Ski Sunday with attitude is totally sick, dude!

Hello, I'm Graham Bell, downhill racer, and I'm Ed Leigh, professional snowboarder. Welcome to the BBC's new-look Ski Sunday, which is all about going higher, faster and harder than ever before.

Have you any idea how terrifying the mountains can be? The mountains are awesome, the risks we take are huge. In the Ski Sunday café Ed and Graham sit around listening to the Arctic Monkeys. Graham is a compact, ferrety kind of guy and Eddie is a raver.

Today it's the men's downhill race in Kitzbuhel, Austria. Who will be able to tame the terrible beast this year? Cut to a shot of the mountain. "That is hideous!" yells Eddie. "Now I know why all downhillers are as mad as meat axes!!"

Cut to the supermodel Jodie Kidd jumping up and down croaking, "It's terrifying!" Graham turns to camera and says, "This is no place for chickens. Only the strongest of the brave will survive." Seven men in highly coloured lycra hurtle past in time for Songs of Praise.

Four hours later over on BBC2 it's the debut of the programme High Altitude in which Graham and Eddie get to prove they too are unashamed thrill seekers on a constant search for the next perilous adventure.

Graham has a confession: it's been his life-long ambition to ski off the top of Mont Blanc. The camera's jaw drops. Budgets are running thin - how to deal with this maverick! Just how mental is this guy? Right in front of us he's hatching a plan to push his mind and body to the limit by climbing from Italy wearing ski boots in an outrageous attempt on the summit.

Graham treks purposefully out of shot, giving us time to let it all sink in. Later he confesses he's taking two guides, and 10-times British ski champion Noel Baxter with him, in case. Cut to Noel who is magically there already, confirming from behind glare-resistant shades that he's up for it and totally ready to get mental. The pair go inside a wooden cabin for a nap.

Panning round, the camera takes in a cluster of chalets twinkling in the dusk inside which people are doubtless pulling off their snowboots and gently fornicating: the one reason anyone in their right mind goes skiing. That, and the memory of David Vine standing amateurishly half-way up a slope with a ringing hangover wearing a sheepskin car coat.

Back at the chalet it’s a thumbs down to the weatherSki Sunday had a lovely semi-pro feel to it then. You'd tune in just for the landscape, for the half hour of beautiful snow and the bits of dissolve from one part of a race to another. Even the word 'Val d'Isere' sounded like it came from a dream - one in which Konrad Bartelski actually came second. We once had a skier called Konrad, don't you know? But he wasn't much cop.

Back at the chalet the snow hitting the window catches Graham's eagle eye. A thumbs down to the weather. It's bad news: they're going to have to leave straight after dinner. "This is a big shock to me," says Noel, his face stiffening. "Going out after dinner? That's going to be huge."

Graham looked at the clock. "The seconds flicker by rather slowly when you watch them," said John Updike. "And there are 2,209,032,000 in a life of seventy years." Cue music from the movie Gladiator as the pair pack their emergency sachets of dehydrated Boeuf Bourgignon and head for the door.

PS. They nearly made it to the top, but Noel got a headache. "He's a tough guy, and he's fit, but fitness isn't the only thing..." said Graham, eyeballing his companion on the descent, as though he were an ex he'd ordered 14 years previously to wait in the car.
PPS. Next week: a terrifying helicopter ride with Eddie past the north face of the Eiger. ·