free skiing | SPIN ZHIRA

It’s good to learn that all those trapped overnight in the Aguille du Midi cable car have been rescued safely. I wouldn’t fancy spending the night suspended 12,000 feet up in high winds.

While the media now question cable car safety I can’t help noticing that the snow conditions look great. Is it a sign for the season ahead? I certainly hope so.

SPIN ZHIRA: Old Man in Helmand is the unauthorised, unvarnished and irreverent story of one man’s midlife crisis on the front line of the most dangerous district in Afghanistan where the locals haven’t forgiven the British for the occupation of 1842 or for the Russian Invasion of 1979. Of course, all infidels look the same so you can’t really tell them apart.

So sad to learn of the death of Freeskier Matilda Rapaport in a Chilean avalanche.

In November 2015, Matilda made a short film explaining her motivation to go into the mountains, acknowledging the unpredictable nature of backcountry skiing but also the euphoria that comes with skiing a fresh line in challenging terrain.

‘There is a feeling that is shared with skiers all over the world. It’s nothing you can teach, learn or explain. It’s something you feel. Something you know. It stops you from sleeping during a snowstorm – knowing that fresh powder awaits you. It gives you the urge to continue hiking up the mountain when everyone else is stopping at the top of the ski lift. It hits you when looking back at your line at the bottom of a run, wanting to go back up and do it again. It’s a different way of looking at the world and something only a skier knows.’

Rest in Peace.