Ski tips in the corner of the frame, a gloved hand, and then a fast, playful run through the off-piste terrain of Val d'Isère. French freeskier Léo Taillefer filmed this line on 15 March 2015 with a GoPro for the first edition of GoPro's Line of the Winter contest, which he went on to win.
Who is Léo Taillefer?
Léo Taillefer, born on 26 October 1989, is a freeskier and paraglider based in Val d'Isère in the French Alps. His best competition result is fourth place at the Red Bull Linecatcher in Les Arcs in 2013, but he is best known for his first-person ski films, which mix natural features, side-country jumps and an obvious sense of fun.
Away from the skis he runs the Freeski Academy in Val d'Isère, created the multi-sport event Léo's Invitational in 2019, works as a carpenter and helped found the paragliding club Les Aigles de Val-d'Isère in 2022.
GoPro Line of the Winter: 2015 and 2016
GoPro launched Line of the Winter in the 2014–15 season as a monthly contest for skiers and snowboarders filming their best runs on a GoPro. Each monthly winner received $1,000, and the overall winner $20,000. Entries were judged on riding, filming and creativity, so the camera work matters as much as the skiing.
Taillefer won the 2015 overall title and then did it again in 2016, taking the $20,000 prize for the second year in a row. His winning 2016 film was an April run in Val d'Isère, and he also won the February 2016 round there and shared the March round with Blaine Gallivan from Jackson Hole.
Watch the line
A first-person camera puts you right behind the skis. Watch how the tips stay in the frame as a fixed reference while rocks, snow features and changes of direction rush past; it is that steady anchor that makes a fast, technical line easy to follow on screen.
Val d'Isère: the setting
Val d'Isère lies in the Tarentaise valley of Savoie, close to the Italian border, with the village at about 1,850 metres and the commune reaching 3,599 metres. It shares a linked ski area with neighbouring Tignes, and the high, open terrain around the village is Taillefer's home playground.
The resort also has a deep racing history. The Face de Bellevarde hosted the men's downhill, super-G and giant slalom at the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics, Val d'Isère staged the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 2009, and it holds a men's World Cup round every December. The Face de Bellevarde is due to be used again at the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Off-piste lines like this one cross avalanche terrain: ski them with avalanche gear, a partner and, if you don't know the area, a local guide.
For a completely different surface beneath the skis, compare the volcanic-slope skiing clip. For mountain photography at a slower pace, explore Thomas Tourral’s French Alps collection, or see how one image can hold several moments in the Andrew Muse snowkiting sequence image.
Related reading
- James Mort’s Avalanche Rescue in the Swiss Alps: The Survivor’s Account
- Candide Thovex’s First-Person Ski Film: Trees, Tunnels and Unexpected Turns
- Candide Thovex’s Skiing POV: Performance and the Art of the Edit
- A Steep Skiing Line on Video
- Searching for a Lost Phone at Stratton with a Metal Detector
- An Early Autonomous Follow-Camera Drone: Composition from a Smartphone
- A Ski BASE Front Flip Through a GoPro Camera
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