“He could no longer do without the mountains”: Esteban Olivero, trail and ski hopeful, died at 22

2023-12-27 09:11:13

Messy wheat hair, eyes as blue as a winter sky, facial skin burned by the sun and, above all, a smile full of life. Sipping a beer in the warm cocoon of the Col de la Vanoise refuge, after an endless day of ski touring last spring, Esteban Olivero exuded an insolent freshness. As if fatigue had no hold on him. It wasn’t easy, however, to hang on to the heels of your skis that day.

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The best French ski mountaineers were then embarked on a super diagonal of the Vanoise, in April 2023. These four days of raid from Maurienne to Tarentaise were only training for an expedition to the confines of the Central Asia planned for this winter. But Esteban Olivero will not be in Kyrgyzstan in a few weeks to open the trail. A ski fall killed him on December 23. He was barely 22 years old.