Monday, September 29, 2014, a tragic day for skiing when the mountains of Chile took two young, talented lives, JP Auclair, 37, and Andreas Fransson, 31 two of the world’s best freeskiers, climbed up a narrow, (50-to-55-degree, approximately 3,000-foot) couloir on Cerro San Lorenzo, a 12,158-foot peak that straddles the border of Argentina and Chile in the Patagonian Andes.
When the skiers were two-thirds of the way up, an avalanche released high above them, knocking them 2,300-feet down the couloir and onto the heavily crevassed glacier that sits at the bottom of the mountain, reports Stefan Palm of the Swedish Guide Association.
Andreas Fransson finding a steep line on the Pain de Sucre near Chamonix, France. Photo: Tero RepoThe tragedy shook the ski world, two legends lost, not just legends for their ability to ski but as human-beings. Fransson had an interesting gift for articulating the way the world works and how we (should) fit in to the formula. His thrill-seeking personality and life theories were made public in 2012 (2 years prior to Andreas death) when he and Mike Douglas (founder of Salomon) released the film ‘Tempting Fear’, a multi-award winning film organised into chapters, each representing a theme within Andrea Fransson’s life.
In the film, Fransson delves into his terrifying avalanche experience in the French Alps that nearly killed him only a few years prior to his death in Chile, ‘I’ll never forget the feeling of my own neck breaking,’ he says. Andrea mourns the death of his close friend and ski partner, Felix Hentz, who was killed by an avalanche the winter before. ‘I think we both thought I would leave first,’ Fransson says. This scene from the film shows Fransson’s horrifying avalanche experience in France in 2012:
Fransson led the life of an overachiever, willing to push the limits of his sport & achievements with no fear of death, ‘Is my craving for the objective stronger than my will to run away?’ he says in the film. Andreas life story wouldn’t be nearly as good if he weren’t living so close to the edge so many days of the year, fully comprehending each moment and neither would the sport of skiing.
‘Tempting Fear’ is the Garage staff pick for our film of the week, you can watch it now on Garage:
