So this video right here does more than anything to show the value of a guide in Chamonix. Last week when those who were brave enough to endure the icy howling winds on Brevent were scraping around on bulletproof snow our buddy Seb was scoring freshies again. Once again the vid features some great powder footy but the shots of the bouquetin and the killer 3D map add a whole other element.
Oh, and about that map, Seb. Seems as though there’s a new ‘Wanted’ poster with your picture on it that’s beginning to appear around Marécotte. It’s written in Finnish.
Kevin Rolland double cork 12. Photo: Vianney Tisseau/Shazamm/ESPN Images
The Olympic circus has packed up and left Vancouver and you’d think that’d mean the Insider could get back to some good old-fashioned freeriding. But then the X Games decided to show up on our continent for the first time ever and I felt like there’d be some all-night ragers that would need some firsthand reporting.
The event started off big last night with the Men’s Ski Superpipe finals. Favorites going into the event were the young upstart Frenchies Kevin Rolland and Xavier Bertoni. The two came out of nowhere to score gold and bronze respectively at the X Games in Aspen held earlier this year. Bertoni pulled out some great runs but it wasn’t enough to beat the two double flips and double cork mute 1260 that Rolland threw down on his last run to win the show.
Rolland has been on fire this year as he became the first rider to throw the 1260 swirly twirly loopty loop at Winter X 14 in Aspen. The La Plagne local came out of nowhere to crush a tough field that included Simon Dumont among others. Rolland is still the only rider to land the trick in competition. Kid’s got skills.
Back in the ’80s, Chamonix locs like Sylvain Saudan, Jean-Marc Boivin, Patrick Vallençant, Anselme Baud and Bruno Gouvy were blowing minds with their radical new concept of you-fall-you-die extreme skiing. Meanwhile, the hardcores in North America were simply trying to ski out of bounds without getting arrested. Swift. Silent. Deep. is the story of the renegade Jackson Hole Air Force and the story of their attempts to push their own boundaries.
As the authoritative Homeboyski.com says about the movie
Although I have dozens of ski movies in my shelf I rarely watch them more than once. For some reason I find most of them boring after watching them once. You know lots of neck deep powder, huge cliff drops, spinning, flipping and funky music. . The same old story.
Hopefully there are ski movies that make a difference, and SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP is absolutely one of them. The story of the legendary Jackson Hole Air Force is so fascinating, inspiring and cool that I found myself watching the film over and over again.
So luckily for all of us the good crew at Salomon skis and LeVert Hotel have joined forces with the ChamonixInsider for the Chamonix premiere of Swift. Silent. Deep. on Saturday night, 13 March at 21:00. And to make it even more of a fiesta, Salomon is throwing some cash behind the bar to make sure everyone is good and loaded by the time the movie ends and the crazy mad percussion band Bodhizapha takes the stage.
Yes, it’s going to be a night to remember and no, you don’t want to miss it. In fact, call now and reserve a table for the killer 3-course dinner that LeVert serves up to make sure you’re not stuck outside the door while everyone else is inside swilling free booze, marvelling at the OG rulers ripping lines on their 110cm skis and dancing their brains out to Bodhizapha.
Keeping up with the Joneses ain't as easy as it used to be.
And for those days when there’s just too much salt on the road to get the bike out why not opt instead for a 276bhp Lotus Evora like this one that a number of people spotted around Chamonix last week. And while many believed it was for the filming of a new Bond movie, we should really set the record straight and admit that it was, in reality, the ChamonixInsider taking the long way to Super U for a carton of milk – as you do when you’ve got a coupla these beauties parked in your spacious, underground, hermetically-sealed automotive museum.
