Backcountry
Conditions Report
Report from February 27, 2025
On Friday, we headed up the Skyway Monte Bianco in Courmayeur, Italy in the afternoon.
My old California Ski Team buddy, Big Z, was in town.
He’s a professional tandem speed flying and paragliding pilot.
He talked me into a speed flight with him which is completely against my rules.
No human flight.
I’ve just seen too many people, especially in Lake Tahoe, California, die doing this stuff.
But, Big Z showed me videos of him talking to other Cal Ski Teamers like Tyler, who has kids, tandem flying with him and he assured me it was safe.
I was convinced and told myself it would be a one-off.
One time.
So we rode up the gorgeous Skyway to the mid-station, Pavillion.
We walked out, he set up the wing, we clicked into our skis, and we pointed them downhill.
It felt so bizarre to just point our skis straight downhill with zero plans for turning.
After 20 meters or so of straight skiing, we lifted and it felt wild…
The Earth slipped away as we climbed and it violently dropped into a rugged ravine.
I immediately thought, “Yeah, this is chill.”
Right then, Z dropped the wing down into the ravine and started carving turns and blasting down towards the ground at 60mph.
We pulled up and turned only 5′ off the ground…
Then again, and again and again.
I was screaming and laughing and trying to understand what was happening to me.
Then in a moment, the ravine we were flying in dropped off a cliff and we soared out into the vacant skies at the foot of Mont Blanc.
I took in the view, relaxed, and felt my death grip on the harness loosen.
“This is nice,” I thought.
As I slipped into serenity and reflection Z violently dropped the wing again in huge, corked-out, swooping turns even faster than before as now we had no land to dodge.
I screamed and hooted and held on.
We soon straightened out and glided towards the landing zone we’d scoped out in the morning.
Our landing was a bit hard but we stomped it with our 4 legs and came to a cruisy stop as we moved uphill.
I couldn’t believe what had just happened.
It was surreal.
I felt like I had no blood in my head.
I felt loopy.
I told Z he was crazy and hugged him.
That was the single craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life and it was mundane to him.
Wow.
What a big day it was too as we’d spent the morning powder skiing across the street at Courmayeur.
We went out for a big dinner to celebrate at Hotel Del Viale.
Grazie, Italia & Big Z!
