A world first, achieved around noon on Saturday, June 7, 2014. Together with her friend Julien Meyer, Géraldine Fasnacht opened the most iconic summit in Switzerland, the Matterhorn, for wingsuit flight.
After a short night spent in a tent (as the Hörnli Hut was under renovation that year), Géraldine and Julien woke up at midnight to begin their climb to the summit of the Matterhorn via the Hörnli ridge. For this demanding ascent, the explorers were joined by their friends and highly experienced mountain guides, Claude-Alain Gailland and Hervé Gresch. In difficult conditions, it took them 8 hours of effort through deep snow to finally reach the summit at 4,478 meters.
This incredible dream had been growing in Géraldine’s mind for over five years. The idea of one day flying from the summit of the Matterhorn came to her during her first ascent of its east face, which she snowboarded down on May 13, 2009.
Release of a 52-minute documentary in July 2015, retracing this beautiful Matterhorn adventure, the dream of the Bird Woman directed by Buonasera productions, in co-production with the RTS.
In the Matterhorn with Géraldine and Julien there was also the cameraman and director, Bertrand Delapierre. He captured beautiful images throughout the ascent and departure of this historic flight. He is one of those birds able to climb a camera in the most committed routes, to frame himself the images of his films.
