Is this the most dangerous ski stunt ever attempted?


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Welcome to skiing's new - and extremely dangerous - hybrid sport, 'speed riding', captured on an exhilarating video which has gone viral online.

Daredevil skier Valentin Delluc has taken the sport to a whole new level - by 'grinding' down the cables of a chair lift with his skies while paragliding down the side of a mountain.

The French skier filmed himself as he completed the stunt, focusing the camera on his skis as he swerves towards the cable and attempts to slide its length, while avoiding pylons along the route.

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Dangerous: The video shows a skier paragliding above a ski lift as he grinds his skis down the cable to the bottom

Dangerous: The video shows a skier paragliding above a ski lift as he grinds his skis down the cable to the bottom


Users from Vimeo, where the clip was first posted, were full of praise for Delluc, but the Frenchman says of his own speed riding stunt - which combines paragliding and skiing - that it was 'very complicated and dangerous to achieve.'

'Only after thousands and thousands of hours of practice could I consider achieve such a slide,' he says of the breathtaking footage, captured initially from the ground by a third party and then via a camera attached to the front of Delluc's own safety helmet.

One step further? Valentin Delluc has given para skiing an extra edge with his stunt of sliding down chairlift wires

One step further? Valentin Delluc has given para skiing an extra edge with his stunt of sliding down chairlift wires

Taking the plunge: The dangerous stunt sees a paragliding skier risk becoming entangled in the cables of a ski lift

Taking the plunge: The dangerous stunt sees a paragliding skier risk becoming entangled in the cables of a ski lift

Like paragliding, speed riding or gliding is done by launching from a slope with the wing overhead, already inflated by the incoming air. But the most obvious difference between speed flying and paragliding is the former creates a fast, thrilling ride, sometimes perilously close to the slope, while paragliding is (usually) a more gentle affair.

Delluc uses the cables of the chairlift to remain airborne, removing his skis from the wires occasionally to avoid the pylons holding the structure aloft.

 

Delluc uses his skis much like a skateboarder uses rails in a skatepark for the stunt - although were his skis to get caught in the wires the likelihood is the accident would clearly be of a fairly serious nature.

And as if grinding down the wires of a chairlift was not enough of a stunt, in the video Delluc, who recently won first prize at the Big Mountain competition on the Marmolada as part of the SpeedridingTour 2013/2014, performs a barrel roll before landing safely at the bottom of the mountain.




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