Filming rideable lines in the Aiguilles du Diable means embracing high-consequence alpinism and choosing the right partners in one of Chamonix’s most unforgiving arenas.
Deep in Chamonix’s backcountry, a serrated line of granite pinnacles rises southeast of Mont Blanc du Tacul. Known as the Aiguilles du Diable—the Devil’s Needles—the peaks were once thought impossible to climb, let alone ride. In the spring of 2025, Jones Pro Team rider and mountain guide Pica Herry, alongside Laurent Bibollet, Victor de Le Rue and others, ventured into the zone with splitboards on their packs, testing the limits of Shralpinism.
Backcountry place names often carry a mythic charge, but few sound as ominous as the Aiguilles du Diable. “The name is special,” Pica said in an article recently published on the Jones Snowboard blog. “You don’t easily see the range. It’s not that easy to recognize. But when you first hear of it, it’s somewhere you remember.”
Towering above 4,000 metres, the needles were named for their apparent total inaccessibility. The first summit, Pointe Carmen, was reached in 1923; by 1925 all five needles had been ascended. In 1928, a group of Americans led by guide Armand Charlet linked them all in a single push.
For the 2025 mission, “filming on the Aiguilles du Diable was more like a Plan B or Plan C for the season,” said Pica. “We originally thought about a multi-day route in the Argentière Basin, but this was the safer plan.”
Safer, at least, on paper. The Diable zone allowed for single-day missions when conditions aligned, with early starts from the Refuge des Cosmiques. But the terrain itself offered zero margin for error. For Pica, growing up in Chamonix meant understanding those consequences.
The terrain itself offered zero margin for error. For Pica, growing up in Chamonix meant understanding those consequences.
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“I’m not going into the mountains to take risks,” Pica explained. “It’s part of the journey, yes, but you can manage a lot of these risks. You can use ropes, you can use protection, but the biggest hazards are avalanches and rockfalls. It’s trying to find the right middle ground.”
That outlook was sharpened during a 2019 trip to the Karakoram, when Pica was caught in an avalanche. “I changed the way I see the mountains after my avalanche in Pakistan,” he said. “If there’s one thing that made me take less risk, it was just having an experience where I thought: I’m going to die…. I’m not someone who accepts high risk anymore.”
Managing that balance requires the right partner. “Ideally, you need the same skills… and good skills,” Pica said. “Then, you should have the same vision and motivations in your riding. But it’s something more personal. They need to be a good friend, someone you can talk with pretty openly.”
“You should have the same vision and motivations in your riding. But it’s something more personal. They need to be a good friend.“
Pica and Laurent “Bib” Bibollet have known each other for three decades, though they’ve only ridden together for the past ten years. One standout shared moment came at sunrise on the Col du Diable. “That first sunrise was pretty unique,” Pica reflected. “You’d so rarely be there with that kind of light without doing a movie like this. Sometimes when you plan it, and it works exactly how you hope, it’s pretty nice. Being with Bib on that ridge. It was one of the best times.”
For In the Shadow of the Diable, riding was only element of the challenge. The terrain demanded serious alpinism, made more complex by climbing in snowboard boots with a splitboard strapped on. But the effort opened lines that would otherwise remain unreachable.
On the final day, Pica, Bib and Victor completed the full traverse of the Aiguilles du Diable. “It was definitely the highlight of the film,” Pica added. “Not the easiest way to climb, but it was a fun challenge. It gave me a few ideas, and it opens doors to what’s possible in other mountains.”
More films from Jones Snowboards here.
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