Pierre Vaultier is an accomplished snowboarder, to say the least. Multiple World Cups and a handful of Olympic Gold medals in snowboard cross are proof of that. So when you see him on this crazy pump track in the Alps, it’s easy to think it looks easy. It is not.
“There’s zero room for mistakes,” he said in Red Bull’s 20-minute documentary about the track. “Absolutely no room at all for mistakes. This is one of the first times I’ve been scared on a snowboard.”
Vaultier was born in Briançon in France’s Hautes-Alpes. He won his first national title in 2005, which just so happened to be the first year he showed up on the international scene. The next year, when he was just 18, he competed in the inaugural Olympic snowboard cross competition at Turin, where he finished 35th — likely not the result he was hoping for. He took that finish, though, and learned from it. It was jus the start of a bright career. The next year, he won his first World Cup, along with four other wins.
Now, with all that experience under his belt, he’s still pushing the sport. He’s still doing new things. And this pump track is just part of it. It’s not the first time he’s been involved in something like this, and we’ll bet it’s not the last.
