Home Mountain Range
Chamonix Mont Blanc (France)
What was the highlight of your season?
3 days riding untouched powder in the Dolomites couloirs, the west face of the Eiger and the first snowboarding descent of the Coolidge Couloir on Monviso.
Where did you ride this year?
Mainly in Mont Blanc Massif but also in the Swiss Alps and Italian Alps.
Product
Flagship 168 and Solution 168.
Boards you used this year and for what conditions
Flagship 168 in all conditions; solution 168 especially for long approaches in deep powder.
Favorite board
Flagship 168, the best freeriding big mountain board I have ever used in 20 years of riding.
I love the shape and the flex of the board that allows me to ride at my best with all snow conditions.
The rocker and its shape are perfect to float in deep powder without leaning constantly on my back leg, plus its really stable at high speed.
Along the big lines in the Alps you often find some patches of hard snow, the magne-traction works really well in these parts, giving me much more security.
At 26cm wide in the middle it's perfect for my 10.5 size feet; even on steep 50°- 55° I don't touch with my toes or heels and that is a great thing when you are riding such huge exposed lines.
What really impressed me about this board is that it never stops accelerating !!!
Did your board take you to a higher level at any point in the season?
The Flagship gives me much more confidence on all types of terrain giving me sensations I never had before.
It really takes me to a higher level when I ride fast the long and steep lines in powder in my "garden" on the Aiguille du Midi and when I need agility and response.
Why do you snowboard?
It's my way to express myself, it makes me feel alive.
Riding revitalizes my mind and my body and balance my energies.
When I snowboard I don't think, my mind gets quiet and another part of me that I recognize as my deep essence takes control; it's a door to another dimension
I experience life from another point of view, perfectly in the moment and completly absorbed by the element I am moving through.
It's a form of meditation, my mind, my body and the mountain become the same thing; it's a superfeeling!
What is your goal in Snowboarding?
To create the biggest powder waves and to get as many faceshots as I can.
To explore the mountains of the world and the hidden corners of my mind.
Keep pushing my limits, enjoying the freedom of being on the mountains, sharing my experiences and my love for nature with others and make them realise how lucky we are to live in this magic but weak environment.
Try to keep riding as long as I can.
How do you train for snowboarding?
Eating good pasta and pizzas!
Climbing, biking, slacklining, meditating, running and spending time on the mountains as much I can
Searching for new mountains, imagining my line on them and then I start dreaming...
What will you do after snowboarding?
I will snowboard untill my body falls to pieces.
Basejumping and wingsuiting fascinates me.
I think i'll keep climbing, surfing and travelling, exploring the world from another more relaxed point of view...maybe sailing
I'm really attracted to the idea of riding the African deserts on a motorbike.
I also would like to dedicate more time to photography and exploring the cultures of the world.
Why do you love to freeride?
Freeriding is the purest espression of yourself, its like painting.
You find your way through the rocks and cliffs of your soul.
Freeriding allows us to be and accepts us for who we are. We interpret the line with our own style...everyone's line is unique
Freeriding makes my soul free.
What's your dream line look like?
Every line for me is special.
Mainly for freeriding, it would be in perfect compact powder, I like to drop into a steep line at the top, make a few tight turns on the spine with the slough on both sides, 3 massive accelerating turns on an exposed snowfield, big frontside slideslash on a windlip, compulsory drop in the middle rocky band, a few more big turns and straight down into a narrow and less steep couloir that opens up at the bottom into a wide cone.
In mountaineering snowboarding I like exposed lines where no mistakes are possible; I like the total mind concentration of making turns in the only place possible.
I wish one day to have the possibility to experience the spines in Alaska.
When did your start splitboarding? Do splitboards work? Has splitboarding changed snowboarding for you?
I started splitboarding last year with the solution.
They really work well on long deep powder approaches and for me its almost the same as riding the flagship.
It made my life my a lot easier rather than struggling around with snowshoes. Its given me more motivation and a safer way to go exploring new wild places especially here in the Alps with big and dangerous crevassed glaciers.
Spiltboarding is for me the proper and ethical way to approach a line.
