Beyond the Mountains podcast

Ok, so this is the first episode of season 3. This is my first interview for 2024. This is also my first remote interview. 

My first guest for 2024 is Michael Blann a professional photographer based in London. 

He is also a keen cyclist and he believes in the power of Passion projects. 

We talk about all this, plus we talk about is love for taking photos of epic mountain landscapes.

So if you love any of those subjects you are going to enjoy this conversation with Michael Blann. 

Michael has published a timeless and beautiful coffee table book called Mountains - Epic Cycling Climbs. It was a 3-year passion project in the making that saw Michael photograph some of the most iconic mountains and cycling climbs of the Tour de France and the Giro. Mountains of the Alpes, the Pyrenees, the Dolomites and many more mythical mountains around Europe and North America

Michael is a professional photographer and has a long career working with many brands and clients. He has also been published in many cycling magazines around the world. 

Hello friends, I am your host ASHLEY PETTIT welcome to another season and a new episode of the Beyond the Mountains podcast. Where I talk to people who live, work and play in the mountains.

Let's start the intro music and get on with the show. Allons-y

My guest today is Fred Buttard.

He is a high mountain guide, ski touring guide, gravel biking explorer, beer maker and full-time dad, who spends his time between the French Alps and the Scandinavian mountains of Sweden and Norway.

Before this interview, I didn't really know Fred that well, I'd only seen him around the village, out skiing or at a local mountain bike event he was organizing. 

But he was someone I instantly liked and connected with and I wanted to know him better.

So this was a great way for me to get to Fred and I hope you learn about him too.

I try to do research about the people I'm going to have on the show, so who they are and the jobs they do. So I did a lot of reading about what a mountain guide does and what makes a good mountain guide.

I read somewhere that when you are in the mountains you have to move with deliberate intent, to move with purpose and be fluid with your movement, observe your surroundings and to look ahead to where you are going..

This is how I feel Fred speaks and acts. He is very intentional and thoughtful when he speaks. And I think this came through in the interview. So I hope you enjoy this interview with Fred because I know I did

Hello friends, I am your host ASHLEY PETTIT welcome to another episode of the beyond the Mountains podcast. Where I talk to people who live, work and play in the mountains.

Let's start the intro music and get on with the show. Allons-y

My guest today is Anselme Baud.

He is one of the pioneers of steep skiing, Powder magazine named him as one of the 48 most influential skiers.

He may be retired but he's still getting out into the mountains. Just after we recorded this interview he was heading off to Nepal and the Himalayas.

His name is associated with many first ski descents in Chamonix, Antarctica, the Himalayas and Bolivia.

He was the pioneer of steep skiing or extreme skiing and a high mountain guide.

In the 70s and 80's he was skiing down steep couloirs and mountain faces that were unimaginable at the time and that inspired today's modern-day skiers. 

To give you some perspective. He was skiing in leather ski boots, riding skis that were 210 cm long but he only stands at around 165 cm tall. 

The steepness was between 40 and 55% on ice.

He didn't like to ski the fresh snow like today's modern skiers. Less risk of avalanche he says.

It could take him most of the night and all the day to climb up these mountains and then ski down the lines he had imagined in his mind.

These lines he skied were in "no fall zone". You fall you die,  and has become into the stuff of legends. 

Hello friends, I am your host ASHLEY PETTIT welcome to another episode of the Beyond the mountains podcast. Where I talk to people who live work and play in the mountains.

Let's start the intro music and get on with the show. Allons-y

My guest today is Kristy Shelley.

She is a fellow Aussie and was a self-confessed ski bum in her youth, she chased the fresh pow across the northern and southern hemispheres as a ski instructor, before she finally decided to go to the Hollywood of big mountain sports - Chamonix.

And like so many people before her, the allure and attraction of the Cham was strong,

She soon realised if this was to become a permanent place to live she needed to make a living. 

So she enrolled in a Rolfing school and became a qualified Rolfer which is a unique and specialized type of body therapy. A perfect way to earn a living in a place where people are obsessed with being outdoors and pursuing active lifestyles.

She has built a reputation and successful business, helping people to live pain-free and restore movement and mobility so that mountain athletes to regular workers like you and I can pursue our passion for sports and being outdoors in the mountains.

This was a very interesting meeting, and now with hindsight, I wish I'd prepared better for it. Kristy has a wealth of knowledge and passion for mobility and movement. I only scratched the surface. So I think I will have to have her on the show again in the future. So let's call this part 1.

Hello friends, I am your host ASHLEY PETTIT welcome to another episode of the Beyond the Mountains podcast. Where I talk to people who live work and play in the mountains.

Let's start the intro music and get on with the show. Allons-y

My guest today is Dr Heidi Sevestre.

She is just an awesome human, plus she is a glaciologist and is on the front line of climate change. So we had a lot to talk about during this episode

BUT BEFORE I hit the intro music I want to say a few things.

After I finished recording the interview with Heidi, we were just chatting as I was packing up my equipment and she said something that really stuck with me. 

Then when I returned home and was reflecting on the interview and looking forward to sharing it with you when something else sparked a thought.

So please let me indulge for a minute before I hit the intro music and start the interview with Heidi.

Firstly, we need to change CHANGE is hard. Changing long-practised behaviours is going to be hard

Change is Really hard and it means sacrifice. But we need to suck it up.  We need to get uncomfortable, we need to be inconvenient and hear the uncomfortable truth

Because doing nothing is going to be worse. 

I am sure most of you listening will agree and believe that we need to change, but that belief for change needs to turn into action.

Take one step in the direction of hope and then take another in the DIRECTION of action AND then another intentional step towards action and keep taking steps and then together we can make a change

We need to stop fighting against climate change because the reality is that that is already here. 

We need to start fighting for climate action. When we fight for something, it’s easier than fighting against something. Fight for our future

Secondly, Listen to Heidi and listen to the Scientist. In researching for this interview I saw speeches and newspaper articles from Scientists as far back as the 70s 80s 90s and 2000’s all warning us of the changes happening to our planet.

Global summits, global agreements, and documentaries  have all predicted today’s current climate crisis

I said she is the voice of the voiceless, the glaciers, but she is also a voice for all the scientists before her and all the scientists that stand with her.

Listen, really listen. There is no agenda here.  

And also imagine if someone you were talking to was not listening to you. 

Imagine you were making an important presentation, talking to a loved one, talking to a doctor or a good friend. How would that make you feel if that person was not listening to you, especially when your intentions and message were genuine and true.

And also imagine if your life’s work was slowly disappearing. 

Something you have made sacrifices for was vanishing and there was nothing you could do about it because no one was listening to you

So please listen to this episode, Heidi’s passion is infectious and inspiring.

All right, THAT’S enough from me, let’s get on with the show, let’s listen to the expert.

Here is the intro

My guest today is Dr Heidi Sevestre.

She is a glaciologist, and explorer, the voice for the voiceless. 

She is on the front line of climate change. She is a passionate advocate for climate ACTION and 

FOR making the science more understandable so we can all make informed decisions about our futures. 

She has studied and explored the glaciers of the Alps, the Arctic, Greenland, AND Antarctica and is ONE of the guardians of the last tropic glaciers in South America.

She is like a real-life Indiana Jones. Rather than exploring and searching for the hidden treasures of the past. She is EXPLORING THE FROZEN ICY LANDSCAPES OF OUR WORLD AND desperately trying to protect the planet’s natural treasures for the future.

So let’s HIT THE INTRO music and get on with the show. Allons-y

My guest today is Lakpa Gel jen Sherpa.

At the age of 25 with no training or experience, he reached the summit of Mt Everest the highest mountain in the world.  He has reached the summit of Everest 7 times and climbed many other 8,000-meter summits in Nepal.

With no education, no English or training but a strong belief in taking positive action and karma he has managed to transform his life. 

He has led international treks across Nepal and Tibet with clients from all over the world. 

His family and children are now living the lives many people from Nepal can only dream of. 

Lakpa now splits his time between working in France and Nepal. 

During the cold winter months of Nepal when there are no tourists and little work, he lives and works in the French Alpes. 

During the trekking season in Nepal, he now has his own successful trekking and tour agency employing a team of local Sherpa Guides.

His children have all received an education, his daughter is now living and studying in the US his oldest son is in the Philippines and his 2 youngest sons work in the family trekking business.

Knowing how fortunate his life is now, he is also giving back to the local sherpa community through a charity and foundation he has established with his good friend Zebulon Roche.  

This foundation aims to help families and children who have lost their fathers through death in the mountains. 

It is called Solida Sherpa. If you would like more information about the foundation you can send an email to [email protected] or telephone +33 6 75 57 69 01. And the foundation will gratefully accept any donations.

I simply know him as Lakpa, an incredibly friendly guy that always greets me with a warm “Namaste” whenever I see him at an altitude restaurant in the French Alpes.

Hello friends, I am your host Ashley Pettit welcome to another episode of the Beyond the Mountains podcast. Where I talk to people who live work and play in the mountains.

Let's start the intro music and get on with the show. Allons-y

My guest today is LIv Sansoz and she still has the hunger to compete and test herself with new challenges or as she says “she has a thirst for effort. Which is something I need to taste again.

In her youth she was a climbing superstar, winning world championships, and world cups, and competing all over the world.

Then through a climbing accident, she refocused and set about conquering all the 82, 4000-meter summits in the Alpes. She is a true mountain athlete, Alpiniste, base-jumper, paraglider, climber, big mountain skier, and sponsored athlete.

Now she is taking those skills and years of playing in the mountains and passing on her knowledge as a qualified mountain guide. Leading clients to conquer their own personal challenges. A goal she did not think possible at one stage.

Seeing firsthand the impact that global warming was having on the mountains where she - lived worked and played. she has become a leading voice in their protection and wants us to change our behaviors to protect the mountains for future generations. We talk about her role as a spokesperson and ambassador for Protect Our Winter and Une Bouteille À La Mer - a bottle in the ocean.

In this episode Liv and I share a rope together and climb through the different chapters of her life and her philosophy for living life to the fullest.

Liv’s official Instagram account is @livsansoz 

A life in balance.

Balance and flow on two skis, on a snowboard, surfboard or skateboard.

Balancing the seasons cold and snow of winter, warmth and ocean swells of summer.

Balancing life between the mountains and the ocean.

My guest today is Victorien Irissou and he has a life many people will envy.

You can follow him at @victorien_irissou on Instagram.

A professional ski instructor in the winter and a seasonal worker in the summer following the surf and finding work as he needs.

He shares with us the steps to become a qualified french ski instructor with the ESF, one of the most difficult ski instructor courses in the world.

This was a great conversation with Victorien, he shares some great insights about finding freedom and personal expression with being at one on a board.

Make sure you stick around to the end and listen to Victorien talk about a potentially life-changing moment that could have ended in tragedy and changed his relationship with the mountains and life.

Yes, Season 2, EPISODE 1  it’s taken a while to get back here.

So let's get on with the show, hit the intro music 

Allons-y

I'm coming back. Season 2 is coming soon.

It's taken me a while to get unstuck. Last year was a challenging year for me. But I'm determined to relaunch or restart this podcast.

If you are interested to hear about my year and why I haven't been making any new podcasts. Stick around.

Maybe you've experienced some of the same feelings I've had last year. Maybe this will can help you. Let me know.

But I'm determined to start making more episodes. I've got some great guests I want to meet and interview.

thank

Ashley

This is a special episode dedicated to you. It is all about who you are and how I see this show and you the listeners.

This is my manifesto for the show.

Please grab a coffee and have a 5 min break. I hope you enjoy this little teaser. I'll have more episodes soon.

Thanks for your time.

Ashley Pettit. The Australian lost in the French Alpes.