Sylvain Saudan was a Swiss skier and mountaineer born on September 23, 1936, in Lausanne, Switzerland, and died on July 14, 2024, in Les Houches, France. Nicknamed the "skier of the impossible," he was one of the pioneers of extreme skiing.

Sylvain Saudan spent the first four years of his life in Lausanne. In 1939, the family left Lausanne for economic reasons and moved to Valais. At the age of five, young Sylvain received his first pair of skis.