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Dominique Perret, born 20 November 1962 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, is a Swiss freeride skier, filmmaker and ski safety pioneer. He gained notoriety for skiing mountains that had been deemed "un-skiable" and was named the "best freeride skier of the century" at the 2000 Paris Board Awards.
Perret was born into a family of skiers, growing up less than 500m from ski lift. Perret began skiing at age 2, spending the next fifteen years developing a technical skillset on skis following the Swiss development system. [1] His father was a Swiss Olympic skier and contemporary of Jean Vuarnet, the Olympic gold medalist ski racer. [2] Rather than following their footsteps into competition, Perret wanted to ski and have the freedom to practice his technique, innovating as a freeride skier. Soon he began sharing his exploits in the new medium of ski films.
After making the cliff ski jumping world record in 1985, he moved to Chamonix, and set up his own film production company. In his films, he would seek out new routes and locations for long and steep lines. He would go on to film a new ski film for the next 28 years, making his last film at age 50. [2] Despite the altitude and distance of some of his ski descents, including a descent from Mount Everest, Perret doesn't consider himself an extreme skier or ski mountaineer. Instead, Perret focused more on speed and snow quality for his descents, where "the voyage is important, to ski and experience where there is snow". [3]
After retiring from ski films, he turned his attention to ski safety. Looking back at his career, he counted thirty friends that had died in avalanches. [4] In 2014, after 75 skiers were killed in avalanches, Perret developed and launched the International Snow Training Academy (ISTA), a ski education platform to improve snow safety. [5] [6] [7] The organization promotes respect of nature and safety on the mountain to prevent avalanche casualties, and involves a certification program, inspired by PADI's dive certification. [8] The system standardizes awareness and aims to ensure backcountry enthusiasts focus on prevention of avalanches, alongside recovery. [9] The ISTA system for avalanche awareness is now implemented at resorts in Europe and North America. [10] [11]
Gasherbrum II ; surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at 8,035 metres (26,362 ft) above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China. The mountain was first climbed on July 7, 1956, by an Austrian expedition which included Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch, and Hans Willenpart.
Yūichirō Miura is a Japanese skier and alpinist.
Ski patrols are organizations that provide medical, rescue, and hazard prevention services to the injured in ski area boundaries, or sometimes beyond into backcountry settings. Many have technical-medical certifications, such as Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) provided by the National Ski Patrol (USA), that are specific to the winter-season environment and providing emergency medical services in remote locations. Many patrollers also hold EMS issued credentials, such as emergency medical technician or any other pre-hospital care certification. Due to the remote location and terrain, transportation is often limited to Rescue toboggan, snowmobile, or, for life-compromising injuries or extremely remote terrain, helicopter rescue. Depending on the ski area terrain, ski patrollers can be versed in a large variety of specialized rescues, such as avalanche search and rescue, outdoor emergency transportation, chairlift evacuation, and, in some cases, helicopter rescue techniques are taught. Patrols work to promote ski safety, enforce area policies, and help the injured within their jurisdiction. Ski patrollers also work to set up the mountain before it opens by conducting trail checks, providing avalanche control work, and setting up necessary equipment in preparation for the day. At the end of the day, they also conduct a sweep clearing the mountain for off-hours.
Backcountry skiing (US), also called off-piste (Europe), alpine touring, freeriding or out-of-area, is skiing in the backcountry on unmarked or unpatrolled areas either inside or outside a ski resort's boundaries. This contrasts with alpine skiing, which is typically done on groomed trails benefiting from a ski patrol. Unlike ski touring, backcountry skiing can – and often does – include the use of ski lifts including snowcats and helicopters. Recent improvements in equipment have increased the popularity of the sport. As the sport does confront the individual practicing it with the dangers of natural, unprepared alpine terrain like avalanches, it is generally recommended to carry standard safety equipment and to learn beforehand how to behave safely under such conditions.
Jess Fenton Roskelley was an American mountaineer. On May 21, 2003, at age twenty, he became the youngest American to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He died in an avalanche while climbing on Howse Peak in the Canadian Rockies.
Heli-skiing is off-trail, downhill skiing or snowboarding where the skier reaches the top of the mountain by helicopter, instead of a ski lift.
Stewart Alexander Lowe was an American mountaineer. He has been described as inspiring "...a whole generation of climbers and explorers with his uncontainable enthusiasm, legendary training routines, and significant ascents of rock climbs, ice climbs, and mountains all over the world...". He died in an avalanche on Shishapangma, in Tibet. The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation honors his legacy.
The Aiguille Verte, which is French for "Green Needle", is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps.
A ski film is a motion picture with sequences of expedition, recreation, competition, or acrobatic exhibition on snow skis. These non-fiction action sport films capture the experience of an athletic outdoor snow sporting culture. Ski films typically present one or more techniques, locations, or skiers. Categories include the feature, documentary of competition or other event coverage, instruction or technique demonstration, retrospective history, travel guide showcasing a region, or a short subject. More than 200 such videos debuted in 2006. Notable examples are listed at the Ski and Snowboard Film Institute, or have received awards from the International Ski Film Festival, X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival, IF3 International Freeski Film Festival, Newschoolers magazine, Cold Smoke Winter Film, Powder magazine, or similar.
Jimmy Chin is an American professional mountain athlete, photographer, skier, film director, and author.
Backcountry snowboarding is snowboarding in a sparsely inhabited rural region over ungroomed and unmarked slopes or pistes in the backcountry, frequently amongst trees, usually in pursuit of fresh fallen snow, known as powder. Often, the land and the snow pack are not monitored, patrolled, or maintained. Fixed mechanical means of ascent such as ski lifts are typically not present, but alternative means such as splitboarding, hiking, snowshoeing and helicopters ("heliskiing") are sometimes used to reach the mountain's peak.
Kílian Jornet is a Spanish professional long-distance trail runner and ski mountaineer. Jornet has won some of the most prestigious ultramarathons, including the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc multiple times, Grand Raid, Western States and Hardrock.
André Roch was a Swiss mountaineer, avalanche researcher and expert, skier, resort developer, engineer, and author. Roch is best known for having planned and surveyed the Aspen, Colorado, ski resort, and also as an adviser on avalanche management whose expertise was sought throughout the world.
Jean-Marc Boivin was a French mountaineer, extreme skier, hang glider and paraglider pilot, speleologist, BASE jumper, film maker and author. The holder of several altitude records for hang gliding and paragliding, the creator of numerous first ascents and first ski descents in the Alps, a member of the team that broke the record for a sub-glacial dive and the first person to paraglide from the summit of Mount Everest, Boivin was a pioneer of extreme sports. He died from injuries incurred after BASE jumping off Angel Falls in Venezuela, the highest waterfall in the world.
Chris Davenport is considered one of the world's most accomplished big-mountain skiers and mountaineers. A native of Aspen, Colorado, he has been called "one of North America's top 25 skiers by Skiing Magazine and is a "two-time extreme skiing world champion".
Speed-flying and speed-riding are advanced disciplines close to paragliding that use a small, high-performance non-rigid wing to quickly descend heights such as mountains. Speed flying and speed riding are very similar sports; speed flying is when the speed wing is foot-launched, while speed riding is a winter sport done on skis.
Neal Jay Beidleman is an American mountaineer and climbing guide, known for surviving the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. After the disaster, Beidleman's stories were featured on the U.S. television news show Nightline and PBS's Frontline, in which his decisions and patience were credited for likely saving the lives of himself and several other less-experienced climbers along the Kangshung Face. Beidleman has reached the summit of eight-thousanders five times, Makalu (1x), Cho Oyu (1x) and Mount Everest (3x).
Olof Sundstrom is a Swedish adventurer, high altitude mountaineer, solo sailor and inspirational speaker.
Luis Andreas Stitzinger was a German ski mountaineer, alpinist, and mountain guide. Stitzinger was one of the most prominent big mountain skiers of his generation, known for his ten successful summits of eight-thousanders, and ski descents of seven of them.