Following His Father's Footsteps
It tells the story of Trevor's son Kye, who at age 15 and ten years after his father's death, is building a name for himself as talented twin-tip big air skier in the mountains at Whistler, BC. Bill Kerig offers to take Kye to Chamonix and put him in tutelage with the masters of skiing extremely steep big mountains. All with the understanding that should the masters see him fit, they will ski him down the Exit Couloir where Kye's dad tragically died.
The story that we, as skiers, want to focus on is Kye Petersen's time in Chamonix. His teenage invincibility is quickly crushed by the enormity and sheer savage potential of the impossibly steep snow covered rock faces the mountaineers see as playgrounds - but which they have the highest respect, and deepest love for.
Meeting the Masters
Kye meets mountain masters Anselm Baud - who quite literally wrote the book on extreme, big mountain skiing; Stephane Dan - known as Fanfan, who is one of the most highly regarded guides in Chamonix and Americans Mike Hattrup and Glenn Plake. These are the teachers, mentors, and coaxers who will lead Kye to see and ski where his dad died.
If you only remember Plake and Hattrup at their craziness in the Blizzard of Ahs you will be shockingly surprised at the maturity, attentiveness, and attention to detail of both, but especially Glenn Plake. Of course, when you desire to ski in the "Death Sport Capital of the World" high above Chamonix - maturity, and all that goes with it, must come quick - but sometime, no matter how mature and responsible one is, the mountain just wins.
Holding Your Edges
If you are a skier this book will thrill and frighten you as much as trying to hold your edges on the steepest or most icy slope you can ever remember being on. If you are not a skier you will cringe as a teenager must learn the techniques to ski a place where if you fall - there is a good chance you will die.
If your father was killed on the highway you would want to go there - to be at the spot where his spirit left. So it was for Kye Peterson, even though the way there was so hazardous and fraught with danger. It was, in fact a journey he would no doubt take at some point in his life and he was very lucky that at the tender age of 15 he was surrounded and protected by the elders of this special tribe of ski mountaineers.
The Edge of Never
To be sure this adventure was not without mishap and near disaster. The book actually starts out detailing Kerig watching Fanfan lose balance and fly off a 70 foot cliff landing on the snow below. He did survive but with a broken neck and one broken leg. However, as much as he swore during his hospitalization he was done skiing, when Fanfan healed he couldn't resist the siren call of the big mountains and returned to guiding.
Kerig has a great eye for detail and draws you right into scene after scene so you can almost feel the danger that hangs overhead, underfoot and spreads out for thousands of feet below. There's no taking you skis off and walking out of this one - your in it as much as Kye was. But, if you don't get it the first time at least you'll know you'll be safe to read it again - I did.
