UKC

Dream line to ski, amazing effort.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155110683110178&id=317838...

Ho... Lee.... Shee-at!!!! :-0

I only know this from Gordon's book. Jesus wept.

I just can't imagine what you do at 'the cave' at the end (in descent) of the first very steep bit of upper gully. You just have to be flying through the air there for about 3 or 4 hundred feet minimum. How else do you do it? There's simply a very steep slabby wall on it's south side which would just hold a bit of ice. Ummm ... Sure, all the gully below that would be just fine for an extreme skier. Providing all the bottom slabs were very snowed up ... And getting round the ravine would be very odd. Not skiing at all ... unless you're going so fast you simply jump across it ? ? That would be awesome ... death penalty there for sure if it goes wrong.

Ah, I've now looked at it again, and see it mentions '2 abseil'. That would explain it. But it also means you haven't done quite what you've claimed. 

Abseils seen to be a common feature of bonkers ski descents, unsurprisingly. I've seen a video of some French skiers doing The Shroud (Jorrasses, not The Ben) and there was a couple of abs on that. Nevertheless, mind bending stuff.

Surely when you say you have skiied down some mountain route you mean that you've put your skis on at the top and gone more or less straight down it non-stop to the bottom (with maybe the odd rest) ... but not that you've abseiled down/past some of the steeper and nastier bits ? 

Yes, mind bending and very admirable/impressive. But it's not quite what it first sounds like.

Yeah, I've abseiled on ski descents, I suppose the correct description would be ski mountaineering descent. I'm hoping he'll put it on his strava so I can see more details.

Well...

To be honest, abseiling is still considered to be ok whilst claiming ski descents on bigger mountains. And example would be Mallory and the Eugster on the Midi. Skied numerous times (in good seasons), and no one is saying that they aren't getting skied. Still both involve a mandatory rappel (or two, can't remember). A few years back, a local skier tried to do a no rappel descent of Mallory but AFAIK he still had to rappel for a short step at the end of the season.

So yeah, shades of grey and all...

Ben Briggs has skied the Mallory with no raps: https://benjaminbriggs.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/an-integral-descent-of-the-...

(and possibly/probably others as well...).

@Gordon Stainforth, its not dissimilar to someone saying they have climbed a route up a mountain when actually they pulled on bits of gear on the way up. In terms of ski descents it is generally considered fair game as long as there isn't an obvious ski option that is being 'short-circuited' by abbing. What is more borderline is the current vogue of skiing lines that aren't really in condition, abbing bits where you would be able to ski with good conditions, and claiming a descent.

Thanks for clarifying, and for confirming that it is indeed a grey area. Not strictly on topic, but has the Hornli on the Matterhorn been skied with no abseils? I'm guessing that an extreme skier could manage it in very snowy conditions following approximately the line of the first ascent.

There's been a bunch of ski descents of the matterhorn. I've never been on it so I'm not sure how everything is orientated!

The E face has. There are videos on YouTube. Hornli would be a bit bumpy!

Well I meant the east face really, because of course no one would ski the ridge itself. But I was talking about above the shoulder. Thinking that perhaps a zigzag route on north face (approx line of first ascent) would be feasible for an extreme skier.

The suggestion that because skiers sometimes use ropes they aren't actually skiing is as ridiculous as the idea that because trail runners sometimes walk, they aren't actually runners.

Jesus.

I didn't say any of that. 

Muhammad.

http://www.andalsnes-avis.no/nyheter/2018/02/26/Her-er-Kilians-ferd-ned-Fiv...

Er, wow.

Of course he's using ice axes, so that's not really skiing either...

It's the icy bits that really get me. One feels a little sick...

Interesting the feeling of nausea that those same bits induce in me too.....

Good find. That looks incredible.

That looks pretty much like skiing down The Curtain, endlessly.  Which is plainly bonkers.

Mind you, i did have a skiing friend who was into that sort of thing, who openly admitted that he skied down things he couldn't climb up (and wouldn't dare) - opposite ends of the telescope, I suppose.

Down climbing ice with skis on your feet. Scary and impressive.

I'm similar, going up is terrifying!