In a two-minute video with aesthetic realization (Redbull.com), Fugen jumps from a ski lift perched in the air and twirls for long seconds in free fall above the snowy peaks before opening his parachute at 4000 meters to land on one of the slopes of the resort of La Clusaz (Haute-Savoie), his playground since his adolescence.
French skier Fred Fugen, specialist in freefall, parachuting, BASE jumping and wingsuit flight, during speedriding training above the resort of La Clusaz, February 1, 2022 LOIC VENANCE AFP / Archives
The athlete then switches to speedriding mode (skiing with a paragliding wing) to reach the bottom of the resort.
The video then ends with a shot of him sitting in a chairlift suspended from a hot air balloon.
This project had been thought out and already prepared four years ago with his friend for 20 years, Vince Reffet, who died in November 2021 during a training accident.
The duo had often caused a sensation with unprecedented performances, such as entering a plane in full flight, flying alongside the Patrouille de France or an Airbus A380 dressed in winged suits and equipped with mini-reactors or even jumping from the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai (the highest in the world at 828 m).
"This ski project is particularly close to my heart. The day before Vince died, I was jumping with skis, we had resumed training with skis in November 2020, we wanted to do the project in the winter. We were already far away, we had trained in Spain. The idea was there. The first jumps where you don't really know what will happen when you get out of the plane with your skis on... All these stages- there, we had spent them together, that's why I want to go to the end of the thing," Fugen told AFP during a training session in February in La Clusaz for this project, which has become a tribute. to Vince Reffet.
To achieve the opus, Fugen made a total of fifteen jumps in free fall at 6500 meters from a helicopter.
The jump from the chairlift was made at 3000 m.
© 2022 AFP