Today we received the tragic news that Andreas Fransson and JP Auclair died in an avalanche in Patagonia, confirmed by media from Chile. They were on an expedition/trip in Patagonia along with Bjarne Salén and David Rönnbäck. The accident took place at the Monte de Cochrane. The avalanche was 700 meters long, reporting Chilean media. They were climbing a couloir when something (no details yet) ripped out above them and they were flushed out the bottom
Ski-mountaineer Andreas Fransson
Swede Andreas Fransson was a real ski mountaineer, who has pushed the sport to another level. He moved to Chamonix in 2006, where he wasn’t unnoticed. He skied the Mallory (the route on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi) in October and rode many ‘first descents’.
Fransson rode bizarre lines from Cham to Norway and realigned without doubt the boundaries of the ski-mountaineering. He was a freerider, a climber and true old-school extreme skier in one. In November last year he lost his friend Magnus Kastengren during an accident in New Zealand.
Andreas Fransson became really known after his film ‘Tempting Fear’ released with Switchback, where he rode beautiful but bizarre lines. It also gives a glimpse into the head of Fransson. Aware of the risks, calculated, almost philosophical. Not hard, but very nice, very soft.
Pioneer JP Auclair
The Canadian JP Auclair was truly a pioneer. He was part of the New Canadian Airforce (along with Mike Douglas, among others) that was responsible for the introduction of “new school” skiing. He helped Salomon with the development of the first twintip ski, the 1080, which opened the park for skiers.
In 2002, along with Tanner Hall, he founded the ski brand Armada. JP was still connected as a pro-rider to the brand and together with Julien Regnier name giver to the legendary Armada JJ. JP has skied in many segments of movies, but the segment that perhaps is the the most acclaimed is the great street segment in All. I. Can.
We wish family and friends of Andreas Fransson and JP Auclair all the strength they need with this terrible loss.
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“Society has an absurd general belief that life is about hanging on as long as possible. So people [are] often hanging on for the sake of hanging on and not for really living. … I can go on for days about this, but the important things in life are unsayable, so let’s just live it out and see what we find behind the curtains in front of the big game we are all playing.” -Andreas Fransson