Ski mountaineers Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger and Guillaume “Gee” Pierrel simply etched their names within the historical past books.On Sunday, February 16, 2025 they underwent a primary ski descent of Mount Robson (Yuh-hai-has-kun), British Columbia’s extremely technical southern face. In the course of the descent, Lusti additionally grew to become the primary girl to ever ski Mount Robson.”It was an especially difficult and uncovered line, it was extremely tense and it is nice to have the ability to now have a good time this achievement,” mentioned Lusti after the descent.Wish to sustain with the perfect tales and images in snowboarding? Subscribe to the brand new Powder To The Folks e-newsletter for weekly updates.At 3,954 meters (12972.44 ft), Mount Robson is the best peak within the Canadian Rockies. The imposing mountain was first climbed in 1913 by Conrad Kain, Albert MacCarthy, and William Foster. A number of a long time later, a crew consisting of Ptor Spricenieks and Troy Jungen skied off Mount Robson’s northern face in 1995. However till now, the southern face, which looms over Yellowhead Freeway, has gone unskied.It is easy to see why. The road the skiers selected down the face is a slender strip of snow flanked by cliff bands. See beneath.
Picture: Blake Gordon
In whole, Lusti and Gee’s ascent of Mount Robson took two days. The downhill concerned a number of rappels and took three and a half hours.To Lusti, it was the belief of a purpose years within the making. She grew up within the space round Mount Robson and, for nearly a decade, dreamed of sliding down its southern face. Gee, in a dialog with the CBC, referred to as taking part within the first descent with Lusti “such an honor.””Discovering house as an explorer and a steep skier, you begin to have a look at mountains in a different way. You attempt to think about your personal manner by them. The south face had been left. Nobody had checked out it to climb and ski,” Lusti informed the CBC. “And we did.”For Gee and Lusti, finishing the Mt. Robson descent is one other sizable feather of their collective ski mountaineering caps. In October, the pair accomplished the primary ski descent of Hunter’s Moon, a winding, hellaciously steep line positioned on New Zealand’s Aoraki/Mt. Cook dinner.
Picture: Blake Gordon
“Whenever you’re making an attempt to do issues at a very excessive stage, in your sport, and within the mountains, your accomplice is such an enormous contributing issue to that,” Lusti informed POWDER after the Aoraki/Mt. Cook dinner descent. “Gee has solely elevated what’s attainable for me within the mountains and what’s attainable in any such terrain.”Earlier than that, in Could, Lusti skied the west face of Pakistan’s 6,286-meter Nice Trango Tower with Chantel Astorga and Jim Morrison in a historic first. Gripped Journal referred to as it “one of many biggest descents in ski mountaineering for the reason that daybreak of the game.”
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