Skiing Boulders: New Extreme Sport?

"The people who can ski on the stones, can ski in any kind of snow." This is the wisdom bestowed unto the world by professional skier Sylvain Saudan, a weathered winter warrior known as "Le Skieur de l'Impossible" (skier of the impossible, I presume without checking my non-existent French-Enlish dictionary).

As can be inferred from his logic, Saudan doesn't ski boulder fields just because it's balls-to-the-wall, tough-as-nails gnarly, nor because it makes a great piece of YouTube video. He does it because it provides excellent training and preparation for actual skiing, namely for skiing the Himalayas where one has to "accept the conditions like they are." After all, after skiing on rocks and dirt, even the steepest, roughest patch of snow is bound to feel like a relaxing cruise down a groomer. 

The video below has become one of my favorite sports videos ever. The kicked-out boulder barelling down the hill after Saudan's jump turn is just classic. Not only is skiing rocks entertaining to watch but there's some great music that someone needs to drop a jitterbug to and a number of intriguing one-liners from Saudan. 

If only Saudan had more name recognition in the greater public, he could easily displace Chuck Norris as America's favorite tough guy extraordinaire. Watch:

Via: Uncooped