The Legend of Apocalypse Snow

Meet the man who almost single-handedly launched snowboarding in Europe – and starred in a pretty epic series of neon-clad films, too.

WORDS WILL ROBSON

I’m sitting in Les Arcs 1950. Next to me, a local legend is looking up wistfully at where the Bois du l’Ours chairlift, just below us, disappears over the ridge towards Les Arcs 1600 and 1800. The legend is Régis Rolland, an instructor with the Privilège Ski School in Les Arcs, who back in the ’80s almost single-handedly launched snowboarding in Europe.

It’s at this point that dedicated students of snowboarding history will sit up and shout: “Apocalypse Snow!” referring to the ’80s snowboarding movie classics, which starred Régis. The story goes that having joined an elite group of ski instructors at the newly opened Les Arcs 2000 resort in 1981, young Régis came to the attention of Alain Gaimard, Les Arcs’ marketing boss and inspirational director of “new ways of sliding on snow,” as Régis puts it.

Alain had invited Winterstick (one of snowboarding’s earliest companies) and their team over from the USA for the opening of the resort. Régis and his fellow instructors all had a chance to test the innovative wooden snowboards. “The Winterstick team were all really good, but we couldn’t make any turns,” says Régis. “It was frustrating.”

The Films Capture Their Star’s Unbridled Joie de Vivre

Defeated, the other instructors were all happy to return to their skis and monoboards, but not Régis – he was hooked and so keen to master surfing on snow that he bought a Winterstick: “All my life I had done a lot of ski racing and I was bored, but when I saw the snowboard I thought ‘fantastic’. I wanted to do new things.”

In April 1982, after three months of trying, and failing, to even turn the short, narrow, swallow-tailed wooden plank that was the Winterstick, Régis was at the point of giving up. But then, one day, on a steep slope running down the left-hand side of the Bois du l’Ours lift, something happened that would change the course of snowboarding history.

“On that day, I was exhausted,” says Régis. “Standing up there, I just thought: ‘(insert choice French expletive), I’m just going to go straight down’. So, at 80kph, I leant forward and made a big turn, then leant back: another turn. It clicked. I realised speed was my friend.”

Alain saw Régis nailing those very first turns and had a lightbulb moment. “He had been wanting to do a movie to publicise Les Arcs as a place of experiment and innovation – which really was the case, especially in the ’80s – so he asked me to be in the film,” explains Régis. “We made a nice ski movie called Ski Espace, filmed by Didier Lafond. There was no story; we just did super-steep, fast monoskiing and snowboarding off-piste. We won a film prize in New York.”

The film introduced Europe to the sport of snowboarding, and its success led to the famous Apocalypse Snow three-movie series, the first in 1983, the last (of the original series) in 1986. The film sequences are bravura displays of skill, but also something uniquely French: unbridled joie de vivre. They used the mountains as a giant sliding playground.

A Chase Film Like No Other

The first Apocalypse Snow is a chase film with evil monoskiers pursuing Régis on his Winterstick. The narrative, soundtrack, and outfits are all bonkers, as is Régis’ gob-smacking ability on a wooden plank, held in place with a rudimentary binding, which make for epic sequences. It launched snowboarding as the next big thing on snow.

The film sees Régis escape an exploding igloo, get picked up then dropped by a hang glider, jump a snow plough, and get pursued by a zorb, before being plucked from Les Arcs 2000 by six people hanging from an Alouette II helicopter. “It’s not something health and safety would allow now,” observes Régis.

Apocalypse Snow

A year later and the second movie opened with Régis still hanging from a helicopter. The stunts get weirder: double-monoski, inflatable boats, chairs bolted on skis, and skiers using handheld wings…

Apocalypse Snow II

The third movie uses its bigger budget to head to Japan and the US. There’s still plenty of dressing up, but it’s more a celebration of sliding virtuosity from Régis and the team. From disappearing inside a giant redwood in California; to the Grand Canyon; to Jackson Hole, where an American ‘hotdogger’ catches his ski tips on top of a moving freight train (“we were below him and thought he was dead,” says Régis), the film has even more extreme sequences.

Apocalypse Snow III

A Lasting Legacy

After 30 years of amazing ski films, the pioneering trilogy are still impressive, if only to realise that as Régis surfs majestically down the mountains he inspired a generation to see the beauty and fun to be found off-piste; not just in snowboarding, but also in skiing, by adding impetus to the development of powder skis. I ask Régis if Alain ever asked him to do something he thought too dangerous. Régis smiles: “I was the only one who could snowboard like that, so Alain was careful not to ruin his film.”

If you’re inspired to snowboard or ski with the man himself, head to Les Arcs and let Régis be your guide. Visit ecoledeskiprivilege.com.