At about 10pm on Wednesday October 12th, I got a text from my friend:

“Please tell me it’s not true Matt.”

I had no idea what “it” was and had no idea whether “it” was true.

They said it was about Tof and a quick search on Facebook and a few posts from mutual friends, I saw that Tof had been involved in an incident in Chile and they said he was gone.

I won’t claim to have been his closest friend, there are many people in Chamonix and in skiing who knew him better and probably have much better stories about him. Like anyone that crossed paths with Tof, I loved seeing Tof the person, just as much as I loved seeing Tof the skier.

I told Twig the sad news on that night, he wrote an article announcing it to the freeski world. He asked me if I wanted to say anything and I declined... This is what I would have said:

I first met Christophe Henry in Stockholm airport, in May 2019. He’d been up with an Armada crew to Riksgränsen and I was heading up to Kläppen with the rest of them. Tof was going back to Chamonix to recuperate before his annual summer trip to South America.

Considering he’s from Chamonix and I’ve spent more time in that town than any other town in the world, it was a bit weird that our first meeting was in Sweden. But Tom from Armada introduced us and Tof promised me a drink next time we’re both in Cham.

I met Tof a few times ‘professionally’ for interviews, but since that first meeting, I seemed to run into him every week! Bars, the gym, everywhere and very occasionally, if he was having a day off slaying the Midi, even on a ‘normal’ piste with us mere mortals.

Wherever he was you can guarantee a massive smile, his permanent suntan and a chat about skiing! He’d always tell me what trips he had planned or what he and Armada had in the pipeline. One of my favourite things about Tof was, that he’d make you feel like whatever you’d done was just as cool as what he’d been doing. I can promise you it definitely wasn’t!

Tof just made you feel cool by some kind of osmosis. Chamonix is full of skiers, but I haven’t met anyone that is just happy to chat about skiing so much. He loved that I wrote for Newschoolers and I promised him an interview one day. Covid, me not writing for NS last winter and him being away so much, meant we could never line it up. He also said he’d take me down the Vallee Blanche, for the first time since a brain injury I suffered in 2010.

Now it’s too late for us to ski together, but I wanted to give him an article on NS. I was speaking to a friend last week and I said that I think Tof is underrated and I hope he’s remembered as a true ski great. My friend said that people that matter know and looking at the tributes that have been pouring in for him, that is undoubtedly true. The way he skied, was unparalleled. He was often referred to as “the fastest man in Chamonix” and some of your favourite skiers have probably been quoted as saying they couldn’t keep up. Tof didn’t just straight-line everything though, he had unbelievable control and he literally skied some of the most technical terrain in the world, as if he was cruising a groomer. Of course, he had the straight-line in his arsenal, if he was pushed for time.

I wish I had more stories about him, but the thing about Tof, to me, was that he was just a normal guy who loved skiing. Our relationship didn’t go any deeper than chatting about skiing, but that’s what I loved; for us that was deep enough.

Tof Henry was an incredibly talented skier, but I know he’ll be remembered by people in Chamonix and all around the world as an incredible person.

Miss you Tof.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/915591/Born-in-Chamonix-Tof-Henry-