Swedish Baggen of Chamonix
Kristian ”Baggen” Baggerud is a true skier. Powder snow, steep
French couloirs, “hot dogging” in the moguls of Sun Valley, back country
randonée touring, living glacier descents on Mont Blanc, race tracks and
happy carving, as soon as there´s a chance, the man is up skiing on them
beautiful mountains. Home is Chamonix, France. Here the possibilities of skiing
breathtaking runs are almost never ending. Baggen has always been a dedicated
skier and started off with a couple of seasons in St Anton in the early 80´s, but
he soon ended up in the mythical and exciting Chamonix and stayed for six seasons.
That was the first turn to Chamonix…
His colorful background consists of being a biker building his own Harleys,
studying marketing and working that business during the 90´s, running three
restaurants in Stockholm and one in Chamonix with the best friend Tompa Månsson
(also ex-biker and excellent AL-guide). And after the Goofy Restaurant was sold
he settled down in Chamonix and raised a little family consisting of his dear wife
Francine and their six years old son Teo.
And as times are rolling by, Baggen is running his own business with Francine
and is getting established in Chamonix, but the dream is still glowing of opening
a new restaurant with long time team-mate Tompa.
As coming back in every guide blog, even one of Baggens best qualities as a guide
is his social competence, and that also explains why he´s in the business; “because of
all the nice people you would never meet otherwise”. A bit like his favorite ski
memory from -98 when he crashed into American top model Christie Brinkley in
the famous moguls “Limelight” in Sun Valley. Pleasant surprise…