Mark Smiley putting his skills to the test on one of the cruxes of the route. Red Bull photo.
For the last month, a team of the world’s best ski mountaineers has been out achieving the impossible: a ski traverse of the Alps. The long way. On March 17, the team of seven skiers left Reichenau an der Rax, a small town near Vienna, and started walking towards Nice, France. The team was made up of Bernhard Hug, Philipp Reiter, David Wallman, and Jackson’s own Mark and Janelle Smiley. Their route crossed dozens of major peaks like Austria’s 3798m Großglockner along the way, covering 1070 miles and nearly 300,000 vertical feet. How’s that for a ski trip?
The trip was inspired by a 1971 mission by four Austrian skiers to attempt a similar route, skiing from Vienna to Nice in 40 days. This year’s adventure included extreme challenges like weather, endless days of walking, and the fact that most of the athletes had never skied together before. Days typically included 10k vertical feet back to back, which allowed the athletes to do things like skiing the entire Haute Route in two days.
Working together as a team allowed the athletes to overcome literally anything that was thrown at them. Red Bull photo.
“The biggest challenge was certainly the bad weather, which made life difficult for us almost every day,” David Wallmann said. “Actually, only on the previous days we were finally rewarded by some sunshine for all the stresses and strains.”
Weather proved to be such a challenge that the athletes had break off their ascent of Mont Blanc after Mark Smiley broke off a wind slab and the group turned around. These kinds of unpredictable conditions proved to be a common theme throughout the trip.
After their historic feat, the athletes are now resting, beers in hand, on a beach in southern France. “We were 36 days on the road, we were stuck in a blizzard at 3700 metres, we rode in knee-deep spring-snow, and now we are at the beach, this is totally crazy,” Philipp Reiter looked back. “I still cannot believe we really made it. It was damn far, it was pretty hard, but that doesn't matter anymore, because we’re here now!”
The moment they were all waiting for. Red Bull photo.
About The Author
stash member Max Ritter
I manage digital content here at TGR, run our gear testing program, and am stoked to be living the dream in the Tetons.