The Col du Lautaret, a mountain pass that reaches 2,058m, is an hour's drive from Grenoble and sits in the heart of the Southern Alps under the imposing shadow of big peaks and vertical glaciers. It is home to an annual early-winter festival, the Snowkite Masters, which brings together hundreds to participate in this emerging sport, which mixes skiing, snowboarding, kiting and kiteboarding, with a bit of skateboarding, wakeboarding and parasailing thrown in.
Using lightweight foil-type kites that have bellows that inflate with the wind and give impressive lift and power, snowkiters are pulled across, up and over snow-covered hills, mountains, fields and frozen lakes.
Upon my arrival at the mountain pass, known locally as the Col, I walked in knee-deep snow toward a distant, shimmering flotilla of colorful snowkites flying against a deep winter sky. The kites, some as large as a motor home, zipped about the sky in graceful arcs. When hit by sudden gusts, the kites slashed furiously back and forth through the air. Then, without warning, a snowkiter passed silently 9m above me, connected to his kite by 30.5m strings.
He looked like an oversized marionette, except for the dreadlocks coming from under his helmet and the hand-rolled cigarette dangling from his grinning mouth.
Snowkiting became popular in Europe in the mid-1990s, and the Col quickly gained cult status.
"Here we have consistent wind, varied terrain and easy road access," Xavier Petit, a local snowkiter, said in French. "And the Col is next door to big resorts, where many good skiers and snowboarders live. It's not the easiest place to kite, but it's popular because of media attention and all the crazy riders who live near here."
This year's Snowkite Masters included participants from around the world. The staging area included a teepee and a sports-drink company's promotional tent, with a DJ spinning reggae music for a crowd that was huddling around a snow-pit barbecue and drinking beer.
"We are an anti-contest, with no fees, rules, competitions or prizes," said Guillaume Chastagnol, one of the event's organizers and perhaps the sport's best-known professional. "Yet we still attract the world's top snowkiters who travel here from far away to meet friends, test new equipment and show off new tricks. And, yes, we have very good fiestas."
Pascal Joubert earned his nickname, Big Air, because of his huge jumps, which last as long as five minutes at heights of more than 91m. Jumps are measured in time, not distance. He said he converted to snowkiting 10 years ago when he grew tired of fighting for fresh powder at nearby resorts.
"In snowkiting, we are going back to the roots of the mountain, of the calm, the serenity and virgin snow," Joubert said. "The biggest pleasure for me is to flow over the snow and in the air. In snowkiting, we are no longer a victim of gravity."
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