This is a special entry on the website, as I felt this mountain deserves to be considered a “Notable Descent,” but it happened during a competition; the 2008 O’Neil Big Mountain Pro.

For me, this experience offered a once-in-a-lifetime smack down experience. It was the biggest face I’d ever skied, it was a competition, and I had just arrived on the continent the night before. I crashed near the bottom of my line in variable snow, but watching the pros (Xavier de le Rue, Jeremy Jones, Kaj Zackrisson) tear up the mountain that tore me up was the best class I’ve ever sat through. Not to mention that from the finish line we still had to ski about 5,000′ vertical more to get to the village.

Our group slept in a gite de montagne in Chamonix, and rose at around 5am. We drove into Switzerland (the border is only a few miles away) and boarded a helicopter at the Col de la Forclaz. The heli dropped us high on the approach ridge to Le Buet on the Swiss side of the border. We hiked back into France along the ridge, a sneaky, brilliant, questionable, awesome trick on the part of the organizers to get us up to a French peak (where heli-skiing is technically illegal) with a Swiss helicopter. A fabulous hike, a scary, huge Alaskan-style descent, and as I mentioned, a smackdown and adventure to return to the road. What a day!

A France-bound Swiss helicopter.

Approaching the face, the drop zone is the ridge in the right of the photo, Mont Blanc rises in the distance to the left.

The North Face of Le Buet

The exit from the face to the village was not straightforward.

Xavier de le Rue’s run, which eventually won “Run of the Year” at the conclusion of the 2008 Freeride World Tour.