Jeremie Heitz - La Liste

[Creeker]

This reminds me of a week in Las Lenas in 2008. The mountain turned into full on breakable crust after an epic storm cycle and while mortals like us were survival skiing, Seb Michaud and friends were ripping like it was wind buff.

The movie makes incredibly difficult skiing look so simple!

[subtle plague]

He is, but I don't feel good about his future. Losing that ski made me cringe.

no I meant antamatten. If Antamatten does not want anything to do with it no one should. That's why I think the kid is pushing it too hard.

[klar]

no I meant antamatten. If Antamatten does not want anything to do with it no one should. That's why I think the kid is pushing it too hard.

x2. For me that was almost more of a notable moment than losing the ski.

I wonder how mountain-human-engaging backcountry films can exist without the, quite literally, death defying skiing? No one would find it entertaining, at least not enough to justify the budget. It is a shame, as there is a whole genre mostly unexplored by those outfits with big budgets and high-end production values. Powder Whores were one of the few who have come close, at least at the the homebrew level, and even they had a GBOGH bias.

I thought conquering the useless was engaging and definitely not on this level of death defying. I also think this is engaging and it's very quiet and slow:

Personally, those are two examples that I found more enjoyable to watch than La Liste, because I am not constantly thinking "I hope this guy doesn't die next winter, but the way this is going....". Less "edge of your seat" fascinating and mindblowing but still more enjoyable. Obviously YYMV.. A few of the salomon freeski TV episodes try to work with the mountain-human-engaging thing, including the current Guilt Trip.

The feeling I get with La Liste kind of reminds me of things that have gone down at freeride comps, people take huge risks and because they are good at counting cards, they can pull it off more often than not, but that "not" is waiting and everyone knows it. You see it catch up with people a couple of times, start to understand what those odds mean in real terms and suddenly you can't watch anymore.

[gramboh]

Wow. Super super super impressive and scary skiing. Going that fast on such steep exposed no-fall terrain is just unimaginable. To me this feels like it's at the extreme limit of what's possible. It kind of reminds me of Andreas Fransson's approach, not so much in the style of skiing but in terms of a highly skilled athlete pushing to the outer limits of what is possible and has never been done. Huge risk but huge reward to the individual.

When the movie has the shot of Luca making multiple turns for everyone turn that Jeremie does on the Lyskamm it puts it in perspective. The shot of Jeremie and Sam skiing the Lenzspitze at the same time was pretty incredible too.

[glademaster]

The moments after he lost his ski and arrested were some of the most telling in the whole film for me. It's pretty common these days to have athletes mic'd up, and it seems like they cut to that audio after they crash, and usually guys sound a little dazed but relieved. You could tell Heitz was absurdly gripped in that audio, and that he was still wrapping his head around the fact that he should be dead.

This sort of high speed ski mountaineering is almost more closely related to wing suit flying or BASE jumping than it is to traditional skiing in my mind. The margins for error are far more akin to wing suit flying than they are to skiing. It's impressive as hell, but if he keeps that up, his days are numbered.

[telefreewasatch]

Gonna disagree with a lot of whats been said here. I think the guy is pretty calculated actually.
1) Not seeing avy conditions.
2) Waiting for good snow to glue onto the ice for the most part.
3) Most of the lines have a clean run out...not you fall you WILL die lines.

The line where he lost a ski is a good example...scared the crap out of him, but probably not a death fall if he hadn't gotten it under control. And look at how it skied when the ice was better covered when he went back! More patience needed on that one. Even that last line that Sam said "no" to looks to me like an uncontrolled fall would have ended before the crevasses. (Besides, we can't see the camo white B-net that is installed above the crevasses).

Despite what I've just said, we all know that luck plays an important part of the games being played in the mountains of the world currently, and I hope the luck is strong with this one. Taking steep skiing to the level that he and Sam are is truly inspiring and has obvious risk. Here's to long productive lives for them both.

[glademaster]

You and I clearly didn't watch the same film. Or you're an incredibly cavalier person who should never, ever procreate for the sake of developing a more rationally minded population.

[telefreewasatch]

You and I clearly didn't watch the same film. Or you're an incredibly cavalier person who should never, ever procreate for the sake of developing a more rationally minded population.

No, we saw the same film. And I'm not cavalier, either. Too late on the procreation part, sorry.

What I saw was an athlete fast becoming an alpinist able to turn around when he did not like conditions. When you add the production of a film crew to the scene, that is a difficult decision to make. Especially when one is younger. I'm seeing a skier with mad skills who is able to turn around. In my opinion he is more mature and calculated than this forum is giving him credit for.

[klar]

Gonna disagree with a lot of whats been said here. I think the guy is pretty calculated actually.

Of course he is pretty calculated, otherwise he wouldn't have succeeded with this. It's just that everybody makes their own personal calculation about acceptable risk. Most people, including his highly accomplished, successful, really, really bad ass ski partners, obtain a different result than he does in that calculation. I don't think anyone is saying he doesn't know what he's doing, just that there aren't a lot of people willing to take that kind of risk. It's an incredibly achievement for sure. The BASE and wingsuit analogy is pretty accurate I think.

Whether he is waiting for "good snow" is debatable, imo. I think he is waiting for "skiable" snow, applying his own definition of the term. If he was waiting for truly good snow (by the general standard), I don't think he could have done this in 2 seasons. I disagree about most of the faces having a clean runout. Some do, many don't. For the Obergabelhorn (last line) an uncontrolled fall might not end in a crevasse, but there is still the issue of an uncontrolled fall. He cut pretty hard looker's right in the top part above the rocks and skied at the right edge of the face, seeing as there was hardly any snow anywhere else.

[Lindahl]

This reminds me of a week in Las Lenas in 2008. The mountain turned into full on breakable crust after an epic storm cycle and while mortals like us were survival skiing, Seb Michaud and friends were ripping like it was wind buff.

The movie makes incredibly difficult skiing look so simple!

Hah, I had a day like that at Vail, 2 years ago. Saw a massive track down Genghis in some nasty raincrust and then came up on Sethmo on the skintrack. I gave it my best too, but that track was next level for sure.

[telefreewasatch]

Almost everyone reading this forum is personally acquainted with acceptable risk.

A lot of folks with equally mad skills, some of you among them are skiing couloirs at 40+ mph yet no one is talking about acceptable risk in this terrain...we've worked up to this point. In my opinion, an uncontrolled fall with rock walls on both sides going as fast as many are these days, has a greater risk of death than an uncontrolled fall on a smooth plane with a clean run out. Wing suiting, especially proximity flying, compares more favorably to high speed gully skiing than it does to open faces.

Besides, anyone skiing in these places at any speed who takes an uncontrolled fall will have the same outcome whatever that may be. His skills going 40mph in those places are better than mine at 10.

These guys are taking face skiing to a new level. When you are pioneering you get a lot of criticism...these are the necessary checks and balances that we need to advance in any endeavor. I agree that there is a lot of risk being taken here but Sam, Xav, and others are a big part of whats happened and is happening. Jeremie is not a lone cowboy here like just as Saudan wasn't in his day.

Klar, agreed that not all the lines had clean runouts, but that list was pretty well chosen for what was down below. The conditions appeared ideal on most lines, maybe a little more patience waiting for a couple of them. Hope his career is long and fruitful!

p.s. Klar, also agreed that what is being done in the comps is as dangerous to one's health as this is.

[skieurmalade]

I was the most puckered with the first couple of turns on the first big line... such hard charging and then you see that if he fell there, he would have fallen for a very very long way. That was insane. Otherwise I agree it was pretty clean run outs on many of the faces.

[m-ruta]

Damn impressive skiing. Huge props to Heitz for having a vision and making it happen. Even with the infrastructure of the Alps, this kind of project would be a huge undertaking for such a short time.

As for the risk, I don't pretend to be an expert in falling down steep things (and certainly have no wish to be) but it seems to me that his runouts are almost universally clean and snow conditions almost universally soft and slow. Obviously he's taking a much higher risk of a fall by skiing at speed, but compared to many other cutting edge descents that are much more exposed and often skied in firm/variable snow, the consequences here are notably lower. Still makes my palms sweat to watch it though...

[Ted26]

Wish there were more movies like this one

[N1CK.]

that was amazing ... thx

[neck beard]

I think it is his guides being calculated, not him. In the movie he was described as being quite new to ski mountaineering. Despite this being the era of the anti-expert, 5 years isn't much in terrain like that. Or even terrain half of that, particularly when self promotion is involved. And it is hubris to think you can be very calculated in big mountains any way. Way too many uncertainties with very high consequences. Calculated in that environment means convincing yourself why it should be skied today, starting with a default opinion that it should almost never be skied on any given day. A hit rate of one line per year, not 10 per season. He almost ate shit on one of his easier low consequences lines. Best to not be "fooled by randomness."

Klar - agree with Conquering the Useless, though it had a theme that I do not dig so much, but that is personal taste more than anything. An El Cuentista was nice. Perhaps a little more skiing, but it all evens out in the end. Thank you for suggesting it.

Anyway, agree with more movies of this style. People have been saying that for a while now. The establishment refuses to listen.

[Mofro261]

That was absolutely brilliant mostly pow skiing, they hit more than half of those lines in very good conditions and some of those turns will make there way into my sleep. Incredible strength and stamina to rip like that after the time and effort needed just to climb it.

I hope we get to enjoy much more from Heitz, there are always issues with bucket list approaches and self imposed deadlines that increase the chance of pushing it under marginal conditions. Yeah he got 11/15 in the time frame, but if the flick had been only 7-8 of those really choice lines it would held up equally well. I think these guys generally are making good decisions and have the field vision to find if not the soft snow at least the smooth white patches to make the edges bite, but any uncontrolled slide could be deadly if you shwack a patch of grey while tumbling.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

That was beautiful and terrifying. Hope he lives a long time.

[reckless toboggan]

That's not skiing! That's falling with style!

[rob stokes]

Amazing. Best skiing I have ever watched. Beautiful mountains.


Agree on the clean run outs for the most part, but what I feel many of you are missing out on is the fact that crashing on 55* at 50mph with 900m of vert below you, it doesn't matter if it's a clean run out or not!

He was very lucky in his one crash.

[neck beard]

We also become so engrossed in the enormity of the obvious hazards that we totally forget about the things that are probably more likely to catch anyone moving so often and so comfortably in that environment: falling in a crevasse unroped. Size 1 slab above a small cliff or bergschrund. Serac fall. People call them bad luck events, but they are actually simple very common hazards which are almost totally unrelated to your skill as a skier. The 30 seconds of balls-to-the-wall skiing is potentially the less hazardous part of the whole day.

[m-ruta]

We also become so engrossed in the enormity of the obvious hazards that we totally forget about the things that are probably more likely to catch anyone moving so often and so comfortably in that environment: falling in a crevasse unroped. Size 1 slab above a small cliff or bergschrund. Serac fall. People call them bad luck events, but they are actually simple very common hazards which are almost totally unrelated to your skill as a skier. The 30 seconds of balls-to-the-wall skiing is potentially the less hazardous part of the whole day.

This is an excellent point.

Agree on the clean run outs for the most part, but what I feel many of you are missing out on is the fact that crashing on 55* at 50mph with 900m of vert below you, it doesn't matter if it's a clean run out or not!

With 900m vert below you the speed at which you crash is relatively unimportant. I'll take a 50mph crash above 900m of clean pow over a 2mph crash above ice and exposure all day and twice on Sundays. The issue has nothing to do with how fast you're going when you start crashing and everything to do with how fast you're going when you stop.

[Island Bay]

Finally got to watch the whole thing.

Apart from the fact that it was terrifying, I found it easily the most beautiful, impressive and aesthetically pleasing skiing I've ever seen. He chose magical lines in some of the most beautiful mountains in the world, and did them justice. Not a single Alaskan spine in sight (sorry, but I'm sick to death of them), no slo-mo-pow-turn-on-sled moment - somehow almost cliche free.

The Spencer Couloir has always had a special pull, and now I badly want to ski it, or at least climb halfway up it. Obergabelhorn looked immense, and Aiguille de l'Amone beautiful in a deadly way. Those are just three that stick in my mind.

Klar has very nicely articulated some of the issues, and I shall refrain from trying to add to that before watching again and gathering my thoughts a bit more.

Oh, and Sam Anthamatten is bad ass.

[rob stokes]

This is an excellent point.



With 900m vert below you the speed at which you crash is relatively unimportant. I'll take a 50mph crash above 900m of clean pow over a 2mph crash above ice and exposure all day and twice on Sundays. The issue has nothing to do with how fast you're going when you start crashing and everything to do with how fast you're going when you stop.

Uhhh dunno about that! Also did ya watch the film? Not much pow there and a lot of ice.....

[wyeaster]

insane. it's hard to believe. at those speeds on those faces your number will be up sooner or later from some simple thing going wrong.