A team accustomed to Verbier extends its ski season each summer in pursuit of his goal to climb and ski the steepest slopes of pays.Texte: Kathryn Adams

In Switzerland, if you want to ski in summer, you will go high, very high.

Last summer, the team “Peaks & Steeps”, you can already read the adventures of extreme skiing in Verbier Life, consisted of Chris Kohler, the pillar of the project, Mauro Soregaroli, an experienced mountain guide installed in Verbier, and Tino Schiffer, a former competitor of the FWT.

After consulting the weather forecast, the relevant date to tackle the face of NE Lenzspitze (4’294 m) is Sunday, June 28, and as expected, the team found that day in the parking lot of Saas -Fee and headed on foot to the Hannig gondola. From there, they have to walk four hours and end with the ascent along the Schwarzhorn is stopped by a series of cables, via ferrata and finally a scale in order to rally the Mischabel hut. A climb which in itself is far from an easy task.

After only one hour of walking, a strange popping noise reaches their ears. They soon realize that the soles of the good old Tino rangers just give up the ghost and make the trunk. Heavy tape, string, shoelaces: they try different solutions but nothing can prevent shoes from Tino tattered, so he should continue as it barefoot for three hours remaining.

Then comes a watered convivial evening a few drinks together Génépi guardians of refuge (where our three summer skiers are figure of curiosity), before a good night’s sleep. The team wakes at dawn, as is the rule in the mountain huts, and discovers that the wind is icy breath the day before. This means that the slope will be completely frozen and all but a cakewalk. You can not drag the top of a mountain, you cool down and you déconcentrez. So, as the ascent should only take them around three hours, they decided on the advice of Mauro copiously lunch and go back to bed. Three hours later the wind always blows, but it makes a clear and beautiful day, and as they know that improvement is expected, they set off.

Curiously this time it is not the feet of Tino (now well wrapped in ski boots) but his old knee problem that begins to torture him. There is nothing more difficult than to give up a dream, but realizing he could delay and possibly endanger his fellow adventurers, Tino decides to stop its ascent at the bergschrund (deep crevasse between the moving ice of static ice adhering to the rock faces) and tells others that await them in a safe place, a little lower.

The rest of the climb is on schedule, but when Chris and Mauro 9:45 to reach the top, something strange happens. They feel the icy wind to calm down, and fixing the southwest towards the Matterhorn, they see what they describe as a “wall of black air” heading straight for them.

“We felt deep inside ourselves that we were witnessing the arrival of summer,” says Chris.

In 10 minutes, the ice slope turns into soft snow.

“Now, Mauro said, it’s time to go.”

Extreme skiing is a particular discipline to 4,000 m with slopes of 55 ° inclination, you must demonstrate a flawless technique, and total confidence in yourself and your equipment. As Mauro said, “there is no room for doubt, this is the area no-fall (Editor’s note:” area where the fall is prohibited “).”

They tell you the feeling of flying more than skiing. You know that the edges of your skis make contact with the snow, but you feel as if suspended between the mountains and sky. All 20 turns (about because no account), Mauro and Chris make a stop time to rest, breathe, consider the following line and … enjoy the moment.

Past the bergschrund they join Tino, all three together skiing the glacier to the snowline, where they walk back down and return to Saas-Fee.

Back in the valley, glancing back, they discover that the force of water from melting snow dug a waterfall in a serac. Then they understand that their ski season finally ends.

Today, Chris tells me that he saw almost every day pure ecstasy of the sensation he felt that day on his final Lenzspitze and snow conditions. They attribute its conditions then an extraordinary opportunity, but as far as I know, their only hope was that the weather under their watchful and careful preparation is indeed the appointment.

Tino regret having missed the mark, but he is convinced, as difficult as it was, I made the right decision. His knee is fully recovered and feet show off a new pair of brand new hiking boots, already honed and ready to stock up on steep slopes next summer.