Photo of the Day!!!

[ricki]

"Antoine Montant pulls off the first-ever speed ride along the cables of Chamonix's old cable car. Antoine is the world's leading speed flyer, a sport that combines skiing, paragliding and sky diving."

Wonder when this will take off in the USA at major resorts? They probably will mount Ack-Ack guns to take out incoming gliders first I would imagine. Great scenery in Chamonix and don't you wish you had Red Bull skies too?!

[ricki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f2LFUVgEjA
Well worth a look, just not trying!

Here's a bit of irony, I think an ancestor, Christian Jossi, perhaps my great grandfather (still checking), was on the first team to successfully climb the Eiger in winter.* This without Gortex, high tech lines/climbing tools, communications, freeze dried rations, etc..

I wonder what he would have thought of descending the Eiger in this fashion? I bet he would have got off on giving it a try. Boggles the mind. I have no doubt the English guys that drove climbing and skiing into the Jungfrau area would have eaten it up in Victorian times.

* "On January 7, 1890, the Englishmen Mead and Woodroffe, together with the guides Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi, were the first to conquer the Eiger in winter time." http://www.stnet.ch/st/alpin150/txt/erst_eiger_en.doc



Any climbers out there who are into history of climbing in the Alps? Still trying to run down some leads on some of the family climbing guides. Thanks!

Still more clips of flying down the slopes at:
http://www.acro-base.com/fr/galerie/video/video.htm



A view of the northwest face of the Eiger from Murren just before a fohn (a type of alpine windstorm)

[ricki]

Lots of ways of traveling over the Eiger. Here are a few on video ...


Climbing, fast.



Overflying by wingsuit



Base jumping, sort of



Back in time through cinema. The second isn't a bad movie although the tacky trailer might have you avoid the flick!



Speed flying down the Nordwand, (watch out for that rock!)


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