The questionnaire is designed to reveal your true mountain character - and reveal your beliefs and aspirations

You only have 30 seconds to answer each question.

Are you ready to play, are you ready to take the Beyond the Mountains questionnaire?

Svein Tuft - let's go.

My guest today is Svein Tuft.

He is the character straight out of the Jack London book "The Call of the Wild"

He was professional cyclings unconventional cyclist, but his unconventional approach is what made him so successful. He knew what worked for him, he knew how to extract the best of himself for his success and his team's success.

He famously dragged the peloton for 190km in the Italian stage race Tirreno-Adriatico.

He won thirteen Canadian National Championships, represented Canada at the Olympic Games, was part of the Orica-GreenEdge team for 8 years, he was the driving force in time trial victory on stage 1 of the 2014 Giro d’Italia, where he spent time in the maglia rosa leaders jersey. He raced in the Tour de France, Giro D'Italia, the Vuelta a Espana, the one-day classics and week-long stage races, and he secured the silver medal in the time trial at the 2008 UCI Road World Championships.

When he wasn't clocking up thousands of kilometres on the paved roads as a professional cyclist, he was escaping to the wilds of Andorra and British Colombia on epic adventures into the unknown. His true calling is to discover and explore trails and single tracks into the mountains and wilderness. He is happiest when he is out on a ski touring adventure into the backcountry or humping his gravel bike over some monstrous mountain pass into the unknown.

On today's show, We talk about all this and more, so I think you are going to enjoy listening to Svein's adventures.

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

My guest today is Aurelie Morrison-Gonin

She is a multi-talented mountain sports storyteller. She is a producer, director, photographer, camerawoman, writer and editor. She has worked on the Freeride World Tour, the Summer and Winter Olympic games, and is an independent storyteller for many mountain brands, athletes and magazines.

In a world of high drama, high stakes and fast action sports, Aurelie thrives on the pressure to capture the athletes doing what they do best, defying gravity and creating winning lines in the snow.

She enjoys showing the human element behind the athletes. Stripping away the race numbers and sponsor logos to reveal the real people behind the mountain sports we love.

She is not afraid to get uncomfortable in harsh and dangerous conditions to get the shot, and she is also not afraid to deviate from the plan if a different and more interesting story is unfolding.

This was a fun interview and I want to thank Aurelie for making the time to sit down with me before she went out skiing in the mountains of Chamonix before she made her way back to her second home in Crested Butte California or travelling to another event hotel room, or mountain huts.

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

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