Early season avi in Chamonix

A few quotes I loved from that first video in Scotsmans link:

"Doesn't matter if you are a pro skier or a big name, it's just the same for us, we see the guy who loves skiing"
"Everyone is seeing all this rad stuff from Chamonix, but actually what we do 90% of the time is ski powder with no one around"

Sounds like a good guy & no doubt he understands the risks.

A good discussion to be sure. I think a distinction should be made between a pro-skier in his home terrain with a high risk tolerance, and claiming that this is a textbook example of how to perform ski cuts.

We all have the spots that we visit frequently that we're comfortable ski cutting in a variety of conditions. But, if the question is "Was this a good/safe ski cut", and/or an example of a technique that inexperienced folks should emulate in similar terrain, in my opinion the answer is no.

Thanks for the discussion everyone. I think we brought up a lot of good aspects. My personal feeling is that even if someone is a pro, we should still make judgements for ourselves as if they're just another human. We all are.

My observations:
There is a break in the video. He ended his ski cut slightly higher than where the video resumes. He is actually coming back and is making a new track about 3-ft downslope from the initial ski cut. When it releases, he takes a couple quick side steps uphill. The release occurred along his initial ski cut mostly from the middle to lower arcs and did not release at the upper arcs. The area immediately below him fractures but does not release.

Conclusions:
There was a delay (maybe a minute or more?) between his ski cut and the fracture/release.
It he had cut 20-ft higher, the slope would not have released.
If he had cut 20-ft lower, he would have been in the upper part of the slide.

Speechless! Elite
One fall line turn from eternity 8-|