the norm. [1] In the early 1960's, Saudan qualified as a skiing instructor and high mountain guide. [1] By 1967, he was considered by the skiing fraternity, to be the master of extreme skiing, earning him the name "skier of the impossible". [2]
In mountains people are usually known for first ascent of high and difficult peaks but he is famous for accumulating 23 first descents, [2] which includes the most difficult 18 descents known.[See (see French Wikipedia)].
Saudan's crowning achievement came in 1982 when, at age 46, he skied down Pakistan's 26,470-foot (8,070 m)-high Gasherbrum I, or Hidden Peak, in the Himalayas. [2] It was, and possibly still is, the longest 50-degree ski descent ever accomplished and likely the first full descent of an '8,000 meter' mountain. The feat earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest and steepest slope ever skied. [2] In 1972, he ran Himalaya Heliski, based in Srinagar offering heliskiing trips in Kashmir region. [1] In 2007, aged 71, he survived a helicopter crash in Kashmir.
In order to safely ski these mountains he developed a new technique to "jump turn" on very steep inclines. [3] Normal jump turns would have accelerated the skier and thrown him too far down the mountain so, using long ski poles, Saudan turned by planting a ski pole downhill and, keeping his weight on both skis and leaning back on his heels, he lifted the ski tips up and swivelled them in an arc into the turn. [3] These turns, rhythmically swivelling the skis in arcs left and right, he christened the windscreen wiper turns. [4] [3] His extreme exploits involved considerable preparations, studying the mountain, the snow, and the terrain over an extended period of time.
He was an accomplished guide for heliskiing, one of the first European guides, along with Hans Gmoser, to exploit the Bugaboos in British Columbia in the 1970s, with waist deep powder snow (often 150,000 vertical feet per week or more). He later developed his own line of skis suited for powder skiing. These were relatively short and wide metal skis, designed to be quick turning in powder snow, as well as to be easily loaded outside the helicopters.
Saudan became a motivational speaker in later life for corporate executives, using his films to demonstrate the leap in courage it takes to conquer new peaks and new challenges.
Gasherbrum I, surveyed as K5 and also known as Hidden Peak, is the 11th highest mountain in the world at 8,080 metres (26,510 ft) above sea level. It is located between Shigar District in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan and Tashkurgan in the Xinjiang of China. Gasherbrum I is part of the Gasherbrum Massif, located in the Karakoram region of the Himalaya. Gasherbrum is often claimed to mean "Shining Wall", presumably a reference to the highly visible face of the neighboring peak Gasherbrum IV; but in fact, it comes from "rgasha" (beautiful) + "brum" (mountain) in Balti, hence it actually means "beautiful mountain."
Gasherbrum II ; surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at 8,035 metres (26,362 ft) above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China. The mountain was first climbed on July 7, 1956, by an Austrian expedition which included Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch, and Hans Willenpart.
Extreme skiing is performed on long, steep slopes in mountainous terrain. The French coined the term 'Le Ski Extreme' in the 1970s. The first practitioners include Swiss skier Sylvain Saudan, who invented the "windshield wiper" turn in the mid-1960s, and in 1967 made the first descents of slopes in the Swiss, French and Italian Alps that were previously considered impossible. Saudan's 'first descent' in America was at Mt. Hood March 3, 1971. Early American practitioners include Bill Briggs, who descended Grand Teton on June 15, 1971. The Frenchmen Patrick Vallençant, Jean-Marc Boivin and Anselme Baud and the Italians Stefano De Benedetti and Toni Valeruz were among those who further developed the art and brought notoriety to the sport in the 1970s and 1980s.
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