The legendary Sylvain Saudan died July 14 at 87, according to Swiss outlet Le Matin, having lived a storied life as a pioneer of extreme skiing.
Saudan was known as “skier of the impossible,” pioneering descents previously believed to be reserved for mountaineers and ice climbers.
But his influence on Whistler will be best remembered through the Saudan Couloir Ski Race Extreme, described as 2,500 vertical feet of “thigh-burning hell.”
The competition started in 1987, and footage on YouTube shows typical ’80s fits: flashy colours with no helmets, ski goggles over toques. One athlete is quoted saying he expected the descent to be harder as he competed for $5,000. Then, gnarly wipeouts abound as they take on the couloir.
Peter Chrzanowski, Pemberton-based filmmaker, extreme skier and paraglider, was a friend of Saudan’s, and hosted him in 1989 and again in 2017 when Saudan visited Whistler.
“He was a difficult man," he said. "Like most people with a lot of accomplishments, he did have a fairly big ego, but we became really close friends.”
Saudan wrote the introduction to Chrzanowski’s book I Survived Myself, and he called Chrzanowski a “longtime friend. He helped in many occasions and I will always be grateful to him.”
Chrzanowski said Saudan left many video recordings of his adventurous exploits, and he would love to one day see someone digitize the records into a film.
Hugh Smythe, president of Blackcomb when the mountain was creating the race named after Saudan, recalled how in 1985 a T-bar was installed close to the location of where 7th Heaven Express now sits, and opened up terrain for Blackcomb—including the couloir.
“That T-bar gave Blackcomb the highest vertical drop in North America … it opened up Horstman Glacier and pretty much tripled the size of the skiable terrain on Blackcomb,” Smythe said.
In line with the impressive nature of the terrain, the marketing team at Blackcomb needed to find a name that would stick in minds.
“We wanted to come up with something on the same theme as Corbett's Couloir [in Jackson Hole, Wyo.],” Smythe said. Prior to Blackcomb’s, Corbett’s Couloir had the highest vertical drop in North America’s ski resorts.
They chose an impressive name to match the terrain: Saudan.
“I’m going, ‘who’s he?’ And I very quickly was educated,” Smythe said.
The race was not without controversy, though, as no one at Blackcomb consulted Saudan about the naming, which led to a subsequent lawsuit that was eventually settled. Saudan’s name was dropped and eventually restored when he paid homage to the mountain and came around to the moniker.
"I have a collaboration with Whistler Blackcomb and I'm very happy about this collaboration," said Saudan in a video interview with Whistler Blackcomb from 2017. "I think it will be very good. This is a good thing."
The race ended in 2001, only to make a comeback in 2018 and 2019 before being paused again during the pandemic.
For a full history lesson on Whistler Blackcomb’s Saudan Couloir Ski Race Extreme, read Steep Measures, originally published in Pique April 4, 2018.
