Andreas Fransson skiing Poincenot, PatagoniaVideo

Jack Geldard

18th December, 2012

This has been read 14,051 times

Andreas Fransson skiing the Whillans Ramp, Aguja Poincenot © Bjarne Sahlen, Endlessflow — Andreas Fransson skiing the Whillans Ramp, Aguja Poincenot
© Bjarne Sahlen, Endlessflow

Aguja Poincenot with the line of the Whillans Ramp clearly shown. © Bjarne Sahlen, Endlessflow — Aguja Poincenot with the line of the Whillans Ramp clearly shown.
© Bjarne Sahlen, Endlessflow

Blurring the line between skiing and climbing is Swedish steep skiing specialist Andreas Fransson.

Earlier this year, accompanied by Swedish film-maker Bjarne Sahlen, Andreas travelled to Patagonia in South America to climb and ski some futuristic lines. Perhaps the most stunning line of that trip was The Whillans Ramp on Aguja Poincenot.

In an interview on PlanetMountain, Andreas commented on that particular descent:

"I'm always looking for special lines that stick out and when my friend Colin Haley pointed me to this one a few years back I got really interested in doing it. It's an obvious line and he felt it was one of the most far-out steep descents in the world. Now, in retrospect, I think so, too. It's steeper than anything I have ever skied before and it has the most extreme exposure you can imagine: it's not a couloir, but an outward leaning ramp. It was definitely at the limit of what I can do."

Bjarne has documented the trip in a two part film and has just released part 1 online (shown below). Part 2 is coming next week.