On July 14, 2024, Sylvian Saudan, one of the pioneers in big-mountain extreme skiing, died at the age of 87 in Les Houches, France. The Swiss alpine skier collected 23 first descents and set numerous world records in his life, skiing some of the biggest and steepest mountains from the Alps to the Himalayas, Alaska, British Columbia, and beyond. His wife told Dauphiné Libéré that he died of a heart attack.
Born in 1936 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Saudan got his first skis at 6, according to a 2017 Mountain Life interview. In his 20s, he became a ski instructor and a mountain guide in Aspen, Colo.
By his 30s, Saudan had gained recognition for the extreme terrain he was conquering on skis and had earned his lifelong nickname, “skieur de l’impossible” or “Skier of the impossible.”
Sylvian Saudan: A Ski Pioneer on Many Fronts
In 1967, Saudan made the first descents of the Couloir Sans Nom on Rothorn and Mont Blanc’s infamous Spencer Couloir. In the 1970s, Saudan helped pioneer heli-skiing in Canada’s Bugaboo Mountains with Hans Gmoser.
Around that time, he also developed his own style of short, wide metal skis. They were specifically designed for skiing deep backcountry snow — a precursor to modern powder skis.
By the ’80s, Saudan had started skiing in the Himalayas. He made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for his 1982 ski descent of Pakistan’s Hidden Peak. In 1985, on his 50th birthday, he skied from the summit of Mount Fuji — “on scree, without snow,” his Wikipedia notes.
Saudan was famously quoted saying, “When you ski down a corridor, you’re really edging death with each move that is not perfectly controlled. There’s really only one way out: don’t fall down.”
Throughout his life, he appeared in several ski films and extreme sports TV shows, such as La Liste and Ultimate Rush.
Saudan’s wife, Marie-José Valençot, survives him.
