It was about 10 years in the past that Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger started imaging the not possible: May she ski down the signature south face of Mount Robson, the best peak within the Canadian Rockies?
For these unaware, the south face seems as an imposing demise star of snow and rock, looming over all who drive the Yellowhead Freeway in British Columbia.
Dissecting the vertical monolith is a skinny, unbroken ribbon of white — snow, in different phrases — that Lustenberger thought simply is perhaps a route down from the highest. Not for mere mortals, thoughts you. However for somebody along with her snowboarding pedigree, nerves of metal and native savvy.
WATCH | B.C. skier talks in regards to the expertise:
A British Columbia girl is considered one of two excessive athletes who turned the primary to ski the south face of Mount Robson, the best mountain within the Canadian Rockies.
“Growing up in Canada, in the Columbia Valley, Mount Robson has such a deep history of climbing and skiing,” she advised CBC. “It really is the King of the Rockies, and as a professional skier and someone who spent a lifetime in the mountains, you’re drawn to such wild and extreme terrain.”
And so it was final week that after a decade of incubating the thought, Lustenberger and French alpinist Guillaume Pierrel climbed to the summit of Mount Robson. Then on Sunday, they skied down, turning into the primary to beat the south face.
“Even when you reach the summit, you’re only halfway there. The ski descent took three and a half hours, and there were multiple rappels, transitioning from ski to climb,” she mentioned. “The mountain simply places a lot stress on you.
Pierrel mentioned the pair’s success was all due to his accomplice.
“She’s already a big source of inspiration for me, and that’s why I’m here,” he mentioned. “We’re going to put our name in the history of the Canadian Rockies. So, yeah, it’s such an honour.”
Mountain climbing to the summit took the higher a part of two days, plus an in a single day bivouac on a snowy ledge. Climate was additionally a problem as a result of Mount Robson is so tall it will probably create its personal climate patterns.
That led to a false begin from a degree 200 metres under the true high of the mountain. A blessing in disguise, that first try was deserted when visibility instantly dropped to virtually zero.
“It was then that we decided we would do a second attempt from a different approach,” mentioned Lustenberger. “To leave that upper 200 metres was just not satisfactory. And so we felt like it was important enough for us to try again and complete the vision.”
A former Canadian Olympic ski racer, Lustenberger has made a reputation for herself on the earth of maximum ski descents, bagging a protracted checklist of firsts from New Zealand to Baffin Island.
Final month, she appeared on the Sundance Movie Competition in help of the movie Trango, a documentary of her first descent from the Pakistani peak of the identical title.
Earlier than Lustenberger and Pierrel, solely three males had ever efficiently skied down Mount Robson, all on the much less technical north face.
Meaning two extra firsts for Lustenberger, who calls Golden, B.C. dwelling: the primary girl ever to ski down from the tallest peak within the Canadian Rockies and first to do it on the south face.
“Finding space as an explorer and a steep skier, you start to look at mountains differently. You try to imagine your own way through them. The south face had been left. No one had looked at it to climb and ski. And we did,” she mentioned.
“We had the imagination.”
