According to his own words, he initially came to Chamonix, where he currently lives, to play ice hockey. However, surrounded by mountains, it soon became his only wish to climb and ride them. He started by learning how to use a rope, an ice axe and how to set up crampons. He steadily improved his snowboarding skills and learned the basic mountaineering skills too; how to climb, abseil down, build a relay etc.
He first BASE jumped at the age of 21. His father was a parachutist and one of the very first to practice BASE jump in France. It was obvious Roch will follow in father's footsteps. And he's loved it since day one. "The most intense feeling coming out of skydiving is having time while you are moving and covering long distances", Roch says. One of the most difficult and dangerous jumps of his career was in Valgrisenche Italy. The spot was quite high, at about 3800m offering a short start of only 200m vertical. But he managed it well. "On working days, when I have time, I leave early in the morning around 6.30AM, drive to Magland (a commune in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France), walk one hour and go for a 800m vertical jump. Then I go back to my car, drive back to work with a big smile on my face", Roch adds. One of his recent jumps passed off at The Aiguille Noire, Mont Blanc area.
If you're a climber you have probably fantasize of climbing the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, if you're a wingsuiter you've probably dreamt of opening new wingsuit exit points. Roch and his friends have done both. The Aiguille Noire de Peuterey (3,773 m) is a mountain of the Mont Blanc massif in Italy, forming part of the Peuterey crest to the peak of Mont Blanc with the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey. First climbed by Karl Brendelet and Hermann Schaller, on 26 and 27 August 1930; it remains one of the great classic rock routes in the massif.
Crew took 4 hours hike-up to the first refuge where they slept overnight at the bottom of the face. A 4am wake-up call gave them time for a 10-hour climb on the most loose, sketchy terrain any of these experienced mountaineers had ever seen. Being a first-ever jump from this site, they weren't sure it was possible. But hell, they'd come this far! After working out the jump, they leapt off and fell at least 150m straight off, above a glacier, from the summit of Aiguille Noire de Peuterey . After a breathtaking two minute flight, they landed in the high grass near their cars, and went home with big smiles on their faces ...
