Chamonix is known for being a posh French ski resort — but as Jones ambassador Julien ‘Pica’ Herry shows us, it’s also got some gnarly backcountry options nearby.
You can ski a lot of great piste terrain in Chamonix. The resort’s Mont Blanc boasts 150 km of piste skiing, all of which is above treeline and pristine. Then, there’s an additional 15,000 acres of off-piste skiing that’s accessible from the resort.
And if you’re brave enough to venture even outside of that, you’ll find terrain that’s crazy gnarly. As in, you’d have to be clinically insane to attempt some of it.
Case in point: the Perrons de Vallorcine. In late January 2022, Julien ‘Pica’ Herry, a Jones Snowboards ambassador, scaled the peak and ripped a rowdy line down the mountain’s east-facing bowl.
The chute he chose is almost as narrow as it is steep, but Pica navigates it like a pro — because that’s what he is. He deftly avoids deadly cliffs and threads the needle between rocky outcrops that would otherwise spell certain death.
But with Pica’s precision, and his sharp eye for a clean line of descent, the impossible looks like a breeze.
Runtime: 2.5 minutes
