Sylvain Saudan

Biography

Sylvain Saudan, a Swiss mountaineer and skier, was born on September 23, 1936, in Lausanne, Switzerland, and died on July 14, 2024, in Les Houches, France. Nicknamed the "skier of the impossible," he was a pioneer of extreme skiing, achieving a series of "firsts" in the 1960s and 1970s, including the first complete descent of a peak over 8,000m. He also led expeditions to Dhaulagiri and Gasherbrum I, and was honored with the "Alpine Merit" award in 2016.