Ça va l’chalet?
At Xavier Delerue’s house in Verbier
by Dominique Daher
First published in Backcountry Magazine (France) #002 (dated November-December 2022)
French photographer with Corsican origins living in Coppet, Dom Daher had a short but remarkable career as a pro skier before taking pictures of his colleagues. He has been following the Freeride World Tour for over 15 years now, and knows the faces of the world like the pockets of his F-Stop bag.
We went to see Xavier at his home in Verbier to tell the story of the rider through his interior, or at least part of his home. Ski garages, mobile vans, small hovels, or converted flats, the modern “chalet” takes many forms, but always reveals the person who occupies it.
Dom Daher:
You live in Verbier, which is a bit far from the Pyrenees, isn’t it? Why here and not Chamonix?
Xavier Delerue :
Verbier is indeed far from the Pyrenees. Sometimes I miss the mountains of my childhood but I always enjoy going back to my roots. Unfortunately being a pro snowboarder in the Pyrenees is much more complicated, and over time life drew me to the Valais, and Verbier more precisely. I shot for years with Tero Repo and Guido Perrini who were based in Switzerland and I moved here quite naturally. I really feel at home in Verbier, both in terms of the terrain and the quality of life and values. It took me a while to adapt but I’ve been here for 15 years and I feel more than comfortable. Chamonix could have been a choice too, I lived there for 5 years, but over there everything is super hardcore, everyone is constantly pushing the limits, in the mountains and in life in general, and after a while I found it burdensome and even dangerous. And then to raise my family, I felt much more comfortable in Verbier, knowing that Chamonix is only an hour away.
Dom Daher :
You spend a lot of time outside, but is the inside important to you? Or is it just an airlock to change equipment?
Xavier Delerue :
No, I travel a lot so my home is very important. I love to be able to feel good and get back into a routine between trips. I think it’s one of the hardest things in my career to constantly break that routine.
This “mazot” must be a hundred years old… I bought it completely dismantled on Anibis, a second-hand website. I went to get it and put it back together from scratch here, and I really enjoyed it!
Inside I store all my gear, my tools to go dreaming and spend time in the mountains.
Dom Daher :
In this shack, it’s an organised mess, it’s a bit of a reflection of this ambivalence between snowboarding, a messy and cool sport, and the mountains where you have to be meticulous?
Xavier Delerue :
It’s a good point, but I think that the mountaineer will be meticulous, very analytical, whereas the freerider is much more into letting go. It’s due to the practice, and of course it’s a generalization, but it always struck me to see the differences in personality that could exist between these two practices which at the end evolve on the same terrain. Things have evolved a lot in the last 10 years and more and more with the crossover of practices, styles and philosophies are mixing and it brings back so many positive things…
Dom Daher :
At the moment everyone is getting into paragliding, light version and mountain flying, isn’t it a bit stupid to go up on foot and come down flying instead of riding?
Xavier Delerue :
You have to look further than that, and think about the run behind your resort that ends up at the bottom of the valley with 3 hours of walking in the grass, or that run that you dream of doing but that is inaccessible except with the help of a small paraglider that will get you over that ridge that blocks the passage. Or that run that is so beautiful but ends up on a glacier so dismantled that it’s not rideable. In short, the crossover of paragliding with riding offers an extension of the playground beyond the fact that it also opens the perspectives and the understanding of the environment.
Dom Daher :
Do you really splitboard or is it just for instagram? Wouldn’t it be easier to go ski touring?
Xavier Delerue :
Haha… please! It’s true that ski touring works better than splitboarding in general, but I don’t mind doing a little more effort and staying on a snowboard with all the fun that goes with it on the way down. I am not looking at my watch when I ride and the goal is to get good runs, so there is no point in switching to ski touring. I know how to ski but I don’t like the stiffness of the equipment.
Dom Daher :
You also surf a lot, which is very different from snowboarding: you go up to the peak with your arms, and then you go down by pressing on the back foot and steering with the front foot, while in snowboarding it’s the opposite, is it schizophrenia?
Xavier Delerue :
You’re right and when you see a pro snowboarder surfing, apart from a few rare exceptions, you can spot him straight away because he’s going to have a very rigid style, knees apart, ass backwards… In short, the more you have automatisms in snowboarding, the harder it’s going to be in surfing… Believe in my frustration after 20 years of surfing.
Dom Daher :
Do you really think there’s any point in putting on a helmet?
Xavier Delerue :
It’s just for looks! No seriously, I used to think that and in snowboarding I grew up with the culture of helmet = not cool, but after seeing several friends who died because they didn’t have a helmet (Tristan Picot, Gilles Voirol, etc.) and after hitting my head on rocks once on a not so nice run in a resort, I can tell you that I don’t ride powder without a helmet anymore. Fortunately the mentality has changed regarding the use of helmets and that’s a good thing.
Dom Daher :
What is your next project/trip?
Xavier Delerue :
I’m going to explore the possibilities of paragliding to expand the scope of freeriding. It’s a good excuse to stay local between Verbier, Zermatt and Chamonix. To be continued!
