Pro Skier Endures "Harsh" Summer Chamonix Mission in Video

When 5-hour Energy asked what POWDER would like to create as part of a summer-long partnership, an idea instantly began to take shape — we see plenty of content about American professional skiers in the winter, but how do they train in the summer?

For the first episode, we tasked professional big mountain skier and annual film star Jim Ryan with filming in the Chamonix, France. Watch below.

POWDER identified a few regions where the 'Americans Abroad' episodes could be filmed that could include actual skiing: Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand came to mind. It was a pipe dream, however, to film an episode on the summer snow of Chamonix.

It just so happened that Ryan was spending an extended period of time in Chamonix to fight off the summer blues and to work on his mountaineering skills. A few quick emails with Ryan's agent later, and we had a plan set in place to make it happen. We couldn't make it out to film the episode ourselves, but the folks at Yucca Films absolutely crushed it.

On another note, wouldn't it be nice if we could simply hop on a gondola and a train to reach high alpine snow at the end of July? Europe. Must be nice.

Stay tuned in here at POWDER or subscribe to our YouTube channel for future episodes of 'Americans Abroad' and other video content planned throughout the winter. Check out our on-going contest with 5-hour Energy, you could win a trip to Ski Portillo, Chile!