They ski the first ascent of the North Face of Épéna, in the Vanoise region of the French Alps. On March 22, Symon Welfringer and Xavier Cailhol combined ski touring, mountaineering, steep skiing and cycling for a new adventure they had been dreaming of for several years. Weather conditions, “luck, opportunity and level” were all on hand to overcome a 1,000-metre wall that had to be climbed with ice axes and then skied down. With an incline of between 50 and 60 degrees, undoubtedly one of the toughest ski descents in the Alps.
There’s something inexplicable about L’Épéna,” says geographer and aspiring guide Xavier Cailhol. If you look at its north face from Tarentaise, it merges into the Grande Casse, it disappears. If you look at it from Pralognan, the petite and grande Glière erase it. […] L’Épéna doesn’t catch the eye. Its ridge seems debonair, its north face