Big Mountain Pro Helis, hikes and lethal lines
“Just like ‘Nam,” a novice journalist shouts above the whipping rotar blades. Being that close to a helicopter – close enough to have grit blown off the road and into your face – has triggered some collective Apocalypse Now flashback. This ain’t gonna be your average commute.
Short of kicking a panda in the nuts, there is no better way of sticking two fingers up at Mother Nature than riding in a helicopter. Yet to people round these parts, they’re as pedestrian as a bus – hence the two dudes caught smoking next to drums of kerosene. “After a few days, it’s pretty much like taking a car,” reigning Big Mountain Pro champion Xavier de le Rue sums it all up.
Someone please tell the young writer his Vietnam War reference is way out of place. Or is it?
Now in its second year and absorbed into the Freeride World Tour, the O’Neill Big Mountain Pro is billed as a return to the source, an event that plucks fourteen of the most proficient riders – seven snowboarders, seven skiers – and takes them off-piste, out of the park and heli-lifted to the most demanding lines nature has to offer. We’re talking sheer faces the likes of which have rarely been tackled before. There’s a sense of purity and a back-to-basics attitude – though sponsorship helps, hence the chopper.
Event organiser Nicholas Hale-Woods puts it into context. “It started thirteen years ago at Verbier. People said that was too steep, but a few of us realised it was possible.
“The face we did yesterday would’ve certainly been considered too extreme ten or fifteen years ago. But we were attacking it fast – that’s the progression of the sport. Jeremy Jones describes freeriding very well; it should be fast and fluid, but controlled – that’s the key. You can hurt yourself, you can even kill yourself. People have died doing less. But this is the best venue to showcase what is possible with snowboarding.”
“It’s very technical,” adds pro snowboarder and trick-fiend David Benedek. “First, you have to sit at the bottom, take a photo and memorise the features. I’m not used to this dimension.” Being heli-lifted to the very ceiling of the Alps is way beyond his comfort zone, and that’s probably the draw. “It took me a little longer to be interested in this riding. And it’s cool competing alongside skiers.”
Jeremy Jones rocks up to our table, sniffing out wireless with a standard-issue Apple laptop underarm. Despite his height – and it may come as a surprise how tiny some of these big-mountain riders are – he’s very much the man everyone here looks up to. Pipped to the prize last year, Jones is the favourite to win this time around. His eyes are fixed – calm but distant.
“Freeriding is as crazy as it sounds,” Jones says bluntly. “This is not a solo mission – you have to rely on riding partners. There’s very little attitude. Last year, we forgot we were even in a contest.”
Jones cut his teeth carving up Alaska, but he thinks this is the place to be to get your kicks: “If you wanna do something stupid, well, you can.”
If Jeremy Jones jumped off a cliff, would you?
Day one, and the first face is selected: a powdery 45-degree incline in the shadow of Mont Blanc, peppered with ominous-looking rocks and packed ice. For journalists, the chopper plants us four at a time on an adjacent plateau-cum-viewing platform. We huddle in relative comfort, lapping up the sunshine. The competitors are not so fortunate.
Legislation prevents the helicopter from landing in France, meaning the riders are deposited on the Swiss side of the border and forced to hike 400 metres with their kit even before tackling this snow-covered monster of rock. Some relish the bonus adventure: “A steep hike with huge cliffs makes for a full day,” Xavier de le Rue says later. “It’s the total mountain experience.” Others aren’t so keen. “The hike up was bigger than anything I’ve ever done in my life,” admits skier Craig Garbiel. “It drained all my adrenalin.”
From across the valley, the show is something of a flea circus – even with opera-style binoculars provided, take your eyes off the prize and you only have the whoops of fellow spectators to gauge what just went down. One thing is obvious, this is already turning into a two-horse race, with Jeremy Jones and Xavier de le Rue claiming some massive drops to pull away from the pack.
When the judging comes around, Jeremy Jones inevitably walks off with the prize for snowboarding, with de le Rue a close second. Kaj Zackrisson takes top skiing honours.
Jones’ acceptance speech is understated. “It wasn’t my goal to win. I came here to ride fun lines and see what happened. To come out on top is an amazing feeling.”
He has grown up riding big mountains, and matured in the process, making an effort to move away from helicopters and lessen his impact on nature through his work with non-profit environmental organisation Protect Our Winters. “I ride the mountain and I’m out of there,” he says. “I don’t like to leave a mark.”
But somehow, it’s the words of veteran Sverre Liliequist that rattle around my head. “It’s not just about going harder or faster, it’s about getting the best line,” he told me. “It’s like a painting. Every rider is looking over their shoulder to see their tracks.”
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