THE BEGINNING - Tormod Granheim

THE CRADLE

I will remember this day as one of the best, funnest and most productive days of the winter of 2020. For days, snow had fallen over the mountains, but on this February day the weather slowly cleared. First, I rode powder in a sled with good friends, then I took the picture "AFTER THE STORM". I then traveled over to Flégère with Jens Wessel Normann with a clear plan to catch a big backflip over the Mont Blanc massif. When my friends went après-ski, I saw how the light evolved into something magical. I immediately decided to find fresh camera batteries and got into the car and drove up the Chamonix valley, capturing the Aiguilles de Chamonix plastered in fresh snow and bathed in the sunset.

The title is inspired by the mountain in the middle of this mountain range - the Aiguille de Blatière - the hotbed of modern downhill skiing. In 1967, Swiss Sylvain Saudan made it to the top of Couloir Spencer and stepped on the bindings. The turns he made in front of a bunch of press photographers down the 55 degree steep snow chute became the start of extreme skiing as a phenomenon.

Ten years later, Jean-Marc Boivin drove the glacier that dominates the picture - the north side of the Aiguille du Plan. The sport had matured.