Sylvain Saudan, ‘skier of the impossible’, dies aged 87

When his helicopter crashed in the Himalayas in 2007 and Sylvain Saudan disappeared, the tributes came pouring in. “For today’s riders, Saudan is a glorious ancestor,” wrote the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. “He was a pioneer,” mountaineer Jean Troillet told La Tribune de Genève, “he made a lot of people dream.” Everyone made liberal use of Saudan’s dashing sobriquet: the “skier of the impossible”. Except Saudan was about to pull off his most impossible trick yet. Having escaped from the wreckage, the 71-year-old put on his skis and guided his two clients down into a remote Kashmiri valley. They skied all day, spent the night in the open, then eventually reached a military post the next day, Saudan later being amused to read his own obituary. “I am one of the rare people who already knows what will be written about me after my death,” he said with a smile. That distinction is perhaps fitting for someone who spent decades pushing at the fine line between life and death. There were other ...