Video: Matthias Giraud

Words: Erme Catino

Matthias Giraud is a professional skier and B.A.S.E. Jumper.  If you are a skier, most likely you have heard his name before or seen his edits on YouTube.

On April 25th, CNN reported a story on Matthias’s latest adventure – though according to them “the skier really triggered the avalanche by chopping the snow with his pole.”  Impressive, maybe Matthias has charges in his baskets so he can bomb start zones…but probably not.

Nonetheless, it is great to see freeskier’s in the mainstream media. Though just as when Dana Flahr was on Fox News, their story gets a bit muddled.

Here is what Matthias had to say on his most recent Ski B.A.S.E. via his website:

Here is the latest edit from GoPro! I got this footage with the help of Stefan Laude from the Office of Tourism of Megeve, France.

We climbed out of bounds to the Aiguille Croche between Megeve and Les Contamines, France for about an hour and a half.

But before you enjoy the video, I wanted to clarify a few thinks about our descent itself.

We were both wearing avalanche transceivers. Stefan Laude (speedflyer) is a local ski patroller and alerted all ski patrols in the area. The rescue teams kept visuals of us the whole time. The PGHM (heli rescue team) was on standby and in contact with the ski patrol. The avalanche path goes skier?s right of the cliff (where the slough starts in the video) so if you stay on the ridge on the skier?s left, you are out of the avalanche path. Last, the rest of the avalanche going over the edge we jumped from was triggered within the last 100 feet before the cliff. So, it is unlikely to catch you unless you fall. But, like any exposed line in the Alps, a fall means death. So, you don?t fall. And if you do, well it?s part of the game and you know that before going into it.

It was a probably the best run of my life.

Nice work Matthias!

For those who would like to view the CNN version, here it is: CNN – Extreme Skiers Tackle Avalanche