The first time I did a sky dive with a wingsuit was in Verbier, and I was so scared. Everyone had been telling me how difficult it would be and how I had to be careful about this and that – but when I took off I was like a child. I opened my wings and I started to fly really quickly. But I was having too much fun and flew straight past the landing area. When I landed I was lost, and it took me two hours to get back. But I was the happiest girl on Earth. That was 1998 – I was 18. After that I bought a wingsuit and started to fly and fly and fly.
When I saw the eagle’s eye view of the Alps on Planet Earth II recently, I thought that’s exactly how I feel when I’m wingsuiting. When you’re up high and see the ground moving so quickly below you, it’s like the world’s on fast-forward.
I moved to Verbier from Lausanne in 2001 at the age of 21. That was when I got my first invitation to compete in the Verbier Xtreme, a tough off-piste ski and snowboard competition, held on the Bec des Rosses mountain.
In Verbier I used to go snowboarding in the mornings. I worked in a travel agency in the afternoons and did shifts in a restaurant in the evenings. I won all the contests that year so I got sponsored and thought: “I’ll stay for just one more winter … then leave and go and get a normal job.” But after many years I realised I was going to settle here.
Verbier inspires me: the shapes of the mountains and the landscapes. It’s not like most ski resorts, which are in a valley; it’s a big, high plateau so you have the sun from sunrise to sunset. It’s a high-end resort but there are a lot of special characters here, and everyone mixes together, they all share a love of the sports and the mountain.
One of the best places to snowboard in Verbier is off Mont-Gelé, a 3,023-metre peak. The cable car takes you up but there are no pistes; you just freeride down. There are loads of couloirs facing every direction. It’s incredible.
My favourite bar in Verbier is Fer à Cheval. It’s a down-to-earth place with a lively après-ski bar upstairs and a calmer restaurant downstairs that’s popular with locals. It isn’t too expensive and does great pizza.
I also love to hike around the Val de Bagnes. It’s a nature reserve with views of snow-capped mountains, glaciers and villages. For a mountain guide to show you the best places in Verbier I’d suggest Olivier Roduit. He’s a former Swiss team skier and a super-nice guy. He’s reached the north ridge of Everest (8,300 metres) twice without using oxygen.
Last summer I did a wingsuit flight off 4,600-metre Monte Rosa. It’s the highest mountain in Switzerland and it took eight hours to climb it just from the Gnifetti refuge, which is already at 3,647 metres. I had to abseil down to the start; it was icy and I didn’t want to fall or slip there. It’s scary to wingsuit off a cliff for the first time – there is extra tension. The flight down took just three minutes.
I sometimes get altitude sickness. It can happen to anyone, even if you’re fit and in good health and you’ve never had it before. It happened to me once at the Matterhorn. I was bad for an hour, but then later I was OK so I jumped. But once in the Himalayas I had to climb back down from a 6,000-metre peak, as I was feeling so bad.
Basejumping is less difficult and risky than riding a big mountain line in freeride snowboarding. If the conditions are bad for base jumping it’s really easy to tell – if the wind is good or bad, say. But with freeriding you can check the conditions and be the best guide in the world but problems can still crop up.
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