Precipice of fear: the freerider who took skiing to its limits. “Jérémie Heitz has pushed freeriding to breathtaking, beautiful new extremes. But as the risks get bigger, the questions do, too.”
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Comments 3
Here's a view of one of Heitz's runs. Good god.
Also, big mountain freeride is what both of my kids do for their winter sport. They compete all over the US and had some friends who competed in the Junior World Championships held recently in Austria. They love it and it's been great for them in pushing them to grow as humans — I didn't do anything nearly this challenging when I was a kid.
As a spectating parent though, it's getting tougher and tougher to watch them as "the risks get bigger". My son took me to the top of a cliff he hucked himself off of last year and, reader, it scared the shit out of me. And then he just casually said, "ok, I'm going" and jumped off of it (while I gingerly made my way down the backside of the cliff, my heart going about 1000bpm). Not sure what point I'm trying to make here, but it's weird as a parent feeling both proud of and scared for your kids as their abilities and risk windows stretch way beyond yours...
I completely understand your fear. I grew up skiing and to this day take some pretty gnarly runs / drops, but I'm now teaching my 5 year old and it scares the bejeezus out of me when he just points his skis downhill without a care in the world.
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