Photo of the Day!!!

[ricki]

Still shots or video, if it is intriguing and from alpine regions show us here! Note: not everything that will show up here is necessarily advisable or even smart. It is for the entertainment of folks physically removed from alpine reaches by geography, if only temporarily.

[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!)


.

[ricki]

If you see these guys on the slope above you, I would get out of the way fast! Avalanches can really wreck your day. Some impressive filming though and in the back country I understand in the French Alps.

"Matthias Giraud and Aiguille Croche capture some of the most incredible content seen by GoPro as they hit the Alps like true heroes skiing the French backcountry while escaping a large avalanche on their tails!"[

[ricki]

No worries, the rider is going to use a karate block on the tumbling snowmobile.
Click image for video

Just came across what looks like a near death snowmobile experience in the mountains. Have you ever dreamed of being attacked with a chainsaw? This is like that only instead of a chainsaw it is a tumbling pissed off snowmobile chasing the offending rider down a steep narrow rocky couloir.



The rider shifts into a high speed spinning and tumbling slide down the steep chute. He attempts to grab and hold the tumbling speeding 600 pound snowmobile.





You can see the video from the perspective of the guys at the top of the mountain:





.

[ricki]

Speed flying outside Salt Lake City, Utah. Looks like fun and it was nice that there were no abrupt stops in the action!

[ricki]

Nice visuals, this guy puts a ton of energy and speed into moves on the steeps. The outtake wipeouts had to have been spectacular.

[ricki]

An amazing GoPro video of riding through some intensely deep powder above Lake Tahoe!

[ricki]

"The Most Amazing Skiing Video Ever"

Looks pretty interesting, still most amazing ever? What do you think?