Aymar Navarro felt right at home fighting his way up Colmillo Del Diablo in southern Chile. He was roped together with steep skiing legend Tof Henry, Chilean pioneer Raimundo De Andraca, guide Juan Senoret, and filmmaker Txema Trull. The team had been planning this objective for weeks, a stunning line down the face of a 7,660-foot volcanic protrusion that literally translates to “The Fang of the Devil,” waiting on weather and conditions to line up to make sure they wouldn’t have to make the 30-plus-mile approach through Villarrica National Park more than once. Nobody had ever skied off the summit before, and very few had even ascended their route through 2,000 feet of complex, fluted spines, but that only proved to be motivation for the team. Navarro had just come off a big 2019 season on the Freeride World Tour, skiing in Japan, Canada, and all over the Alps, so he was hungry for quality time in the mountains with close friends. That day, the crew spent nearly 12 hours swimming up the deep snow on the ever-steepening face, combining all their alpine skills to acheive one grand objective.

Aymar Navarro lives for these kinds of experiences. Born and raised in the sparsely populated Val d’Aran of the Spanish Pyrenees, Navarro is an outlier in the ski world. In a nation where soccer superstars, bullfighters and tennis players are in the limelight, becoming a world-class pro skier might seem like a tough career path—but being the exception has never deterred Navarro. Even today, with a defined trajectory, notable competitive results and international sponsorships with brands like The North Face and Atomic, he still chooses to do largely his own thing. That usually includes taking the hard way up (and down) a mountain far from home… 

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