Tag Archive for: Extreme Skiing

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Candide Thovex Hops Down The Alps

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Folly Or Finesse?

Professional athlete Candide Thovex makes gravity work. Click below for video

Professional athlete Candide Thovex makes gravity work. Click below for video.

Hold my beer while a take a run, will ya?  Actually, it’s Candide Thovex, professional athlete, making a spectacular run off-piste somewhere in the Alps.  Some might say this kind of extreme skiing is irresponsible; others might say there is skill here to be admired.  Whatever your stance on this kind of dramatic skiing activity, you have to say this 30-second video clip gives you an emotional hit. Did we mention the two avalanches?

How say you? Folly? Finesse?  Other?  Let us know.

By the way, SeniorsSkiing.com has another video clip of Candide Thovex here, doing his thing at the Val Blanc.

Straight Down: Cody Townsend and Gravity

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Now This Should Tighten You Up.

Cody Townsend, professional free skier and athlete, takes on the most improbable ski run we’ve ever seen.  The scene is a near vertical chute in Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountains, more like a elevator shaft than a ski run.  This scene is a clip from Red Bull’s documentary, “Days of My Youth.”  We are certain that the legendary Dick Buek, winner of the 1952 Olympics downhill and probably the original extreme skier, would approve.   This stunt is reminiscent of Dick’s daredevil runs; he was the first person to schuss Exhibition at Sun Valley, something that French skiing pioneer Emile Allais said could never be done.  And, of course, there’s another legend Toni Matt whose run down the Headwall at Tuckerman’s Ravine to win the 1939 Inferno Race still echoes through the White Mountains.  All of these guys like to go straight down.  Fearless.

Cody, you’re following some pretty impressive skiing heroes.  Be careful out there.  Or is that not the point?