A new rookie on the Freeride World Tour championship circuit, Virgile Didier will show up with his big pink skis and thin moustache.
New rookie status on the freeride world championships, new corvus under each foot, first air trip with skis in the hold, the powerful skier from Chamonix begins a wonderfully new season. A child of the valley, Virgile ski raced until he was 17 and competed two seasons in European Downhill Cups, learned hard work from a line of mountain hut wardens and how to have a good time with a gang of enthusiastic Chamoniards, a carpenter to give shape to things and earn his independence, Virgile is a man of the skis who finds in freeride competition the field in which to express his ideal of skiing, completeness. A member of the blackcrows squadron since 2020, his attachment to the corvus has made him the link between the snow and Julien Regnier’s mental design office. As such, he has instilled his desire for a ski tailored to this tireless quest for the complete skier.
blackcrows: How was the transition from downhill skiing to freeride racing?
Virgile: The summer before I stopped downhill skiing, I was lost. I didn’t know whether to go forwards or backwards. So I decided to come back and compete, because I needed a carrot. I couldn’t be satisfied with being a ski instructor. My first competition was in 2019 at La Rosière. We were on a big face that was still rated 2-stars but then went up to 4-stars. I was with Rudy and Aurel (Collet, the siblings of Aurélien, Rudy and Robin, NDLR). I arrived there as a tourist. I didn’t know how to spot a line. Then Rudy did a line with a big back at the bottom. So I thought, I’ll do the same. And I did exactly the same line but with twice the speed and I did the biggest backflip of my life and I exploded. But I said to myself, I’m going back. And it was at the next competition in Chamonix, on the slopes of the Brévent hotel, a 2-stars Qualifier, that I made my first podium. And then two more competitions in Les Arcs on the same face with a day in between. And each time I tried to do a double back on the same rock and twice crashed. Here is for the learning process.
blackcrows: So you continued…
Virgile: Yes, on the Qualifiers, but without really pushing the vice of competitions, trying to keep that margin of pleasure that I didn’t necessarily have in alpine skiing. So I did two or three competitions a winter at most. The trigger was the Covid winter, when Rudy and I did so many thousands of vertical drops. That was the year of my fondest memories in the mountains. At the end of the winter, we decided to go and do a 3-star competition in Nendaz with Aurélien. I came eighth while Aurélien crashed hard and blew a knee. The thing was, he was qualified for the four-star event, which took place a few days later in Nendaz. And as I was ranked first behind him, I got a wildcard. And that’s when you realize that there’s already a gap between a 2-star and a 4-star, both in terms of organization and even challenge, as it’s the gateway to the World Tour. Because of the Covid, the early winter competitions were cancelled and only resumed in mid-March. So I had to be efficient right away. I put in a very good run, skiing the way I want to ski, and finished fourth. That put me fourth in the overall standings, knowing that the top 4 go on to the World Tour. There were still two competitions to go, and as I’m flying at 4000, I didn’t register in time. Fortunately, because I didn’t have the maturity. But it also motivated me because I saw that I could compete at that level. And from then on, I put 2000% into the Qualifiers. But always keeping in mind to keep a margin of pleasure.
blackcrows: Is that what drew you to Freeski Belleville?
Virgile: Yes, they’ve been coaching me for two years now. It also allows me to be taken care of for three competitions in the winter. We only have to pay for the food. Even then, they find the restaurant and we eat together. And it does really help. In the beginning, I only competed with Aurel and Rudy, and we were a bit lost. Especially as we weren’t the kings of organization. We’d leave in the morning at 4-5 a.m. to do a competition run and come back. Now, you’re with a team of guys who also compete. It’s great.
blackcrows: Who are your coaches?
Virgile: Kevin Guri and Victor Galuchot. Pierre Guyot also joined them this year, but I think he’ll be more involved in freestyle. Kevin is a great skier. We get on really well. He skis super hard and he’s never the last one to mess around. Victor is a guy I’ve admired for a long time. I used to watch his mini-series on Zapiks (an online video sharing dedicated to extreme sports, editor’s note) when I was supposed to be working at the library. And then over there, in the Trois Vallées ski area, the playground is really nice. There’s always a spot that works somewhere. It’s so big. There’s also easy access to the lines, and not many people go off-piste compared to where we live. In Chamonix, if there’s 40 cm, it’s done in 5 minutes. You do two runs in good snow and then all you have to do is shuffle your kicks. Over there, you can make tracks all day long.
blackcrows: Is it a very different approach to alpine skiing?
Virgile: It’s quite different. I’d say it’s harder in freeride, because there’s a lot less supervision. But we’re moving away from what freeriding was just a few years ago, with bar preparation. There are more and more structures that allow young people to be a little more supervised and professionalized. Nowadays, there’s a lot of physical and mental preparation. So it’s closer to downhill skiing in that it’s more structured. I’ve always loved sport, so I’ve always done preparatory work, whether in alpine or freeride. I’ve always had more or less the same preparation objectives. So I haven’t felt a huge change, except perhaps in the early years when I had to manage a bit on my own. Now, I’m accompanied by a fitness coach. There’s a huge amount of work that goes on outside skiing. We’ve got skiing, we’re not going to reinvent it. But you’ve got to keep improving your physique, your body control and your self-awareness.
blackcrows: How could you improve your skiing?
Virgile: I’ve always said to myself that a good skier is someone who can do everything. Someone who can go from icy snow to pow with the natural sobriety of an all-round skier. And today, that also means freestyle. It’s really the thing I want to achieve, both in terms of image and skiing. I’m just as passionate about freestyle as I am about alpine, freeride and high-mountain skiing. There are lots of different practices, and it’s cool to be able to draw inspiration from snowboarding, monoskiing, freestyle or freeride. And that’s how you become more complete. Today, if you look at a guy like Markus Eider, he’s perhaps the best skier because he’s ultra-complete. He’s done freestyle in the World Cup and at the X Games, he was freeride world champion. And closer to us, Sam (Favret, editor’s note), he was the example of my youth. He rides super hard. He’s super strong in the air. Or Kevin Guri; he’s a machine. In racing, he’s very poised. In freeride, he’s a beast. He’s been freestyling for ten years. They’re all-rounders because they’re interested in everything.
blackcrows: How do you train in this register?
Virgile: We’re lucky enough to have structures that are quite adapted. In Leysin, 1 h 30 from here, there’s an airbag, so you can launch without risk. I’ve made a lot of progress in that area over the last few years. I’m pretty hard on myself because the level is rising so fast that I also have to catch the train. And over the last 10 years, freestyle has become so much a part of freeriding, like this year at the Bec des Rosses (Verbier Xtreme, editor’s note), where it’s starting to tricks in Bollywood, in the middle of the face. So in training, I put more emphasis on explosiveness than strength. So trampolines and a lot of airbags.
blackcrows: How did you start collaborating with blackcrows?
Virgile: I met Flo Bastien in 2020. He was already a team manager and still a pro skier. I met him through Aurel and Rudy, who were sponsored by blackcrows at that time. One day, he went up to the refuge (Moëde Anterne, the family refuge, editor’s note) by bike and I bumped into him on the road as I was going up in my 4X4. I bought him a beer and we had a chat. I explained my situation and my desire to compete, and in the end he said he’d give me skis for the winter.
blackcrows: Which skis did you ski in competition?
Virgile: When I joined the team, I managed to snag some 2010 corvus and a sevun. So my first competitions were on old corvus and sevun. I loved these skis. I needed something solid underfoot. But since then, I’ve done a bit of violence to myself to evolve and understand how the new shapes worked and develop techniques and skills that I didn’t have. Skiing with “cat” skis.
blackcrows: The new corvus, for example?
Virgile: Yes, it was with the new corvus that I qualified, since I was able to get the skis in January 2023. It’s a project we started in February 2022 and it’s been really cool. They let me get involved, and that’s something every skier dreams of. They wanted a more accessible ski and it’s a ski that has a lot of pivot and is still very powerful. Finding the right combination of the two was a real headache. But it’s a ski with a lot of grip, so it works well in carving and doesn’t move in freeride. And it’s twintip, so that gives you lots of possibilities. It’s really a gun. It’s a ski you can do everything with. Not ultra-easy, but much more affordable than the old one. And that was the guideline. So it keeps the DNA of the corvus but in a much more accessible way. It’s a real success and I’m proud to have contributed to it.
blackcrows: Sponsorship-wise, can you rest easy for the season, or do you have to work hard?
Virgile: I’m a hard worker (laughs). I could eventually finance the season with sponsors, but I grew up working. I’ve always financed my seasons on my own. So I’ve always worked as much as I could in the summer to have as much time as possible in the winter. My father and grandmother are refuge wardens, and I’m a carpenter in the summer, so I put in long summer seasons. So it’s carpentry during the week and weekends in the refuge, plus physical training every evening of the week. I made myself a room in the refuge depot at Cheddes. I welded myself a squat rack. I made a lot of stuff. And it allows me to have the availability I want. I go there in the evening, usually 6.30-8.30 pm. And the next day it’s back to work. And it does me good. You get into a cycle where sport after work does you good. Plus, you’ve got the winter goal to look forward to.
blackcrows: One last question: what experience do you have of filming?
Virgile: A few years ago, in the middle of Covid, we shot Frost with Rudy and Aurel Collet, and also Aurel Lardy and Gaspard Picot. It was with them that we set up the Frost Compagny association. It’s through them that we organize Cross the Line at the end of winter at La Flégère, an off-piste skicross that’s getting bigger and bigger. The aim of the film was to introduce the association, and the skiers involved. It was a good filming experience. We spent four days in the refuge. We were supposed to do a sequel, but we haven’t done that yet. And I shot with Nikolai in Austria this winter for his next film. We had perfect conditions. We had a blast. I’ve also been doing shoots with blackcrows, product videos and so on. I’m really enjoying it.