Sales gosses from Chamonix

There are a thousand and one ways to enjoy the mountains: for some, it is a place of silence and rejuvenation, for others, an ideal place for hiking. For Damien Arnaud and Mathieu Moullier, two young Chamonix residents who spend their lives between snow and rock, it is above all a vertical world: steep slopes, skis on their feet, harnesses around their waists.

Video: meet Damien and Mathieu, two “sales gosses” from Chamonix with the kind of mountain spirit we love: free, funny and irreverent.

Some are born facing the sea, others facing the Aiguille du Midi. It's rather convenient for Mat and Damien: they live at the foot of one of the most beautiful playgrounds on the planet. But growing up in Chamonix, the Mecca of mountaineering, is not without pressure. There is a certain weight of legend here, in a place where almost everything has already been climbed.

The new generation doesn't go up there to escape anything, but because it's in their DNA. That's where they come from, and that's where they stay. The only times they leave Chamonix is to open new routes in the Himalayas or the Cordillera Blanca.

We took advantage of a hike with Damien and Mathieu to talk about friendship, risks, and what it means to grow up in a place so deeply influenced by Alpine culture.

“We love the mountains because we feel free here.
It doesn't matter who climbed a particular peak in record time.
We respect that, but it's not our way of doing things.”

“Watching us from afar, you might think we go up there just to defy life by giving it the middle finger. The mountains continue to impose themselves as the only place we need to be because we feel good there. That's how we've chosen to live, with all that that entails.”

— Sam Beaugey, excerpt from the book Sales Gosses.