Skiing: Swiss skier wins Extreme event despite breaking leg

Romain Bellon broke his leg on day one of the Export Extreme Ski competition at Mt Ruapehu. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Good luck seemed a long way off when Swiss skier Romain Bellon broke his leg on day one of the Export Extreme Ski competition at Mt Ruapehu.

But yesterday Bellon hopped on to the dais at National Park to collect a US$10,000 ($13,700) winner's cheque.

With bad weather ruining the other four days scheduled for the World Freeride qualifying competition, his 8.9 out of 10 ride last Wednesday stood as the best of the Extreme event, staged on Ruapehu's dramatic Pinnacles. He broke his leg on his second run but managed to ski to the bottom.

The 27-year-old Swiss ski instructor's luck had begun to go wrong last week in the South Island when he lost his wallet, including his credit card and driver's licence and $600 in cash he had won at Craigieburn's K2 Big Mountain event.

He and his girlfriend, fellow Swiss ski instructor Caroline Jeandette, had hoped to spend a few nights in better accommodation, rather than sleeping in their 1989 Honda Accord.

After a couple of cold nights at National Park, locals took them in and Bellon felt a bit better about his luck.

Then, on his inspection run of the steep and icy Pinnacles course last Wednesday, things started going wrong again. His ski binding broke and it looked as if his contest was over. But the camaraderie of the international extreme ski community came to the fore.

Cromwell-based world freeride skier Sam Smoothy loaned him skis for his first run and German competitor Eric Zeller stepped up with skis for the second.

Disaster struck halfway down the course. "I had to get safely to the bottom first, then I could hear my leg making the click, click."

He spent the next two days in Taupo Hospital having his broken fibula attended to.