I witnessed a crazy thing today. I got up early and caught the first cable car up to Le Brevent to shoot the morning sun over Mt Blanc. The cable car is an adventure in itself, especially for someone with vertigo like myself. Imagine my surprise after arriving at the top with slightly shaky knees when I saw people preparing to jump off. They'd climbed over the safety barriers wearing something resembling a one man tent and were going to jump off the precipice - yikes!
This is proximity flying. The participant wears a wingsuit, which as the name suggests, gives him or her wings, much like a flying squirrel. The 'proximity' part of this sport comes from flying close to something, in this case, the mountain, into a couloir and out onto a ski piste. They wear a backpack containing a parachute which is needed to slow down the flight in order to land.
Take a look at this video to see what it looks like from the pilot's eyes. Hold on to something steady...
Let's put this into some perspective. Le Brevent is 2525m and is accessed by taking two cable cars to the peak. It is built on a phenominal precipice as seen in the photograph below behind the amazing Pascal from Chamonix Mt Blanc Helicopters.
The attrition rate is high. I've not heard any reports of incidents today so I'm hoping all the pilots featured in this article made it down without issues. Early this month a 51 year old Canadian was killed on the opposite slope after he jumped from L'Aiguille du Midi. Chamonix is a live or die kind of place and it seems apt that proximity flying is allowed in the valley again after it was banned for a short period due to the amount of deaths and injuries. People come to Chamonix for many reasons and one of the main attractions is the freedom to do what you want, dangerous or not - that's why I'm here.
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© 2026 Julia Revitt Photography
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