Sylvain Saudan

Sylvain Saudan was a Swiss skier and mountaineer born on September 23 1936 in Lausanne Switzerland and died on July 14 2024 in Les Houches France Nicknamed the skier of the impossible he was one of the pioneers of extreme skiing Sylvain Saudan spent the first four years of his life in Lausanne In 1939 the family left Lausanne for economic reasons and moved to Valais At the age of five young Sylvain received his first pair of skis After completing compulsory schooling he worked starting in 1951 as a laborer on the construction site of the new international road at the Col de la Forclaz and then as a construction driver Throughout this period he practiced skiing in his region Les Marécottes Verbier participating in local competitions and even becoming president of the MartignyCombe ski club in 1959 In 1961 at the age of 25 Sylvain Saudan obtained his Swiss ski instructors certificate He initially worked in CransMontana In the summer he practiced mountaineering in the Swiss and French Alps In December 1962 he traveled around the world and worked as a ski instructor in three resorts Aspen Colorado Christchurch New Zealand and Glenshee Ski Centre in Scotland He obtained his American mountain guide diploma in Aspen in the spring of 1963 During the winters of 19641965 19651966 and 19661967 he worked as a ski instructor in Zermatt and Arosa It was there that he achieved his first feat in the spring of 1967 on a particularly steep slope on the flanks of the Rothorn Between 1967 and 1973 Sylvain Saudan racked up a series of firsts at a rate of one or two per year Although an experienced mountaineer he was first and foremost a skier which led him whenever possible to use available means of transportation to shorten his climbs He notably resorted to helicopters a practice he criticized by purists Since his firsts didnt earn him any money in 1971 Sylvain Saudan earned his living from ski lessons in the winter and from mountaineering in the summer He also owned a ski shop in Arosa Switzerland Later he opened a restaurant in Chamonix LImpossible and also organized heliskiing expeditions to Kashmir His early exploits received little media attention Nevertheless the films made during the descent of the Gervasutti Couloir and especially the Aiguille de Bionnassay opened up a parallel career for him in the fall of 1970 that of lecturer After the Alps Sylvain Saudan set out to conquer the peaks of North America then the Himalayas In May 1979 he led an expedition to Dhaulagiri On May 13 1979 an accident at 7600 m resulted in the deaths of two Frenchmen and a Sherpa In 1982 he skied 3000 m up Gasherbrum I or Hidden Peak making the first complete descent of a peak over 8000 m His exploits earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records On August 13 2016 he received the Alpine Merit award from the Diablerets International Alpine Film Festival for his lifetime achievements In 2017 the Whistler Blackcomb resort in Canada named a couloir after him Sylvain Saudan died on July 14 2024 in Les Houches HauteSavoie His ashes were scattered on the Aiguille de Bionnassay