[bass whoosh] [bass whoosh] [wind] Matthias Giraud: The cliff right over there, straight into the valley.

In the shoot, make a couple of turns up there, turn left, get on the ridge, point it, and then straight to heaven.

[pants] Matthias: Do you see that avalanche?

It was so sweet.

[screams] We just skied this, oh my God.

[screams] Speaker 1: [French] Matthias: [French] Yeah!

Aiguille Croche, here we go!

Oh yeah!

Matthias: My name is Matthias Giraud, and my life's mission is to promote the sport of skiing and BASE jumping in a professional and humble manner to inspire human adventure.

The risk involved, potentially life-threatening injuries or even death, and I'm still doing it aside from all the risks because I believe it's a great way to live a fulfilling life, and I'm a firm believer that you can't let fear stand in the way of your dreams.

Skiing has been a big influence and driving force in my life, I started skiing when I was 18 months old, so it's pretty much my first love.

Josephina Giraud: Before he could even talk, he put his finger up on the hill where his sisters left and he said, "Huh, huh, huh, huh."

He wanted to follow them.

I carried him uphill, I said, "Wait for Mommy until I'm down."

And here he came and that was 20, 30 times, he could not stop it.

[laughs] Robert Giraud: He loved risky things and also a charming child, I mean a very interesting child.

Matthias: My first big jump, I was four years old, I remember it like it was yesterday.

I was following a ski instructor and right behind her house, there was this kicker, just hit that jump and I just felt I was on top of the world, man, just [makes whooshing sound] just flying, soaring through the air and then I landed and [laughs] it was super painful.

So I had two realizations at once: flying and jumping is amazing, but the landing hurts.

[laughs] That was my first experience of flying.

From there, it was over, that's all I wanted to do.

I love speed and I love air, to this day, I don't think that has changed much.

[laughs] I think it's just getting worse.

Josephina: When he was in the ski school, the ski teachers told me they all have to follow you know those little children, which is really cute to see, but he always made a detour, he looked for little bumps to jump already, very, very young, so always looking for challenges, and danger, and huge sensations since he was young and still, he continues.

Matthias: [screams] It's not like you wake up one day and you're like, "You know, I'm passionate about jumping off stuff.

I think I'm going to do that."

It's something that is inside you.

I've been jumping off stuff since I was a kid, and all these moments felt like it was just going through a major milestone.

And since then, it's just like you're always looking for a new milestone to achieve and go through.

I want to see if we can jump from that waterfall way up there.

There's a big ledge, I don't know if we can, but we may be able to jump straight from that rock up there.

I'm pretty sure that's it, man.

This right here, this is what life is about, being in an intense situation, it's about intense moments.

Ya know this beautiful sun poking through this waterfall, this amazing setting, and aside from fear, there's not really anything telling me no, so I think we got to go.

Alright, three, two, one, see ya.

When I was nine years old, I saw a movie called Pushing The Limits, it's kind of like a cheesy '90s movie.

I went back to see it at a theater four times in a row because I was so inspired by those guys.

It's kind of like the adrenaline junkie kind of movie but it had soul, he had spirit.

Those guys had a higher purpose than just seeking the rush, they had goals, they had daring objectives, but they weren't going to compromise to reach those and for me, that became the definition of being a man.

If you are a man, you do everything to realize your dream.

Jessie Hall: I met Matthias big-mountain skiing at a Big Mountain competition, just skiing and jumping off big cliffs and we started talking about parachutes, and he knew I was into it too, and he was just really excited and fired up about it and would not stop asking questions.

Matthias: This is gonna be good, all right.

Let's do it man.

Matthias: My jumps started in 2007, Jessie Hall took me to the Perrine Bridge in Idaho, and it was just a beautiful sunrise over the Snake River.

It was 7:00 in the morning, it was kind of cold and Jesse was like, "All right, climb over the rail."

I remember climbing over the rail and Jesse was like, "Hey, look at the horizon, take a deep breath" and then you give the count.

I remember looking at the horizon and being like, "Oh yes, I'm ready.

This is beautiful".

I just took a deep breath, three, two, one, see ya.

[makes a whooshing sound] Parachute opens and you're like, "Oh my God, this is just the most beautiful thing I've ever done in my life."

Jessie: His first day BASE jumping, we did nine jumps, which is crazy.

Most of the time you do one or two but we went up to the bridge in Idaho and just rallied that thing and did more jumps than most people do in a day ever on his first day jumping, and he did awesome.

One, two, three.

[screams] Matthias: Three, two, one, see ya.

Matthias: [sings] Oh la la la Twin Falls, Idaho.

[laughs] Todd Davis: It's just the guy is intense, he's like taking, if you're lucky, 80 years of a life and just squeezing that 80 years into like 5 years.

It's just the guy is the most entertaining, completely psychotic, friendly, crazy athlete you could ever imagine and ever hang out with.

If you ever cross paths with him, you're never going to forget him.

Matthias: Being yourself gives meaning to your existence.

and jumping stuff is part of me, and whether I'm scared of it or whether I don't feel good about the idea of doing it, if I force myself to push through and do it, I feel like I'm evolving as an individual, and I feel at peace.

If I haven't jumped in a few weeks, I feel like I don't know what's important and what's not.

Everything just becomes a big blur.

The second I jump, everything just has its place again.

Suzanne Montgomery: There's so much involved.

A lot of people probably watch Matthias on TV and think, "Okay, well, he's hurling his body off that cliff," but they don't realize how much is involved, how much time it takes, and how many elements are involved.

When you do jump something, well, you need to plan it out very thoroughly, because there is no room for error, at all.

You have to be on point, everything has to work exactly properly.

You have to know where your landing zone is, that you still have enough time to fly there with the canopy if you can't just land right at the bottom of the cliff.

It's a lot of things happening in a very short period of time.

J.T.

Holmes: You step off that mountain and you start accelerating, and you're going to get that feeling like you fell down on an elevator shaft or like you're on the diving part of the roller coaster.

When I do a BASE jump, I'll jump off a mountain and two seconds, three seconds into it, I think to myself, "We've really done it now.

We're really moving, can't take that back."

It's like you took the bottle of champagne, you popped that bottle, and it's going.

Matthias: BASE jumping, you can't just really just run off a cliff and open a parachute.

There's a lot of hazards down there, a lot of boulders, a lot of trees.

I think it is tall enough to open my parachute, but I got to measure a couple things to make sure that I have enough altitude to make it to the landing area.

I got to calculate all this with my magical range finder here and see if it adds up or not.

[wind rushing] Jessie: It's kind of strange how you gradually move in to doing crazier and things.

I grew up skiing and rock-climbing, so I was used to being on cliffs and being on skis and then you start sky-diving and jumping out of planes.

You think it's crazy for a little bit, then you just start getting used to it.

You just get desensitized to the danger and start doing more and more dangerous things, I guess.

Matthias: Ah-haa!

Todd: You can't help but have that level of progression, whether you're skiing or wingsuiting or no matter what you're doing, you always have to up the ante and yes, it's a little bit dangerous, but that's why it's fun.

Matthias: I started thinking about ski BASE jumping when I moved to the US.

I was driving to the ski area and saw this mountain on the horizon with a huge couloir and a 300-foot cliff at the bottom, but there's no way you can ski that mountain, you're going to die.

I started thinking, "Well, if I had a parachute to my skiing, I could just jump off and pull the parachute and fly away."

This kid comes up to me and is like, "Hey, I heard that you want to jump this mountain, ski it, and then open a parachute.

Come and check this out."

He played ski video and I saw these guys skiing down this mountain.

Standing off this 600-foot cliff with a huge front flip.

A parachute opens and then the guy lands, and his name was Shane McConkey.

After that, this guy became my hero.

I've watched every single of his movies and it's like, "This guy is doing what I want to do.

This is where I need to be."

Jessie: It's pretty amazing to combine skiing and jumping together.

It really can take your skiing to the next level.

You can ski lines that close out with a giant cliff and just go flying off of them and open a parachute.

You, obviously, can't do that otherwise, but the parachute just opens the world up to so much more stuff.

Holmes: If you start combining disciplines, you tend to complicate things.

It doesn't mean it's a bad idea, it's actually a wonderful idea and a superb feeling, but when things go wrong, they can go wrong really quickly, and the path to safety becomes a lot more complicated because your whole situation is more complicated.

Matthias: Iwent to Mount Hood, and it looked there was beautiful cliffs over there.

Nobody had ever BASE jumped Mount Hood.

I'm like, "It could be cool to do a first ski BASE jump over there.

Why not, you know?"

I called Shane McConkey and I was like, "Hey, Shane, I think I found a cliff to do a ski BASE jump on Mount Hood."

He said, "Good luck, man.

I looked for something for like six years up there.

There's nothing you can BASE jump on Mount Hood."

I was like, "No, I think I found something."

He was like, "All right."

A month later, there was an opening, so I just jumped in my car, and I got there and hiked up and found this cliff.

The game plan is going to be, of course, going up top of the cliff.

I'm going to laser straight from the top down so I'll get a pretty precise idea of how big the cliff is, then if it's not windy, right now, it's dead calm, these are the two factors: I want to know how big it is, and I want to make sure, of course, that the wind is not too strong because that could collapse your canopy or slam you into a wall or that could be pretty much deadly.

If all these factors are good, then climb up, put my fear on the side, point it, and send it.

Matthias [radio]: I just hiked up and then put my rig on and took a deep breath, and it took forever to relax.

This cliff had never been jumped before.

I had only 20 BASE jumps, and I'd never ski BASED before.

I called Shane the night before and he said, "Hit it like a normal ski jump, pull your parachute, and don't die."

That's pretty much the only instructions I had.

[Radio] That was perfect.

Matthias: That was sweet, man.

Speaker 1: That was sick.

Matthias: It's a pretty big cliff, man.

Speaker 1: How was it?

It went the way you expected or what?

Walk me through it.

Matthias: It was a, It was beautiful, man.

I don't even really know how to explain it.

It just came so fast, then I saw the edge and was like, "All right.

Dude, you've committed.

There's no going back."

And then the edge comes and your just like the perfect nob, just like a little "poof", you know, like you air just a roller at ski resort but you look down and you got like, it felt like you had 250 feet and pulled and then I was just chilling.

I'm like, "All right, stay stable I didn't want to flip on my back and get my skis tangled in the lines."

All I did was just wait, be super calm, and it was awesome dude.

This activity, what he has found some years ago, fits him perfectly because he is individual, he is looking, alone, for challenges, and this is total extreme.

I think he has been looking for that without knowing that.

Robert: My boy, he's a clever boy.

And also, he's a philosopher.

He's trying to find the sense of life, the meaning of life.

I think his experiments are reflecting a philosophical thought.

Erik: There's a lot of people who can talk about it, but actually going through the steps to properly do it and get to that stage where you are scending cliffs and making your own decision and opening up new areas, he obviously wanted to do it, took the steps, and he's still doing it and alive today.

So that's a good sign.

[background cheering] Chad Labass: It's hard to relate with what Matthias is doing.

It's freaking, it's next-level stuff.

Not everyone's wired even to think about doing that stuff.

He's like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to go do this."

I'm like, "Okay, sounds crazy."

There he is, off another cliff.

Matthias: Booyah!

[laughs] Julian Carr: I think Matthias is borderline a genius and borderline a mad man.

I think most breakthroughs in life from brilliant thinkers and scientists have been half-mad anyway.

I think he's mostly a genius.

Suzanne: What kid has not gone up to their mom, saying, "Will you please safety-pin a towel around my neck so I could run around the house and act like Superman"?

We all want to fly and here's Matthias doing it.

Matthias: I heard somewhere that you only need three things in life, and one of them is something to do right now, the second one is something to look forward to, and the third one is someone to love.

Having a passion gives you two out of those three.

Then once you have to someone to love to go back to, then that's the third element of that triangle of happiness.

I mean basically, we were set up on a blind date.

We met and we went to go to a bar and then he wooed me with the offer of making me dinner and then that eventually led to us spending everyday together ever since.

I think food, that was what got me.

Matthias: Truly, this person helps me become a better person.

I hope I can help her become a better person too, I guess.

We inspire each other.

Life is about being inspired, and she makes me want to be romantic, but she makes me also want to go and pursue my dreams.

Joann: Our fourth date was here.

I took his dog out for a walk, and I watched him jump.

Matthias: Three, two, one.

See you.

Joann: I think that was a breakthrough because I got to see something that he was passionate about and I enjoyed it but also could understand why he does it.

I think that moved him a little bit.

Matthias: Nice little family date with the family, the doggy, the most beautiful woman in the world, got to do a little BASE jump on the rock right behind me, and I'm going to go get another parachute and do it again.

That's how you spend your Saturday, people.

Hell yes, jumping off s*t. Joann: We share core principles, and we value each other's character, but we're completely different people with completely different purposes in life.

The good thing is that our common purpose is that we want to make sure that each other's happy.

I know that BASE jumping or whatever his passion is will make him happy, that'll make me happy.

He can run around naked all he wants if that makes him happy.

It doesn't make me happy though.

[laughter] Matthias: With Joann, I found balance.

I think, before, with all the chaos I had in my life, I wrapped myself too much in passions and within skiing and jumping, and it was my answer to all my problems, but it can't be your answer to all your problems.

Eventually, reality strikes back and you have to confront it.

Joann: I know that he'll never be totally satisfied because he's ambitious but, at the same time, he's done so much, so I trust him.

All of the projects he has, I have absolute confidence that he's done his research.

I feel like he's so committed to our relationship that he would never want to jeopardize himself or us, so that makes me trust him a lot, and that's why I don't think that he would do any sort of project that would put us at risk either.

So what I'm hoping to do is get on the ridge, climb here, then maybe rappel down, click in my gear here and then ski that line, which is a short line, but it's one of the very prestigious peaks in the Alps that are really beautiful.

I like to map out things like that on pictures and also on satellite pictures like Google Earth or things like that because it gives you a good idea what you could do.

You never know until you fly up there with a helicopter.

You might go and be, "Man, it's not possible."

I'd rather lose 500 bucks and not jump than be there and be like, "Okay, I'm going to try and see if it works."

[helicopter warming up] Matthias: We just got dropped by the helicopter.

We're going to go straight down below.

There's a little pointy ledge, ski between the rocks and then jump into the abyss, open the parachute and fly into the valley.

And I spent a fortune on heli time but you know what, it's worth it.

You have one life.

Live your dream.

Let's do it.

Have a good time.

See you guys at the bottom.

[wind] Matthias: All right.

That was it.

Ski BASE at the Matterhorn.

I got extremely lucky on this jump.

I just skied down between the rocks, snow felt pretty good and then right as I jumped and tapped that ledge to jump into the face, my ski came off.

That was almost a disaster, so I decided to go into a big front flip to get out of it and then once I found my ski was out of the way, I just pulled my parachute and then it worked out.

I got a good flight, I couldn't believe it.

I had just a few line twists but I was able to get out of them It was a close call but hey, I'm alive.

I'm not hurt.

We did it, not in the cleanest manner, but we did it.

I don't know if I'd do it again though.

This mountain is gnarly.

It's really gnarly but yes, we got it.

Josephina: I'm not proud.

I respect what he does, but it's also something which is rather selfish because he needs to perform this, to do this.

Matthias: I grew up in a good family, my dad being a doctor and my mother staying at home and technically doing everything for, they were everything for their kids but a lot of instability at home.

My mother was overbearing, manipulative woman, really hard with my sisters, especially.

Josephina: When you have children, you love them, you have the duty to care for them to help them become adults.

I would only give the advice to other parents to respect their choice because many parents make that mistake.

We all make mistakes, and we learn from those mistakes.

Matthias: The mountains were always my escape to be able get away a little bit from the family atmosphere that was just getting really, really heavy.

Then I started learning more things about my family's past, my aunt committing suicide, my grandmother being very depressive, and then my sister Birgit tried to commit suicide several times.

She was clinically depressed.

I was aware of it at the time, but I didn't really choose to confront it because you're a kid, you have so much stuff happening in your head, and the way to deal with it for me was to go and escape in the mountains and ski.

I wanted to take my skiing further because that's what I loved.

That's always my drive to kind of get away from home was to go skiing.

The mountain's were my shelter.

I mean I felt good there.

Nature is unpredictable, but it was way more predictable than being at home.

Eventually, my sister just killed herself.

She couldn't take it anymore.

She jumped out of her window in the apartment in Paris.

I was 18 at the time.

It was really a hard experience for the whole family.

Somehow, she couldn't find what was important to her in life.

I have the chance to have a passion and even though I was broken at a time it was happening, it gave me extra motivation to get strong again and follow my passion and follow skiing.

So I guess, her death made me more alive, in a way.

The other side of it is doing dangerous things.

It made me realize that what I'm going to do is going to have an impact on my family, obviously, I saw it, firsthand, on my sister's death, it affected everyone.

That's it.

You change forever.

Josephina: I said, "Matthias, I'm very scared.

If I would not be scared, I would not be a good mother.

A mother gives birth, a mother doesn't want a child to die."

Matthias: It's hard, I go back and forth.

There's nights I wake up in sweats, thinking about a project and telling myself, "Man, you could die, you're not ready for this."

But somehow when I get into the situation itself and it's time to go, I'm able to realize that if I don't do that now, my life is not really worth living.

To live a true life, you have to actually control your fear and accept death whenever it comes.

At the same time, I don't want to be reckless.

All right.

[breaths] [laughs] Three, two, one.

See you.

Josephina: He said yesterday to me, "Mommy, you know, when I take a plane to go somewhere in the world, I often think perhaps I'm not coming back."

So he's aware of the risk, seeing his friends die, seven died last year.

I understand why he does what he does, but if he were not to come back to me alive, I definitely would find that pretty unforgivable.

Matthias: Taking risk like that for a living when you have a family could be viewed as selfish, but it's not selfish because I'm not reckless.

Stefan Laude: The thing is, when you push your level higher and higher and higher, it's difficult not to think about "One day it will go wrong, and I will die."

Of course, when you live out of it, when you have that social standards and you make people dream, it's hard.

I hope he's going to stop at the good moment, I hope, I really hope.

Todd: Things go wrong.

It's just human nature, things will go wrong.

In BASE jumping, particularly ski BASING, you can't have anything go wrong.

Matthias: In the world of skiing and BASE jumping we, unfortunately, lose a lot of people.

In the world of BASE jumping, particularly, when somebody dies, we call it going in because a lot of the time, people go into the ground.

It's pretty dark and self-explanatory, but it's to the point.

Todd: What sucks is the people that I've known that have gone in were the reason why I got into the sport, they were the Jedis of the sport.

You're just getting away with something that shouldn't be humanly possible, and yet you keep doing it because it's so damn fun.

Matthias: But then... then Shane passed away.

Reporter: Influential skier and BASE jumper Shane McConkey became famous around the world for defying death.

While performing a stunt for cameras in Italy on Thursday, the sport he helped popularize took his life.

McConkey leaves behind his wife, Sherry, and their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Ayla.

Todd: Then it's like, "Whoa, wait a minute.

That guy was the sickest guy on the planet, had so much experience, did everything right and then went in.

He's my hero.

Where does that leave us?"

It's brutal.

Here we are still doing it, but I don't know.

Jessie: Shane passing was pretty hard because he was definitely just like someone I always looked up to.

He was the man just innovating, ski BASE jumping.

It's pretty hard to not have him here anymore.

He contributed a lot, and he had a good run.

He's a great man.

Matthias: I didn't even have 100 BASE jumps when Shane passed away; the guy had probably 700, I think.

He was my hero.

It makes you think that "Well, if that happens to him, it can definitely happen to me."

At the same time, you can look at it in another way and tell yourself, "Okay, people like Shane gave us a gift of being able to look at mountains and life and possibilities a whole other way.

I can look at that mountain this way or I can look at it this way and be, "Okay, I can ski all this and then I can fly away, and that's beautiful."

After Shane passed away, about a year later, I got to go to the Eiger and finally, ski BASE jump it myself.

Shane did it, JT did it, you have to do it.

If you want to call yourself a ski BASE jumper, to me, you had to ski BASE the Eiger.

Joann: Yes, it's risky.

Sometimes, I get a little nervous, but his thing is the minute he lands and when he gets service, he usually texts me or calls me to let me know that he's okay.

Matthias: You have the most beautiful woman that you need to go back to.

Then that love blooms into [laughs] fatherhood and you have a kid on the way, my consequences are real.

You have a beautiful wife that depends on you, and you have a son that is going to need a father figure, so then you start questioning yourself, "Should I keep doing this or not?"

You realize, "Well, what kind of example do I want to be?"

For me, I think the biggest example you can set is to have the courage to follow what matters to you.

This baby should be a huge turning in his life.

You have to forget yourself to raise a child, but he needs this extreme jumping, definitely.

Joann: This is a risky job, but he's going to be an amazing father.

I can't wait to just say, "This is ours and no one else's."

I think it's the moment when we lock eyes with the baby.

That's going to be probably one of the happiest days of my life.

Matthias: I'm actually a planner and I wanted to get as much my projects done as I could before the birth of ören so I could take a lot of time off and be home and be a super dad.

Joann: He just started to pile on a lot of jumps and work stuff and just trying to get it all done before ören was born.

ören was just making all kinds of fuss in my belly.

I almost thought I was in labor.

It was just crazy.

I felt a ton of pain and discomfort.

Matthias, right before leaving, said, "I don't know if I feel good about this.

I should probably stay.

You look like you could need to go to hospital or something."

Instead, I just said, "No, you've planned this.

Let's just commit, that's what we do.

Just commit, you're going," and he went.

Matthias: We're here in Megéve because I am going to do a first descent.

Ski BASE jumping descent of this peak that is just outside of town called the Pon d'Areu.

This peak is really the first mountain that welcomes you as you arrive in this valley here.

It's this pretty big mountain.

We have to climb for 5,000 feet.

It's going to take about five hours to get up there.

45 to 50 degrees slope.

That slowly brings you to a 700-foot cliff.

It's gnarly.

It's fun and it's right here at home.

This is where everything started.

I made my first turns here when I was 18-months-old.

Jumped my first cliffs.

It's just this area is so rich in features and places where you can go and push yourself.

Really push yourself.

Let's just dare to dream big and go all the way up there and ski this thing like it will probably never be skied ever again.

How are you doing?

Alex: Hi, Matthias.

I am Alex.

Nice to meet you.

Matthias: Nice to meet you, Alex, finally.

How are you doing, dude?

Stefan: Great to see you.

Matthias: Ready for another adventure?

Stefan: Yes.

Ready to go.

Matthias: Alright so what's the plan, guys.

Alex: Tomorrow morning, I think we're going to leave at 2:30 form Megéve, and we're going to park the car here at Romme.

Around three o'clock we're going to walk here, close to the ski lift, take the Sallaz and we go there in this place.

After we're going to put on the crampons and climb this little couloir here.

After we do the top and here my job is finished.

After your job is to ski there and jump the Tours d'Areu.

Matthias: I have to follow the ridge because I'm jumping past six, there's the surplomb right here, overhang.

I'm using the surplomb as the jump.

I'm jumping away from the tower so I don't land in it.

When I hit this because there's another tower here... Alex: It's a small tower.

You have a big overhang there.

Matthias: That's why because I think the overhang will position me about already halfway down this.

With the trajectory, I'm going to be past all this.

Alex: Exactly.

Matthias: I don't want to jump in that wall.

Alex: There because maybe you will touch.

Matthias: Yeah, it's not suitable for BASE jumping.

I think I left a femur up there.

Yeah, so that's the idea.

Matthias: I've been looking at this mountain for about, really looking in the area for about 15 years.

I tried two months ago, got to the top and had to turn around.

It was too dangerous.

Hopefully, this is it.

But you know that's the thing.

Once you have some pretty ambitious goals and big mountains like that it takes you sometimes two, three, four, five attempts to get it done.

It's not just an overnight thing.

You just kind of have to be persistent and try to go at it again and again.

So, let's cross our fingers hopefully it will go down today.

See you guys later.

Once you get to a certain point, your eagerness you get it done, your ambition becomes so much stronger than your fear that it's easier almost to be like, "Well, screw it.

Let's just go."

Then actually stepping back and be like, "This is bad.

This is bad."

Once you have a parachute on your back you feel like superman, and you got to remind yourself that you're just a human.

[laughs] Sounds a little crazy, but it's true.

Your amped you've got your skis on top of the mountain, your parachute like, "What can possibly go wrong?"

A lot of stuff can go wrong.

You got to keep a cool head and just be very pragmatic.

I've gotta remind myself this today.

All right.

It's about to get real here.

Just traversed all the way from the other side and we're about to tackle this couloir right here.

I can't speak anymore.

It's pretty cold.

Probably have another couple of hours to get to the summit.

Alex: Yeah, two hours.

Matthias: Two hours we should be there.

We should be summiting around nine o'clock, quarter to nine.

Let's get moving.

Here we go.

That's the beast.

We gotta get to the top of this.

Yes, brother.

Stefan: [French] Good conditions.

Matthias: It's an insane process when you jump.

When Before you hit the edge your heart is pounding and your instinct tells you that it's so wrong.

You should not be doing this.

Somehow you tell yourself that it's okay.

Your gear is fine.

The weather is good.

You know how to do this.

You visualize the right move.

Then you force yourself to go.

You just know that fear of death is not a valid excuse to give up on your dreams.

[helicopter] Speaker 2: I was going to put it here.

Let's put right here, dude.

You got to keep it real.

Matthias: All right.

fire away Gershitz.

Speaker 2: What happened?

Matthias: It looks like I had a cliff strike.

I'm in a hospital right now.

I remember skiing to the edge of the cliff.

Then I don't remember anything anymore.

Stefan: I said, "Matthias, the way that these birds are flying is the meaning that it's windy down there.

I'm sure.

I'm not going."

He said, "Yes.

Okay.

I'm going."

Matthias: I had a doubt about the wind.

I could tell there was some thermals.

I was afraid that this could send me into the cliff.

I decided to go and go big, to get away from the cliff.

A second and a half after my parachute inflated I got slammed into the wall.

It knocked me out broke my femur.

Then normally when you hit a wall, you slide down the whole wall and you don't really go anywhere.

I had a really slow flying parachute that doesn't have much forward speed.

I think that actually helped me.

The parachute turned away from the cliff and did a full-on 180 and then I flew 4000 feet completely unconscious.

I was flying in and out of the clouds and the guys filming from the helicopter were like, "Well, he's probably dead but let's see where the body lands."

Right now honestly, I'm questioning myself whether I should keep doing it.

I just want to go home and be a good father and be there for my wife and my son.

I know that down the road that it is worth it because if it is a meaning to a life it is a meaning to existence.

You have to have the courage to live it this way.

Speaker 2: What's next?

Matthias: What's next?

Heal up and then hopefully get this one done again.

Speaker 2: You want to go back?

Matthias: Yes.

I have to do it.

I have to ski the Pon d'Areu and do it in a safe manner because I have to.

The first call that Joanne got was: "Okay, we picked up Matthias.

He's definitely way beat up.

He broke a lot of stuff.

He's not in good shape and we don't know if he's going to make it."

I felt so bad that she got this call three weeks before giving birth pretty much.

Then she got a second call and the second call was, "You know he's going to survive.

He's okay, but he has major brain damage."

Then the third call she got was, "Hey, he's back to normal.

He's flying home tomorrow."

Matthias: How are you doing, sweetie?

I was in the hospital for two weeks and in a coma for three days.

My brain was bleeding, double fracture on my femur.

I truly am given a second chance.

I shouldn't be alive after something like that.

This baby that is going to be born is the most innocent and fragile thing ever and I need to be there for it.

But also I need to be in the right place because this baby needs a real dad.

Finally, I made it home six days before the birth of ören.

I was on crutches, but I was still able to be in the OR and be there for örens' birth, so that was great.

Here's our latest addition to the family, our little ören, ören Reef Giraud.

Here he is.

Definitely super stoked that I made it back on time for him.

It's a big gift.

It's awesome.

He's a stud and right away I was like, "You know what?

This kid is just born, went through something traumatic himself."

All three of us did.

Joanne went through labor.

I went through a near-death experience and then he was going through birth.

He was just laying down in his little incubator like nothing happened and right away I just knew that he was a good little guy.

Joanne: The minute that personality came out, right around three months he just became more and more like Matthias.

He is so much like his father.

He's one-track-minded, super determined and hopefully eventually resilient, exuberant, very charming, funny.

He's got a great smile.

Really this baby is just so much like his dad.

Matthias: I love hearing him laugh and seeing him happy.

Being able to see so much pure joy is so refreshing.

I don't know if I'm neurotic or there's something wrong with me, but like I truly need to put myself in difficult situations physically and emotionally to be able to reach a state of happiness and peace in my life, but when I see him it's so simple.

It makes me so stoked and so happy.

It's a completely different happiness than jumping or skiing, but it's so pure and simple.

That's beautiful.

I guess that's what being a dad is.

Joanne: We used to hypothetically, before I was even ever pregnant, "What would happen if you had a kid and with this change what you do?"

He would get on a soapbox and say, "No, this is my passion.

I'm never gonna let anyone stop me."

I respected that.

This is who he is and he's very driven, but now that I'm a mom with a baby, if he dies, what's going to happen?

I think about it all the time, but if that accident didn't make him learn something, I don't know what will.

Matthias: The question is, how far do you want to go to pursue your dreams and how compatible with your family life those dreams are?

I'm just realizing that jumping is compatible with having a family, but you have to be extremely aware of your surrounding.

I feel like I need to go back out there because when you have a calling in life, you have to follow it no matter what the consequences are.

My first ski BASE jump after the accident is going to be an intense one for sure, and I can't wait.

Big milestone today I just got off crutches.

I'm still walking with a little bit of a limp, but I'm so happy to be able to put weight back on my leg.

Just saw the doctor and he said that I should just ease back into all activities.

Just walking, I don't know what to do with myself right now.

This is amazing.

I'm so happy.

Next stop jumping off cliffs.

Being a pro skier and base jumper, technically going to work is jumping off cliffs and skiing down mountains, but at this point, because the only thing I could do was train, training and rehabbing was my full-time job.

Denny Dragen: When elite athletes get hurt, their world is more affected because they realize that's how they make their living.

It's kind of an eye-opener when they go, "Oh my God, I'm not going to be able to do this for a certain amount of time."

Matthias: I was non-weight bearing for three months.

I had so much tissue knotted up in my hip.

A lot of the recovery at first was just to get some body motions back.

It was so stiff.

I could barely hold my balance on one leg.

Denny: He had to be able to ski.

He had to be able to load that leg, bend it.

It had to be able to take lots of forces.

Early on it was really trying to restore motion.

That's really slow.

The first eight weeks is really all about range of motion and then after that, we are just adding strength stuff just like anyone does, trying to restore him to be able to handle the pressures on the big mountains.

Matthias: It's a mental and physical struggle to come back from a super-gnarly experience.

You spend so much time fine-tuning that machine so it's really precise and efficient, and then you have to do that all over again in a very short amount of time.

Being able to do it again is so much more rewarding, I think.

I started skydiving again four months after the accident, so that was pretty cool.

Speaker 3: That was good times.

Matthias: It's good to be back.

I started base jumping six months after.

Three, two, one.

Three, two, one.

Send it!

Oh yeah, stoked, yeah.

[wind] Matthias: It's crazy but now I'm like coming back pretty much from the dead and getting pounded ski BASE jumping, it's, every base jump or now I'm going to start ski BASE jumping again.

It's like no matter how many times you've jumped the thing now it feels like your first time again every jump.

I'm feeling like I'm going from my first ski BASE jump again now.

It's gnarly.

I've been having to go to the bathroom like every 15 minutes since yesterday.

[laughs] You can just traverse there and then straight back down here.

Bambam: Let's go and do something stupid.

Matthias: For sure.

Let's do it.

Bambam: Not stupid, highly controlled and thought out.

[laughter] Matthias: My last one was stupid.

Bambam: Let's not be stupid.

I hate stupid guys.

Speaker 4: The last time you ski BASED was the one?

Matthias: Yes, I haven't ski BASED since then.

Which is why I'm *ing terrified now.

It's easy to get into a fight if you've never gotten your * kicked before you say, "I'm going to do this."

Then stepping back into the ring when you've gotten way beat up is super hard.

Now I've been ski BASE jumping for six years and I've lost a lot of friends.

I've almost lost my life, I've got a lot of injuries.

You get up there and you start thinking about all the s*tty things that have happened.

Somehow you still going back out there and you know you have all this experience, but you can't take it for granted because it's a new beginning.

You're rediscovering it but with all the good but then a lot of the bad things too.

So it just amplifies it way more.

I'm going to ski down from that knob up there because I can't ski this super fast the snow is variable.

It's good snow.

First ski BASE since my crash and snow is a little variable.

My goal is to have a clean safe ski BASE jump.

Josephina: What can I know about his mind when he's going to jump the next jump and he's up there high in the mountains, no return possible.

It's all or nothing at all.

What is he thinking at that moment?

To his wife, to his baby?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Joanne: Sometimes I think, is this selfish, maybe because it's a personal fulfillment but at the same time, if we're not personally fulfilled as people, then we can't fully take on roles as a father or a husband, or what other roles you play in your life.

Matthias: Chest strap.

Leg straps.

Good chunk of pilot chute.

How's the wind down there, Bambam?

All right.

Ready?

Dropping.

I'm back.

I'm not a religious person.

I don't believe in God.

I don't believe in all that but I do believe in the higher power of nature itself because the ocean can crush you at any time, the mountains can crush at any time.

Just having the mountains allow you that gift to be able to get back to what is so dear and important to you, is just overwhelming and so good.

Yes.

Yes.

[laughs] Got my heart going so much.

It felt like I was ski BASE jumping, learning to ski BASE all over again.

Yes.

Yes.

I got to pick up my little guy from school and I got a surprise for him.

He has no clue what he's going to find in his backyard.

Matthias: [laughs] Joanne: Skateboarding started.

Sometimes I wonder if Matthias sort of spoon fed it to him a little bit but he was on it one day and he seemed to be interested in Matthias's skateboard and really taking to it and turns out ören's quite good at it.

Matthias: We're going to skateboard Academy.

ören goes to skateboard Academy once a week so I pick him up from school and we go straight to the skate park.

Skateboarding school.

Matthias: I'm already mentoring him to have the correct mindset to do this stuff because it's your mindset that is going to keep you alive.

Just like its your mindset that could kill you.

The other day I asked him, "What do you want to do as a pro skater?"

He looks at me like I'm an idiot and he goes, "Well, mega ramp."

Of course, he picks mega ramp, the gnarliest, biggest thing.

[laughs] I love watching him skateboard.

He's learning the concept of dedication and having to pay your dues.

If he gets hurt, he gets hurt that's why we put pads on him.

If you get beat up that's part of the dedication, man.

If you get beat up then you've got to stand up and keep going again.

Also, it teaches you how to make smart decisions too and how to manage risk.

I don't expect him to be a pro skier like his dad.

I don't expect him to be a pro skateboarder either.

I just want him to have this one passion, that becomes the driving force of his existence.

And right now I feel like skateboarding is getting him in a really happy place.

It's awesome.

Joanne: Skiing has been something that he's always done too and he's gotten quite good at that as well in the last year.

I think that ören is also just intrigued in it because it's a lifestyle that his dad's a part of, but I'd like him to have his own life and his own career.

I would like him to have his own interests and feel no pressure to do something as extreme as his dad.

Matthias: I don't know if I want him to BASE jump because every parent worries about the safety of their child and BASE jumping is the worst thing you can do.

It's the greatest sport in my opinion, but it's the worst thing you can do just because I've been around the good, the bad and the ugly.

And I just know the reality of it.

I've experienced it myself.

I don't want my son necessarily to get into this, but if he wants to, I will make it my duty to mentor him and give him as many tools as I can for him to survive.

Joanne: I don't know if any parent would ever wish that on their child.

I almost think that BASE jumping is a compulsion of Matthias's, he's always felt it.

I don't think that it's a compulsion of ören.

Matthias has always said he's been wanting to do this since a really young age.

Matthias: You have people that are dear to you and people that care about you and that you care about, but I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing because this is what I chose to dedicate myself to.

It was about three years after the accident.

My timing was getting better when I was base jumping and skiing and I'm thinking about a plan in my head on how to do the Pon d'Areu again.

One day, ören looks at me and he goes, "Papa, when you'll be old, I'm going to teach you how to skateboard.

When you'll die, I'll bury you with your skis and your skateboard."

So I asked him a question like, "ören, what made you think about that?"

Then he goes, "It's because my heart knows your heart."

That gave me so much peace and pride.

I think that's the peace and pride that I truly needed to commit to this project.

Joanne: I always knew that Matthias would go back.

He's never made this a surprise for me.

Every time you go anywhere it's so weather dependent and it's luck.

He could be doing the same jump three times a day and that one day it could just be an off day.

For me it was just, let's get this over with.

Matthias: The one thing that I was struggling with was, well, I could still go and do this thing but not come home.

The mountains do not discriminate.

It doesn't matter how fit and ready you are.

If I don't come home, what do I leave behind for ören except from a distant memory and some cool videos on the Internet?

So I wrote a letter.

It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.

Matthias: ören, I wrote you this letter in case I'm not coming home.

You need to know that I'm not abandoning you.

I love you with all my heart.

You are the son I've always dreamt of having.

Every time I leave home I miss you more and more.

You are with me wherever I travel to.

I always have your passport picture in my wallet.

When you were a baby I never left home without a pair of your baby socks.

Death is normal.

We all have an expiration date.

A strong man accepts his mortality.

A weak man is consumed by his fear of the inevitable.

It's been six years since I tried to ski BASE jump the mountain that almost killed me.

I hit the wall four times.

I had a double brain hemorrhage, three days in a coma, double fracture on my left femur.

Part of me has always been left on that mountain.

I decided that I needed to do it again.

Do not get upset if people criticize me.

People always criticize what they don't understand.

Remember that missing someone is wonderful because it means you have had the chance to experience unforgettable moments with that person.

But my journey is over as a man.

Live with passion, purpose, and share these moments with the right people.

I love you more than words can explain.

My heart knows your heart.

From papa.

[car backing out] Good morning.

Stefan: Hello America.

It's 3:46 in the morning right now.

The mountain is beautiful.

The air is calm so far.

We're going to start climbing.

We're heading towards the mountain.

Hoping to get this thing done today.

The mountain will decide.

In the meantime, we will pay our dues and be humble.

See you guys later.

Stefan: Be humble, get down.

Matthias: We're almost at the summit.

We got to go to the couloir right there.

Climb up the couloir then up the ridge and that's it.

We are on top of the face so it's the last push.

Let's get going.

[wind howling] Stefan: Hello, my name is Stefan.

I am the cameraman.

I'm French, you know I'm smoking.

Feel good here because I'm not the one that's going to jump.

So, [spit noise] No problem.

Matthias: A man has to go and experience his own adventures so he can come back at peace and be there for his family.

You want to have a family if you do this.

Sounds maybe crazy to some people, but Joanne and ören are an incredibly strong foundation for this projects.

I want to come home.

I want to tickle my little monkey.

I want to kiss my wife.

You have something so huge to lose.

There's so much on the line that you got to stick it.

You got to do it right.

3, 2, 1... Matthias: Part of me will always be on this cliff forever I got served.

But now I could look at it and this place went from being a dark dungeon to being home.

The first thing that I thought about after that was, I want to bring my son to this place.

It's not a place of darkness.

It's one of the most beautiful spots in the Alps.

I want to be able to share that with him.

Woo Hoo.

Matthias: That's it I did it.

Ski BASE jump of the Pon d'Areu.

I'm so glad I packed for a fast opening this time because I opened right above the tower that impacted six years ago.

But yeah, a successful jump.

I can close this chapter of my life.

Thank you so much.

I love you mountains.

[laughs]