French skiers Carole Chambaret, Tiphaine Duperier and Boris Langenstein have skied what is popularly regarded as one of the world’s most perfect ski slopes from top to bottom for the first time.
After several years of planning the trio from Val d ‘Isère who work as ski instructors or mountain guides struck lucky on their expedition dates to Pakistan’s 6,096 metre (20,000 ft) high Laila Peak in May with perfect conditions for their ascent and their ski down.
“After 12 hours of physical effort, Laila offered us the chance to ski his summit in perfect conditions!” said Carole Chambaret, adding “Nice weather, no wind, a big moment of happiness at the summit, then an incredible descent of 1800 vertical meters in powder snow! The beauty of this pyramid is simply incredible.”
Located in the Hushe Valley by the Gondogoro Glacier in the Karakoram range Laila Peak is regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful mountains and for extreme skiers a northwest face with a near constant slope of 45 degrees for more than 1500 vertical metres.
First climbed by a British team in 1987 and first skied, although not quite from the summit due to bad weather by Fredrick Ericsson in 2005 there had been several attempts to ski the Peak from the top over the past 13 years, all ending in failure including one in 2016 in tragedy when a young Italian ski mountaineer fell to his death. Fredrick Ericsson also returned here to acclimatise in 2009 ahead of his attempt to ski K2 which also led to his death.
(Image credits Volkl)
