They say, “Stars can’t shine without darkness.” and Valentin Delluc became the living example of this with his Night time speedriding from Bossons glacier in Chamonix, France. The video of this ethereal event would make you feel like it is happening in the whole other world altogether. “When night falls in the mountains, Speed Rider Valentin Delluc wakes up,” the video beautifully and most certainly explains this.
In the video, Valentin Delluc sets out an a poetic and mystical ride down the highline of Bossons glacier with 20 meters of LED lights under his wing, and a full moon over his head to brighten up the glacier. The whole view was somewhat magical and extremely special.
As you see the video the first thing that came to your head would be the utmost simplicity with which this stunt was performed and you will say to your, “Ha! That could be done.” So let me stop you right there and tell you that there was a lot of effort put by Valentin and his team to make this event a flawless one.
The idea of this feat was born at the end of the summer of 2016. One of the pioneering speedrider, Valentin Delluc made his moonlight concept a reality by flying down a French glacier at night. In order to achieve this, he underwent a rigorous seven months training in which he tackled various challenges in the dark across the rugged crevasses of Bossons glacier.
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Delluc took up a lot of test runs to hone the aerodynamics of his wing so as to make sure he could fly with LEDs attached. He conducted his first test without actual lighting at a height of 2,800 meters. Until everything was placed properly and device started working, only then he moved over to the lit-up wings. The final test flight he took up was under the full moon light. It allowed Delluc to fly close to the ground and this is when he was sure he is ready to create history.
At the night of flight, Delluc was concerned over the fact that the LED lights might not work as the snow cover was not perfect. But as the overall conditions were in favour, he received a go ahead to start his flight at 4am in the morning.
The entire Moonline film is recorded in a single shot as Valentin and his crew had a very tight time window to pull off this feat. Even for someone who is accustomed to speedriding through rooftops and glaciers, this was one hell of a challenge. So all you guys out there who are thinking of replicating do not go out random and try it out.
At the beginning of his run, he was alone in the air. Time seemed to stand still, after but just four minutes and 20 seconds later he had travelled over 1,500 vertical metres and completed his dream of speedriding down a glacier at night. And there it was, a new star was born under the light of the million existing stars.
