My guest today is Zebulon Roche, an accomplished mountaineer or alpinist, big mountain climber, and paragliding pilot. I could have spoken to Zeb for hours, normally I like to ask each guest about some local knowledge, favourite places to fly or ski, local restaurants, places to visit etc But time was getting away. I had only scratched the surface of some of the questions I had prepared. So I hope Zeb will let me interview him again to learn more about what he likes about his home. Zeb...

My guest today is Sylvain ReChu a high mountain guide from the Maurienne Valley and the French Alpes. His desire to spend more time skiing and to be really out in the mountains led him to hang up his Ski instructor's uniform and pursue a career and love affair with the mountains as a mountain guide. I think the mountains are like his mistress, he has pursued her all over the world, from the French Alpes to the Italian Dolomites, Alaska, Peru, Sweden, and Norway. I didn’t really know...

When I was thinking about maybe starting a podcast, Max Vince was one of the first people I had on my list of people to talk to. He was my first ski instructor and took me for my very first ski lesson. While I was falling all over the beginner slope, hands on my knees and trying to snow plough, Max was skiing backwards and making jokes with with me. The next lesson I had with Max during the same season, I had progressed a lot, but I didn’t know what to do with my ski poles. During my...

There is something magical about watching birds flying in the mountains. Especially when it’s a large bird like an Eagle, a vulture or a gypaete. Vultures and gypaetes have wingspans of close to 3 meters. You can see them a lot in the French Alpes. Watching them fly it’s hard not imagine what it’s like to fly or wish we could fly like that. My guest today is Philippe Hamichi and he gets as close to flying like a bird as you can get. He is a professional paragliding pilot. He takes clients...

Welcome to episode 1 of Beyond the mountains podcast. I want to ease my way into this show. So I am talking to a very good friend of mine, I know him as Raphy, but as you’ll hear in the show his name is Raphael Carvalho. This first series of episodes I am calling the Locals Project. I’ll be talking to my friends and other locals from the Maurienne Valley. I want to share with you some local knowledge. The perfect person to talk to about Locals in the local barman and Raphy knows everyone...

Welcome to Beyond the mountains podcast. I’m your host Ashley Pettit, and live work and play in the mountains. I live in the remote mountains deep in the French Alpes. I am a passionate cyclist, skier, hiker, photographer and storyteller. I’ve discovered my passion for this mountain life after 20 years of city life, working in marketing and advertising. The mountains and peaks I climbed back then were all about the corporate peaks and the imaginary mountains concerning climbing the...