Gilles Sierro on a solo descent of the East-Southeast Face of the Dent Blanche. Photo by David Carlier
Alpine Extreme
In Europe, the pursuit of radically committed ski lines is reaching new heights
Gilles Sierro cracks open a can of Coke. He takes a swig and passes it to Yannick Prolong, who does the same and hands it over Olivier Roduit. The three huddle together beneath the summit cross on 14,295-foot Dent Blanche in western Switzerland, not quite shoulder-to-shoulder, but close. Beyond the small shelf they’ve dug into the snow, there isn’t much room to roam.
The Coke is somewhat of a ritual for Sierro, something he brings on most of his ski and climbing missions and on days when he’s working as a mountain guide out of Arolla, Switzerland. He likes the taste, and the sugar and caffeine provide a boost after a long climb, but it’s also reassuring—a taste of familiarity and consistency in a world that is dynamic and fluid and can teeter from serene to deadly in a matter of minutes.
It’s June 6, 2013, and Sierro, Prolong, and Roduit have just completed a rare ascent of the west-southwest
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