Would you ski down an erupting volcano?
The three North Face athletes have collected their experience in Sliding Fire , a seven-minute video in which the spectacular images of the descent, surrounded by clouds of ash and molten rock projectiles, are mixed with the beauty of the scenes of daily life and the green nature of the island of Tanna. Armed with their skis and boards, the protagonists ascended the volcano until they peered into the crater itself to begin an adrenaline descent in an almost lunar landscape.
Ascent to Mount Yasur, on the island of Tanna
"I was sitting in the back of a truck and when we came out of the jungle, there was that enormous and fatal black mass, in the middle of that plain of black ash, expelling clouds of ash and rock into the sky. It was quite intimidating. I knew then that it was not going to be as easy as I imagined. (…) For me it was so surreal, who sent me to get into this, this is great for me, "explains Sam Smoothy about his first impression when he saw the volcano through a North Face statement.
Adrenaline in vein!
Regarding the experience, Smoothy assures that “the skis do not slide the same, so you are physically very tense trying to hold the type. And then there is the mental part of the matter – hear how the volcano roars when it erupts, while you are near the summit, feel how the ground trembles while you stare at the storm of rock and ash that comes at you, whipped by the wind, and you try to avoid being knocked over by a rock. It's pretty biblical, really."
Ski over mountains of ash
Mission accomplished!