Un racconto in inglese (lo scrissi così all'epoca, non l'ho ancora tradotto...) di una giornata di freeride come poche. Un gruppo di ragazzi e ragazze che sfuggono al phoen salendo quasi a 3000 m, a Crevacol, nella valle del Gran S.Bernardo.
La fatica ripagata in pieno da una parete nord con neve che sembra appena caduta, con il vantaggio che è perfettamente assestata e sicura. Credo che sia il miglior condimento alle succulente immagini che avete appena visto.
Buona lettura.
"The white rabbit.
It was a day in one of those hot winter weeks,
mostly in january and february, when the phoen is blowing
and you are wondering if the snow is gonna stand
it or melt the hell away.
Christian called me the night before talking about
this almost unexplored backcountry north face,
half an hour worth of fresh pow pow.
Ettore and Alfredo dropped in there the day before
and they described it as a great meal for us powder
hungry wolves. There is even a huge snow wave created
by the wind. Ettore pulled a 5 meters indy nosebone,
like the one he did in Sweden while shooting for
k2.
At 7.30 I've picked up Christian in Aosta, then we headed
toward the T2 Gran S.Bernardo motorway, that has lead us to
Crevacol in less than half an hour, through the beautiful valley
of S.Rhemy en Bosses.
Once there we met on the slopes, in the only bar available,
with Alfredo and the local, Ettore. Quick cappuccino and
brioche then we started riding to warm up. Recently the only
skilift in the resort has been replaced by a modern and fast
chair lift. Check it out @ http://www.skivallee.it/uk/pages/stazioni/rhemy/main.html
by the way. Nice small resort, with the famous hidden
features.
And that's what this story is about.
At 12 we reached the top of the slopes and started climbing toward
Tete de Crevacol, almost 3000m of elevation. It took us
almost an hour. Once at the top my camelback was empty.
We had a pleasant lunch admiring the majestic sorroundings.
At 13.30, we started getting ready while Alfredo showed us
his tracks, the only ones scrawled in a completely
virgin steep terrain, describing us the way down.
He said that the snow was as fresh as just fallen, till the bottom.
Ettore was studying the huge snow wave, in order to find
the best place for his cliff jump. It was about 100m wide,
and in some points 10m high, like one of those big guns
in the surf movie "In god's hands".
As usual he dropped first, heading at high speed toward the wave,
pullin a few slashes to test the snow. He stopped for a second after almost
50m, and then started heading down taking the thing from
the left to the right, and wham!
He landed another one of his famous frontside indy, screaming his way after,
shouting at us to get full speed.
Then me Christian and Alfredo did the same, with some
great fun. Once reached Ettore, we planned our way down, trying
not to cross each others tracks.
I decided to take the right side. After like 5 minutes of
big spray turns, I slashed just before a bush and suddenly
a white rabbit came out of it and rushed away terrified.
I stopped and watched the fluffy immaculate bunny’s desperate escape.
He squirted and that was the only sound echoing in the desolated area...
I had goose bumps all over my body...
Words are not enuff to describe my feelings...
I’m sure y'all know what I mean..."
La barzelletta dell'elefante e del tampax, è di Luke Cambiolo. Le riprese mie e di Skaa. Il salto dalla cresta è di Ettore Personnettaz, leggenda dello snowboard valdostano :-). Gli altri erano Zac e Alfredo.
Il coniglio saluta tutta la comunità di A1. :-D
