The Red Bulletin February/March 2020 (UK)

Zeppelin ski drop
Left to right: Fabian Lentsch, Andreas Gumpenberger and Stefan Ager
DANIEL HUG @TERRAGRAPHY
Valkastiel was possible, although the risks
at that height were high: storms, wind
turbulence and changes in air pressure
could destroy the fragile vessel.
It took two years of calculations and
careful planning before their engineers and
pilots were satisfied. Any surplus weight
would need to be abandoned, which
included the director of the film they were
shooting; there was just one cameraman
and the skiers. “We had to spare every
kilogram we could,” says Ager. Conditions
also had to be perfect: “Very cold, no wind,
clear weather – it was near impossible to
find a suitable day to achieve that height.”
On a bright, still, -5°C morning in
February 2019, those conditions
were met and their airship set off
from the same Friedrichshafen airfield
that the first Zeppelin had launched from
over a century before. The journey to the
summit in the Brandner Valley in Austria
was calm and uneventful – if cruising over
ice-capped mountains in a giant rigidframed
airship can ever be described as
such. “It was a totally surreal experience,”
says Ager. But as the vessel reached the
summit, the real challenge began.
There’s one crucial difference
between heli-skiing and Zeppelin skiing:
manoeuvrability. In most cases, helicopters
are able to land at the top of ski runs, or
at least hover close enough for a skier to
hop out. No such luck with a 75m-long
airship. “When the narrow hatch opened,
there was at least 60m of air beneath
me,” notes Gumpenberger. “All I could see
was snow and rocks.” At that height, even
in good conditions, the Zeppelin was
constantly moving, buffeted by even the
slightest wind. The only option was to
rappel down, as synchronised as possible
– and fast. “Our ropes were 50m long and
as we were abseiling we looked up and
just saw this enormous airship,” says Ager.
“I felt like I was rappelling off a cloud.”
There is another vital consideration
that separates heli-skiing from Zeppelin
skiing: sustainability. For the last decade,
environmentalists have petitioned against
heli-skiing, citing climate-damaging fuel
emissions and noise pollution; in France
and Germany, it has already been banned.
A Zeppelin generates a mere tenth of the
CO 2
emissions of comparable commercial
aircraft and flies relatively silently. “We
wanted an environmentally friendly
alternative to heli-skiing,” says Ager.
As the adventurers set foot on the
summit, they too were relatively quiet.
“Nobody had done this before us. It’s an
indescribable feeling,” says Ager. However,
the trip down the mountain was to prove
harder than the ride up. “The snow
conditions were challenging: crusty at
first, then unexpectedly soft,” says Lentsch.
“When I landed a jump, I almost fell.”
Watch the Zeppelin ski drop on the Red Bull
YouTube channel; youtube.com/redbull
THE RED BULLETIN 57