I like to share perhaps one of the best articles ever issued in powder magazine. Well, at least it’s the one that keeps me fascinated again and again. I first found it on Christian Pondella’s blog a couple of year back and later ordered a copy of it.
Reading it today is inevitably associated with the darkest days of the contemporary backcountry skiing culture. After the accidents of Arne Backstrom (Pre-release of binding), Fred Ericsson, Steve Romeo (avalanche), Rémy Lécluse (avalanche) and Andreas Fransson (avalanche), Dave Rosenbarger is the sixth character featured in this article who died recently (avalanche, Jan. 2015).
Death is part of life, but it shouldn’t be accepted as part of this beautiful sport. And skiing for life is no excuse.
The ultimate goal is to come home safe, so when you decide to turn around it’s a success for the mission. It’s not about the ultimate goal of skiing. It’s about the ultimate goal of skiing as much as possible for the rest of my life.
– JP Auclair
Click to access extreme_story.pdf
If you liked this article, you may also like this high quality digital issues: Follow Freeride World Tour winner Drew Tabke and photographer Christian Pondella skiing around the Vignettes hut/Arolla (CH) (where we also stayed here).
Adrian Earlyup 