Mr. Rosenwald tells us Mr. Saudan helped create an entirely new sport: "extreme skiing, now known as 'steep' skiing," whose enthusiasts travel to remote peaks, often by helicopter, and "try to have positive thoughts when looking down." Positive thoughts definitely help.
When I read Mr. Rosenwald's line about a long life doing dangerous things and avoiding obituary writers, I had to look up and see who wrote it. Didn't this guy just write about somebody else and use an elegant turn of phrase to describe the man's occupation? Yes. It was his recent obit on the "Concierge of Incarceration," Herbert Hoelter that I did a posting on.
Aside from being a ski instructor and being the subject of a biography and a documentary, Mr Saudan doesn't seem to have had a job in the sense that we would know it—salaried, and getting a regular paycheck. Perhaps he always found willing takers of bets on his making it downhill alive. If so, he never lost.
Mr. Rosenwald gives us a small recounting of the mountains and peaks Mr. Saudan skied down, one of which had no snow, Mr. Fuji in Japan. It was a celebration of his 50th birthday and it was September. He skied down on the rocks and never fell.
Easier slopes had snow, and sometimes a 50 degree slope. He came down Mt. Denali (Mt. McKinley) in Alaska, Mount Hood in Oregon, Monte Rosa in Italy, and Eiger in Switzerland.
Usually he was deposited at the top by helicopter, but when it came to the 26,500' summit of Gasherbrum I in Pakistan, Mr. Saudan went up the old fashioned way. He climbed for 25 days to reach the top. Coming down was much faster. It only took 9 hours and was recognized as a Guinness World Record.
If there was an advance obit for Mr. Saudan, it took decades for it to appear. Proving no matter what, there is an obituary writer waiting for you at the bottom of the hill.
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