The 61st Celebration Skyline Challenge

By Andie Flett P’25, Director of the LAS Alpine Institute

The 61st Celebration was both a reunion for old friends and an opportunity for people to make new connections within the LAS Global Family. Hiking the iconic towers above Leysin with alumni that spanned the decades, sharing stories about ski days, dorm life, and classmates animated the thread that connects us all to the Magic Mountain.

During each academic year, the LAS Alpine Institute offers and supports the Skyline Challenge, giving participants the goal of summiting all the peaks you can see from Leysin. Students aim to summit as many peaks as possible during their time at LAS, and this year we have students who took advantage of the clear autumn weather and have already conquered six peaks! Some of the peaks visible from Leysin, like Mont Blanc (4809m), require time and maturity and are often saved until after graduation as a hike with a small group of friends who have bonded while cutting their teeth together on the local peaks.

But anyone can embrace the Skyline Challenge when they are in Leysin. Many of our LAS faculty and staff carve out two or three weekends a year and chip away at the challenge, building skills and friendships as each outing inspires new objectives, like summiting the more challenging peaks with ropes or skis.

During last summer’s 61st Celebration, the Alpine Institute offered two Skyline Challenge hikes for attendees. On the first day of activities, a group of alumni and family hiked to the summit of La Riondaz (1950m). On the way back down, we stopped at the refuge de Solacyre, enjoyed a drink together and shared stories and high fives.

Alumni from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s remember when Solacyre was the top station for the ski lift just past Savoy, the lower station now housing a skateboard park for local kids. The lift was closed in 1998 and the top station updated to a foot-access restaurant in 2015 that is staffed and cared for by local volunteers. Many of our teachers take one weekend a year to open this hut and serve drinks, fondue, and planchette to red-cheeked hikers and ski tourers.

From the deck of Solacyre, Justin Keyes ’05 looked across the valley at the Dents du Midi, which he summited as a student, and reminisced about the trek. Later that evening we shared a drink at L’Embuscade and his former teacher, Ethan Harris, laughed and told the story of how Justin carried a large rock down from the summit as a souvenir. Justin laughed and told us “I still have that rock!”

The next day offered clear skies and summer sunshine for the Skyline Challenge hike to Tour de Famelon (2143m). The mood on the way up was reflective, owing perhaps to some fatigue from the prior evening’s festivities, though we still managed to make steady progress towards the rocky summit along the craggy flanks of Le Truex.

We gained the summit of the Tour de Famelon by noon and installed ourselves on the welcoming limestone for a sandwich and a survey of the vast view surrounding us: the Oldenhorn (3122m), Les Diablerets (3210m), Dents de Morcles (2969m), Le Grand Muveran (3051m), and the

Dents du Midi (3258m) circled around us, offering a stunning panorama and the temptation of future outings.

On the summit, asked the group a bit more about their time at LAS. In turn, they asked me more about the Alpine Institute, the mountain safety training that we do with our students, and how the outdoor programs have evolved. I told them about the Skyline Challenge, the avalanche safety days, the new freeride ski group, and our partnership with the local guides bureau led by Fabian Pavillard ’01. As we chatted, I realized that their time at LAS included the winter of 2007, when LAS student Spencer Akers died tragically in an avalanche while skiing off-piste. As it turned out, my fellow hikers were friends of Spencer’s and were on the hike to remember him.

In the wake of Spencer’s untimely death many changes were made to further manage and minimize risk in the ski and mountain programs at LAS, including avalanche education and off-piste skiing with certified UIAGM guides, ski checkins, and a greater staff presence on the mountain. No one wants to take away from young people the thrill, adventure, and learning that happens in the mountains, but equally we know that no mistake should cost a life and we strive to provide for our students the highest quality of education both in the classroom and outside.

It is always a joy to have visitors to the Magic Mountain and it was very special for me to share these experiences with alumni spanning the decades, and particularly with Spencer’s friends.

61 MAGICAL YEARS CELEBRATING

Take a trip down memory lane and relive your favorite moments from the Magic Mountain as we celebrate six incredible decades of LAS through photographs! Do you have a memory or a photograph to share? We would love to hear from you at advancement@las.ch (and a few of our favorites will even make it into the next issue of Panorama)!