Ski the best, “flawk” the rest. Bird takes the direct route to the valley off the closeout serac on Glacier Rond. faces above the mandatory 200-foot rappel into the narrow exit couloir before launching his wing to clear the exposure below. A few years prior, he’d opened the first wing exit direct off the Mallory serac below the tram, and notched a solo ski-and-wing exit of the Frendo Spur—a classic climbing route, rarely skied, that otherwise requires four 200-foot rappels. Whereas full-scale paragliding wings are bulky and require ample space to launch, speed wings are much more compact both in overhead size and packed volume. A speed rider’s pack looks only slightly larger than a standard ski mountaineer’s, and is likely lighter, trading a bundle of nylon sewn with Dyneema and Kevlar lines for 60-meter ropes, ice screws and climbing hardware. Since they’re built for descent and glide rather than lift (like a traditional full-size paraglider), a speed wing—designed with lines that are much shorter than standard—can be launched overhead almost immediately in fairly tight terrain while also handling turbulence better. THOUGH ARGUABLY STILL in its adolescence, the general perception of speed riding has changed signifi-cantly since its inception—from fringe to accepted, reckless frivolity to calculated necessity. A factor in that shift in tone has been the rapidly changing terrain of our alpine playgrounds. Bird, wearing shorts and sandals during a record-breaking European heat wave in late April 2022 (typically peak season for Chamonix’s steepest descents), gazed up at the classic lines on the North Face of the Ai-guille du Midi—lines that increasing serac fall has changed fundamentally in just the past decade. “If you’ve got more overhanging ice and rock, you’re going to spend an hour or two underneath that stuff on rappel; the wing can be a lot safer,” Bird says. He shrugged, eyes still on the hanging glaciers. “It looks extreme, and the takeoff is committing, but launching over a cliff is the same as taking off anywhere. It’s the same system.” Speed Riding 059
The Ski Journal Volume 17, Issue 1: Page 59
