Imagine skiing into an icy half-pipe faced with a 45-degree gradient, throwing yourself up an 18ft vertical to then pull a left double flair mute, alley-oop 360 safety, a switch 7 mute left, a right tail flair and finally a double cork 1200 mute... got that? Good, then you have an astounding imagination.
For the mere mortals working at FHM such feats are impossible. But for Kevin Rolland - freestyle ski champion at La Plagne resort in France - it's as run-of-the-mill as scratching his nut sack. This fine set of tricks landed him first place in the recent World Cup final, which - coupled with his recent X Games win in Tignes a few weeks ago - shows why there is a bit of a buzz around this fear-proof Frenchman.
If you think “Yeah, I could do that, but the lady in my life won’t like it”, think again. Canadian Sarah Burke pulled an equally impressive Air safety, Cork 9, right flair, mute air, alley-oop 180, and left 720 mute to earn her first place and the gold medal at the same FIS Ski Freestyle World Cup in La Plagne.
Now if all this bamboozling technical language has you reaching for the thumbs-down button, hold your horses… watch this video first. It might just change your mind - and have you bumping up your travel insurance cover next time you hit the slopes, just to give some of these tricks a try.
After seeing all this, and now standing quivering at 3,170 feet above sea level, it was FHM’s turn. One of the many great [read: slightly mad] ski instructors at La Plagne decided that we hadn’t scared ourselves nearly enough on the slopes, just doing mere skiing down pistes. So, enter the ski park. Skiing passed the large sign that read ‘easy’ we can feel the confidence ebb out of our bodies into our ever-heavier ski boots and the powder below.
Still, we must put all thoughts of long-term hospitalisation to one side, and man up. First came the rail, which in our humble opinion is the last thing a person should be skiing on. And what do you know, we didn’t ski on it, more just fell over it. After some more practice though, things were improving. The thought of attempting to freestyle on the half-pipe was too much for us though – and we embarked on the far safer territory of an apres-ski night out. The experience left us even more impressed with the control of adrenaline and survival instincts in competitors like Kevin and Sarah.
To challenge yourself in La Plagne visit www.la-plagne.com.