A Historic First Descent Takes Center Stage in the New Ski Film ‘Robson’

Epic adventures sometimes go awry.

This unfortunate reality becomes oh-so-clear at the halfway point of Robson, the new ski mountaineering film featuring extreme skiing stars Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger and Guillaume “Gee” Pierrel. The two are stalled about 300 feet below the summit of Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The clear weather window they enjoyed during their two-day ascent has evaporated, replaced by nuking snow and gusting winds.

The two could attempt to reach the top of the 12,972-foot mountain and then start their descent in a whiteout. Or, they could limit the risk and head down early. Lusti, her hair frozen to the sides of her face, lays out the stakes and then shrugs.

“We tried,” she says into the camera.

What comes next is one of the most harrowing skiing sequences I’ve seen on film. With the daylight fading and the snow bucketing down, Lusti and Pierrel scrape their way down a narrow couloir, traverse over rocky ice along an exposed ridge, and then rappel on skies across several terrifyingly steep pitches. A flying drone captures their ballet-like movements as they cheat death down 9,000 vertical feet.

When they finally reach their van under the cover of darkness, both of them are physically and emotionally drained.

“That was really tough. Really stressful,” Pierrel says into the camera. “I was pretty stressed out all the way up and all the way down.”

I found myself gripping the armrest of my office chair as I watched this series unfold. We’ve written about Lusti and her skiing exploits on the world’s steepest, most foreboding mountains multiple times in the past few years. She’s recorded thrilling first descents on Pakistan’s Trango Towers, Mount Cook in New Zealand, and other sheer peaks.

Reading her description of what it’s like to ski down an impossibly steep, treacherous mountainside is one thing. But to see it in action adds an entirely new level of awe—and terror. Lusti and Pierrel must be hyper-fixated on precision, because every single body movement on a rock face that steep comes with consequences.

“There is an element of skill, sure, but mountains like these offer me an incredible place to express myself,” Lusti told me on a recent call. “That’s what I like to share, that there’s so much more to this than just descending a mountain.”

Indeed, the wider story of the duo’s historic March, 2025 descent of Mount Robson’s south face takes up much of the one-hour run time of Robson. The iconic mountain in eastern British Columbia is sacred for Canadian adventurers, and over the years it has become a proving ground for the country’s famed alpinists: Conrad Kain, Mugs Stump, Will Gadd, Marc Andre LeClerc, and others.

Robson takes a deep dive into the early attempts by Canadian athletes to ski it, with wonderful and hilarious footage from past attempts. A failed 1985 attempt drew considerable media attention, and old news reels paired with action footage shows the old eighties skis and bodysuits in all of their neon glory. The film also weaves in scenes and interviews from the first successful descent of the peak’s north face, which was done in 1995 by Ptor Spricenieks and Troy Jungen.

“It’s a tribute to the visionaries who came before us, and I really pushed for this as a way to broaden the story and not just have it be a ski film,” Lusti told me. “The mountain has this calling to test yourself and to prove yourself.”

Lusti grew up in Invermere, British Columbia, a five-hour drive from the mountain. She told Outside that her idea to attempt a historic first descent of the peak’s south face came after she gazed at the mountain’s profile in an old guidebook and noticed a narrow band of snow twisting its way down the mountain’s rocky face.

Robson made its global debut at the Banff film festival, and Lusti and Pierrel hosted a presentation about the film prior to its screening. They do not have specific tour dates for showing the film elsewhere just yet, but Lusti told me she is happy to partner with any theater or shop owner who would like to show it to fans.

I won’t spoil the end of Robson for you, but suffice to say, Lusti and Pierrel return to the peak to ski it from top to bottom. And the cool footage of them shredding the entire descent proves why they belong in the peak’s history books alongside the other greats.

I recently spoke to Lusti and Pierrel about Robson. Below is an excerpt from our conversation:

OUTSIDE: What elements of ski mountaineering did you want tho showcase to audiences with this film?

Christina Lustenberger: When you look at high-end alpinists and skiers, you also see a ton of creativity. For sure there is an element of skill but it’s a really creative place to express yourself with exploratory skiing. That’s what I wanted to share. There’s so much involved in something like this aside from descending a mountain. A photo sparks your imagination, which becomes obsession. You study the line, wait for the right time, make sure you’re well-prepared when you finally do it. This idea had been bouncing around in my head ten years, and to be honest I wasn’t prepared a decade ago.

I came away with a much greater understanding of the stress and anxiety that go into a descent like this. Was that something you wanted to show?

Guillaume Pierrel: Experience like this are of course stressful, and you have to spend a lot of time finding out how to deal with the stress because it is your friend. You need to get stressed. If you don’t feel that way, you are probably going to make a wrong decision and ski off the side of a mountain. If you feel the stress in the film, well, that is good, because I can guarantee we are feeling it on the mountain.

How did you get the idea to ski this specific line?

Lustenberger: It was in a very old Canadian Rockies guidebook with a limited edition of photo prints. I had gotten my hands on it, and as a skier I’m always looking at guidebooks, and I saw this photo of the South Face and immediately thought there is a ski line here. It became this hidden desire and secret. I told a couple of people I wanted to do it, but for a long time I just kept it in my own thoughts. Finally, I was out of reasons not to try it. It was like this has to go down.