LEFT TO RIGHT Much of the preparation for Heitz’s lengthy missions is done from his living room table in Les Marécottes. It’s hard to not be inspired by the panoramic views of the Rh ô ne Valley. Photo: Mattias Fredriksson Heitz carving his own signature through the glaciated terrain of Switzerland’s notorious Ober Gabelhorn. Photo: Tero Repo/ La Liste OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS, Heitz’s love affair with steeps and speed has led him away from his alpine valley, and toward the highest peaks on Earth. As part of his newest film project, “La Liste: Everything or Nothing,” Heitz and Antha-matten have shifted their focus to peaks above 19,000 feet, skiing with the same fluidity and speed as always. Skiing that high above sea level implies a whole new chal-lenge, and not regarding the descent. The pair have embarked on long-distance expeditions to remote areas in the Andes, the Karakoram, and the Himalayas—places few people have traveled, if any. Most of their most recent descents have never been skied and documentation has been scarce. There’s no local guide knowledge; rescue, helicopters, and civilization are dangerously far away. If the pair were searching for ex-posure before, there’s little doubt they’ve found it in their newest venture. In 2019, the duo skied a 50-degree line off of 19,767-foot Mount Artesonraju in Peru (the iconic mountain in the Paramount Pictures logo). After COVID-19 derailed spring missions in 2020, Heitz, Anthamatten, and a film crew from Sherpas Cinema recently spent a month in Pakistan, tackling high altitude lines in the Karakoram from their base camp on the Biafo Glacier—one of the world’s longest glaciers. “When you want to evolve and drive things forward, ski-ing in higher altitudes is the natural progression for us,” says Heitz. “Even Saudan told me, ‘You have to go explore at higher altitude. The Alps is over. You’ve done it.’ This is the logical next step.” It’s a long way from his family and comfortable chalet in Les Marécottes, but there, at the edge of possible and among the steepest, most unforgiving terrain on the planet, Heitz is gaining momentum. 046 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 15, Issue 1: Page 46
