What makes some of us risk their lives by searching for extreme ski descents? What is so magnificent with riding steep and narrow couloirs high on the mountains?

“If there’s no risk, there’s no adventure“, says Bill Briggs who was the first to ski Grand Teton. Bill was later named as the father of backcountry skiing in United States.

“There’s nobody out there with signs, there’s no ropes, there’s no patrol men, there’s nobody taking care of you on the slopes. It’s not a ski area“, said Doug Coombs in ski movie Steep.

Extreme skiing is skiing performed on long, steep (typically from 45 to 60+ degrees, or grades of 100 to 170 percent) slopes in dangerous terrain, outside the ski area boundaries. The French coined the term ‘Le Ski Extreme’ in the 1970s. The first practitioners include Swiss skier Sylvain Saudan, who invented the “windshield wiper” turn in the mid-1960s and in 1967 made the first descents of slopes in the Swiss, French and Italian Alps that were previously considered impossible. Because of the extremely long, steep slopes, and dangerous terrain, single mistakes at the wrong moment by some extreme skiers have led to their deaths. [Wikipedia 2009]

Riding the legendary north face of l’Aiguille du Midi via Mallory-Porter

Homeboy team rider Jarkko Henttonen discovered Chamonix in the beginning of 1990s, and since those days he has ridden many of the classic extreme runs, such as the north face of l’Aiguille du Midi via Mallory-Porter couloir. Although Jarkko did Mallory some time ago already I wanted to hear more about preparing and riding probably one of the best known extreme route. Here’s my discussion with Jarkko.

Jarkko, how would you first of all define the term “classic extreme ski descent”?

Extreme descent is a ski route which is big, steep and hazardous. Extreme skiing is a game that was developed in Chamonix over the past century. Chamonix, as we all know, is the birth place of mountaineering and it was just natural that folks who were climbing all over mountains started to ski all over mountains as well. In 30s and 40s some of the pioneers of the sport skied in pretty funny places, especially considering the gear they had. The sport stared to develop faster after the WW II when modern ski gear came out, and modern extreme skiing started in the end of the 1960s when Sylvan Saudan started to explore steep faces and couloirs in the Aiguilles du Chamonix and other big peaks in the Massif du Mont Blanc. Or so the story goes, at least.

The definition of extreme skiing, or snowboarding, if that is your sport, is that if you fall, or even loose control, you can expect to die sometime very soon. This happens because the slope you are riding is so steep that you won´t be able to regain control and you´ll fall all the way down to the bottom of the slope, hitting rocks and falling over rock or ice cliffs or whatever may be on your way. Basically you are tumbling down for a long time like a rag doll, not being able to do a thing to save your sorry ass.

Classic descent, in turn, is a ski route that has usually been opened up sometime ago, say in 60s, 70s or in some cases in the 80s, and that has some qualities that make it desirable. What I mean is that the route must have somehow aesthetic, historical or other such  value that lures people to it.

How did you come up with the idea of riding the north face of l’Aiguille du Midi via Mallory-Porter?

Someone, likely my friend Marko Virtanen, showed it to me. Check it out, that´s Mallory there! And like most everybody at first I didn´t even see where it was. I was like, where? This was in the beginning of 90s, I think in 1992.

The first ski descent of the route was done in 1977, I think, and with snowboards, which was still pretty new then, in 89 0r 90. The route had bit of aura on it back then. If you had done it, you were elite, pure and simple. I´d say that despite some trends and changes in attitudes that is still true. It´s a test-piece.

Next year, in 93, I was getting into extreme riding a little bit, and kinda started looking at Mallory, too. That kinda stuff was solely domain of french extreme athletes back then, and I wondered if I´d ever be good enough. I mean, I come from Finland, and how much tradition we have in that kinda stuff? To start with we don´t even have that kinda stuff in Finland, nothing like it, our highest so called mountain is like, what, less than 1300 m and about as flat as the earth was during the middle age. Our country is like a pancake. Anyways, that year a late friend of mine, Jukka Sistonen, skied it with another late friend, Alain Moroni, a french mountain guide and a pioneer of extreme snowboarding, and another frenchie, David Ravanel, a skier and a mountain guide whom I´ve only met a couple of times. I realized that this kinda stuff is also possible for flatlanders,  and from then on I really wanted to do it.

By the way, during 93-95 or even bit later, there was some kind of a change going on in attitudes. I´d say that´s when freeride started to develop big time, and that had an effect on a lot of things that were happening up in the mountains. New school freestyle skiing started to develop then, and similar thing happened in freeride, too. It´s going to be interesting to see what happens now that the two are really starting to merge, with guys like Travis Rice and the likes really getting into back-country freeriding…

How and how long did you prepare for this endeavor?

Quite a while. From the day I realized it´s there and I can do it, it took me about 8 years to actually make the descent. Either it was in condition and I wasn´t or I wasn´t there, or if I was good to go, the route wasn´t. Gotta be patient. If I had been in Chamonix all the time, probably I would have made it much earlier. I almost did it in 95, but missed my chance by about an hour or two.

Could you tell us about that day? How were the snow conditions, how did you feel?

I rode it with Antti Kurola, the day before Verbier Xtreme in 2001, in the beginning of April. I don´t remember anymore who it was but anyways somebody told me that it had been skied and that it is in condition. I´d been in Verbier for about 10 days or something, waiting for the Xtreme to take place, it was delayed due to weather and snow conditions, and was planning to go back home to Finland right after the contest, and since I had nothing better to do, I decided to go have a look.

So, we woke up in Verbier around 4 o´clock in the morning, drove to Chamonix, bought the lift passes to Aiguille du Midi, took the tram up and had a good look at the face from the mid-station. It looked good enough and we went up with the second lift and had a good look at the route from the lift, as well as from the top station. Even from closer it look kinda ok, so we decided to ride it.

We did not drop in from the entrance of the icy tunnel, which would have been better. The top was icy, so we opted to traverse to the ridge from top of Eperon Frendo. It was pretty cool feeling to drop in, after such a long wait. I mean, eight years is quite a long wait.

I went first and Antti came after me. We were both pretty stoked. Antti likes his big lines, he is or at least was into skiing steeps.

The traverse was ok, but the snow on the ridge was sorta hardish. Antti made the first turn and we just laughed. Whoa, here we go! Nowadays Mallory is ridden constantly if the conditions are good, but back then it was still sort of a big deal to do it, and definitely it was a big deal for us, especially for me.

Some guys have done it in like 15 minutes or something, but we wanted to take it easy and enjoy the ambiance… So, we took our time, I think it took us about 2 hours or something to go from the top to the bottom of the face.

The kinda has five or six different sections. First it goes down this broad ridge, which is mostly snow up high, then lower down it has big rocks sticking out of the snow all over. The top part was in sorta bad condition, it was not icy but the snow was quite hard so we had to take it easy. Lower down on the ridge, in this kinda shallow bowl thing it was better and we could relax a bit. Then you drop into this quite steep couloir that is above some gnarly drops. The snow was good there, so it was pretty ok doing that bit. Then you enter this sorta big diagonal ramp with at least partial double fall line with pretty big exposure above cliffs. It was bigger than it looks, so you don´t really feel the exposure that bad if you don´t go to the edge. I of course went, especially at the bottom of it I had to go look over the edge. I reckon I made my most precise turn ever there. Then you traverse to this patch of snow that is pretty damn steep, and really exposed. It was hard making turns there, the snow was bit weird. Stable and solid, sure, but not too smooth, it felt kinda grippy. From there you traverse on this little ramp to a spot from where you make a I think about 25-30 meter rappel to this steepish ramp. Once you are there, you should be fine. The ramps leads into a couloir, which opens up underneath the face. The whole thing is about 1000 m high, I´d say most of the way it´s most definitely at least 40-45 degrees steep, with long sections of about 50 degree incline and the steepest parts are about 55 degrees. It´s a radical route to ride, for sure, and the guys who opened it up in 1977 must have been super fucking stoked to do it. I mean, it´s right there, underneath the lift, and because of this, it´s unique. No other place in the world like this.

What were the highlights of riding Mallory-Porter?

The whole thing. First waiting for years and then one day waking up in Verbier, driving to Chamonix, going up, riding down, driving back… The whole thing was just such a fun thing to do.

Maybe the funniest thing was when we were about to do the rappel, and decided to call to Arto Majava, our buddy, who for sure would have wanted to be with us, but was back home instead. It was sorta early in the morning so we woke him up. I asked him how he is, he said ok, then he asked what we are up to, and I told him, trying to be as casual as possible, that we are on Mallory, about to do the rap, and then there was just a very long silence on the other end of the line.

How difficult is it to ride this classic off-piste run? To what would you compare it?

I wouldn´t really call it an off-piste run. Off-piste run is something way easier. Anyways, it is quite difficult. Not out of this world, though. I mean, I´ve done it, so more or less anybody can do if they really want it enough. And as I said, guys have done it in like 15 minutes, and if it is on, people do it a lot, it´s a mogulfield on the best, or the worst days.

As I described, it has some rather steep sections, and it is exposed all the way. In some places I´d say it is very exposed: you are riding above huge cliffs, and it feels really airy. I´d say it falls into extreme descent category, and if you do fall you have a pretty big risk to die. Then again, I´m quite sure somebody has fallen, or at least slipped there and not died, but in some sections I´d say it´s guaranteed death if you loose control, start sliding and cannot stop.

I wouldn´t compare it to normal riding at all. In some respect this kind of riding is closer to free solo climbing than anything else. Mallory is not particularly difficult extreme descent, but still, scary and difficult enough.

Would you do it again?

I would, if it´s in good condition and I´m in good condition, too. Right now I´m not.

What would you like to say to those who are planning to ride Mallory-Porter?

For those who are actually really planning it: have a great time when you get to go, it´s an awesome route! For those are thinking about it: make 100% sure you are ready for it. It´s really not a place where you go find out whether or not you are able to do what needs to be done. Test yourself somewhere else.