Enter Joe Vallone’s world, and you’d better be ready for an adventure. Ask any pro skier, client or friend who has crossed Vallone’s path in the small freeride town of La Grave in the southern French Alps, and they will probably tell you crazy stories. One thing is for sure: this guy is not just another random mountain guide.
Joe Vallone showed up on the untamed terrain of La Grave some 20 years ago. Back then, the locals couldn’t quite figure out who or what this American dude was all about. He had a clear jibber style while aspiring to become an IFMGA mountain guide, determined to follow in the footsteps of the late Doug Coombs.
But that’s typical for Joe Vallone; you can’t put him in one box — he belongs to so many different facets of skiing. As a young teenage mogul and freestyle skier, he judged at the Winter X Games. In college, he moved to Colorado to ski and play the drums and discovered climbing. During his years in Colorado, Vallone was one of the first paid sponsored freestyle skiers, while in the summers, he was hauling badass climbing routes on big walls in Yosemite. Eventually, injuries and younger talents on the jibbing scene pushed him towards the IFMGA guide program, where he discovered ski mountaineering and big mountain freeriding — now his livelihood.
At 48, Vallone’s broad spectrum of ski and mountain knowledge has been honed into a multi-talented, highly skilled, and relentlessly motivated skier. His Instagram says: “Living to ski, skiing to live!” a mantra he lives up to. Vallone’s vibrant passion for riding down mountains on two planks radiates off him, and he is always willing to share endless stories after conquering new lines and sick ski days.
“I don’t know why I love skiing so much. It’s the meaningless pursuit,” he laughs, borrowing the title of a recent film by Patagonia and Sweetgrass Productions that delves into the mindsets of those who have devoted their lives to walking uphill to ski back down. “I didn’t plan it – this life just fell in my lap.”
Vallone first arrived in La Grave in the early 2000s, encouraged by his aspirant guide friend Chad Vanderham, who tragically passed away with Doug Coombs when skiing a couloir in La Grave in April 2006. Despite the very tough loss of two of his closest friends, Vallone stayed.
Joe Vallone
Over the decades, Vallone has become well integrated into the small freeride community that is the core of the big mountain ski scene in La Grave. Vallone is in his element here. Known for its adventurous, often extreme skiing, it very quickly could be Vallone’s handiwork if an extensive line has been opened and skied successfully in La Grave. His efforts have definitely contributed to the need for the locals to say: “Don’t follow tracks.”
Skiing in La Grave is a severe undertaking, especially if you’re determined to open new descents in jagged, exposed 2,400 vertical metre mountains. Even in the early years, Vallone and Vanderham went out on missions, finding new lines through the rocks by studying the mountain carefully with binoculars from the other side of the valley and then linking it with ropes, wood and climbing gear. The duo has anchors all over the place but has never placed a bolt in the mountain. As a fitting tribute to his missed friend, Vallone has been using Vanderham’s ropes to maintain the anchors at many of these amazing, at times secret, almost sacred places.
There’s one line Vallone always goes back to — the Y couloir — a wild 50-55 degree descent jacked into the rock, which gets more challenging by the day as the glacier recedes. Everyone sees it from the lift; many dream of skiing it, but few dare it — maybe once in a lifetime. But Vallone has skied it 33 times. It’s an insane number for such an exposed and extreme line, starting at 3,400 metres and dropping almost vertically down the fall line for nearly 600 metres to the glacier, including a double bergschrund at the bottom. The sustainable steepness never lets you rest, neither physically nor mentally.
Joe Vallone
Not only does Vallone routinely subject himself to this raw line that looks unskiable from the lift, but he also occasionally guides others down the Y couloir. In 2014, Teton Gravity Research filmed a mind-blowing and much-viewed clip of his descent with Canadian pro skier Ian Macintosh. More recently, in December 2023, a short film was released where Vallone helps a young local aspirant guide, Pilou Cret, to realize his dream to ski the Y. Eyes Wide Open is an excellent story of the shared passion for skiing that transcends generations and nationalities.
Coping with the pressure of bringing someone else down such consequential lines is a big part of Vallone’s “low-ratio high-end” guide business, and it takes a particular mindset. “I treat these runs more like alpine routes than ski descents,” explains Vallone. “I bring ropes and gear. And I know my skiers. I learnt from Doug [Coombs] that you can’t focus on your own skiing. You must look out the back corner of your eye at every turn. It’s almost like short roping. You’re pacing. When you’re that close to your client, you take away the exposure.”
It’s not surprising that Vallone often references the lessons he learned from Coombs — the pioneer of extreme skiing was his inspiration and mentor.
Joe Vallone
With this, the American mountain guide takes the last lift to 3,200 metres to La Grave’s’ top station, where the restaurant buzzes with fellow skiers. There, he will play guitar until the sun sets, then ski down at dusk, savouring the sweet taste of the last run — the end of another day in Joe Vallone’s wild world.
