“Adventure is piracy. A privateer raid on the bleak plains of existence.
The adventurers we met during the four days of the Festival were mountaineers, sailors, divers, scientists and pilots.
They make life an intense and dangerous game. They travel the world, inventing ways to recognize its beauty.
They know that nature leads the dance and allows passage as long as we greet it.”
Sylvain Tesson
Sylvain Tesson
Sylvain Tesson studied geography and geopolitics with Yves Lacoste before devoting his life to writing and long-distance travel.
After presenting the program Montagnes (France 3), he cycled around the world, crossed the Himalayas on foot, Central Asia on horseback, walked from Siberia to India in the footsteps of gulag escapees. , traveled the Caucasus and Anatolia to investigate oil, participated in humanitarian and archaeological missions in Afghanistan.
From his adventures in the Russian Far East, Mongolia, the Himalayas and Tibet, he brought back around fifteen stories, essays and collections of short stories, most of which are available in pocket editions. His latest work recounts the life of Alpine hunters in Afghanistan: Haute tension, Gallimard. His collection A Life to Sleep Outside published by Gallimard won the Goncourt for short stories in 2009 and the short story prize from the Académie Française.
He collaborates with Figaro Magazine, writes documentaries for France 5. He loves climbing, books and horse riding. Last year he stayed in a cabin in the middle of the Russian forest for six months and is preparing a “Cabin Journal” to be published in the Nouvelle Revue Française in spring 2011.
Roland Jourdain
It is one of the most popular French browsers. One of the only ones to have, for example, a real supporters club. The only skipper too, to be known by his nickname. “Bilou” speaks to the entire world of sailing and to all enthusiasts. This popularity is not only explained by an exceptional record as a double winner of the Route du Rhum. As comfortable in front of the camera as in front of a microphone, the media adore this captain who speaks with humor (“The sea? … it’s a good friend”) and says nicely but firmly what he thinks: “L “The ocean is a bit like the carpet that we lift to hide the dust.” Because this “loner who loves others” is committed to the planet, in his own way, especially not as a lesson giver but as a concrete and determined actor.
Thus, his company Kaïros has a design office specializing in biomaterials and hosts the Explore endowment fund, an accelerator of innovative environmental projects.
Louis Meunier
Director
Louis Meunier
Director
Louis Meunier was born in 1978 into a family settled between Iraq and India. He made numerous long-distance trips during his youth and, at the beginning of 2002, he set down in Afghanistan. In 2005, he crossed the country on horseback then he joined the Kabul buzkashi team for 3 years, the Afghan national sport, and played alongside the famous tchopendoz described by Kessel in his novel “The Riders”.
In 2009, he organized the first Afghan ascent of the highest peak in Afghanistan (Mount Noshaq, 7,492 meters) and then directed the film “7,000 meters above war” (Aigle d’Or de l’Aventure in 2012 ).
In 2014, he undertook the renovation of the largest cinema in Afghanistan with the aim of transforming it into a cultural center, a committed adventure that we find in the documentary “Kabul Cinema” (Aigle d’Or de l’Aventure in 2015). ). For around ten years, he has been directing films for television and cinema. His work has been rewarded at numerous festivals.
Guillaume Nery
Freediver
Guillaume Nery
Freediver
Guillaume Néry is a French freediving champion, specialist in depth. He dives in a single breath to -126m below the surface of the sea. When he was younger, he progressed through contact with Loïc Leferme (5 times world record holder in No-Limits), who over the years would become a model, a guide and a close friend.
In 2002, he became the youngest world record holder in the history of freediving by diving to a depth of -87m using the sole power of his fins. This is the beginning of a great adventure. Multiple world record holder, double world champion, he recently distinguished himself by accidentally making the deepest dive in history with a depth of -139m.
Thanks to his film “Free Fall”, which he made in 2010 with his partner Julie Gautier, the Nice native’s career took off again. Since then, the couple has embarked on new film projects, including “Narcose”, “Ocean gravity” and recently in the music video for American artist Beyoncé “Runnin”.
Guillaume’s quest goes well beyond simple sport. Combining aesthetics and performance, films and exploration, Guillaume practices his discipline like an art, his art of living.
Mathieu Crepel
Snowboarder / Surfer
Mathieu Crepel
Snowboarder / Surfer
The ocean and the mountains, surfing and snowboarding are inseparable elements for him. Since he was very young, he has traveled with the seasons following the water cycle, looking for snowflakes in winter and waves in summer.
He joined the professional snowboarding world thanks to a trip to Greenland at the age of 10 with some of the best snowboarders of the time who passed on their passion to him.
Initially, he headed towards competition, the national and then global circuits, traveling the world in search of results. 3 world titles (2005, 2006, 2007), 2 participations in the Olympic Games (Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010), a medal at the X-Games (2010) have more than fulfilled his objectives. He is now turning to image production and freeride.
Get off the marked trails to make your own trail, get closer to nature and your roots.
Today he favors adventure travel and, from this desire for discovery, the ODISEA project was born.
Stéphanie Bodet
Mountaineer
Stéphanie Bodet
Mountaineer
Stéphanie Bodet is a climber and mountaineer. Winner of the Bouldering World Cup in 1999, she shares her passion for vertical travel with her companion Arnaud Petit.
For more than 20 years, from Pakistan to the United States, via Venezuela, Morocco and Patagonia, she has traveled the planet in search of the most dizzying walls. A year after the ascent of the legendary Salto Angel wall, 979 m of slope on wedges, Stéphanie became, in 2007, the third woman to completely climb, free and lead, El Capitan, in Yosemite.
She is the author of “Salto Angel” by Éditions Guérin and co-author of “Parois de Légende” by Éditions Glénat. She has just completed “The Lizard and the Butterfly”, a book about her journey, to be published in September 2016.
Sunday
17
April
THE BEFORE OF THE FESTIVAL
Session 1
Escape “Earth”
LEO’S LINE – FEBRUARY – Ski
Director: Léo Taillefer
BEAT DOWN – MTB
Director: Anson Fogel
Production: Camp4 Collective
MAEWAN – Sailing – Skiing – Ice climbing – Mountaineering
Director: Guillaume Broust, Bertrand Delapierre
Production: Petzl – Maewan
NO ONE KNOWS – Snowboard
Director: Morgan The Reaper
Production: Almo Film
RÉGIS – Bikes of all kinds
Director: Rémy Masséglia
Production: Lez’Art Création
LEO’S LINE – MARCH – Ski
THE MIDDLE WAY – Climbing
Director: Bertrand Delapierre
ONE OF THOSE DAYS – Skiing
NORTHERN BOUND – Skateboard
Director: Yørn Ranum
Production: Turbin Film
METEORA GREECE PETZL ROC TRIP – Climbing
Director: Guillaume Broust, Mylene ViJette, Remi Steinberg
Production: Petzl
CASCADIA – Trial bike
Session 2
“Water” escape
OCEAN GRAVITY – Apnea
Director: Julie Gaultier, Guillaume Néry
Production: Blunery
METRONOMIC – Highline – Pendulum Jump
Director: Vladimir Cellier
Production: Baraka Films
HOME FLIGHT – Paragliding
Production: JB Chandelier
FOR A FISTFUL OF SECONDS
Director: Bertrand Delapierre
FOLLOW ME – Speed Riding
Director: Maxence Cavalade, Léo Taillefer
ADVENTURE WAY OF SURFING – Surfing
Images: Rémi Quelichini, Wiliam Touitou, Benjamin Nardini
NARCOSIS – Apnea
Director: Julie Gautier
Production: Blunery
TOUCH – Paragliding
Production: JB Chandelier
MONT REBEI – Pendulum jump
Director: Vladimir Cellier
Production: Baraka Films
ACROSS THE SKY – Highline
Director: Tim Kemple, Renan Ozturk, Anson Fogel
Production: Camp4 Collective
Monday
18
April
OPENING CEREMONY
Léo Taillefer
VAL VU D'LEO
| Direction | Léo Taillefer |
| Duration | 3 min. |
Find the best sessions of the talented Avalin skier Léo Taillefer, through never-before-seen images of his adventures in the Val d’Isère area.
Wednesday
20
April
Ushuaïa TV
ODISEA
| Direction | WILIAM TOUITOU |
| Duration | 53 min. |
Here we are at the end of the Arctic winter, on the edge of one of Alaska’s most unexplored mountain ranges. The snow is still fresh, the weather uncertain. Snowboarder Mathieu Crepel and surfer Damien Castera chose this transition period between seasons to launch their extraordinary adventure: connecting the summit of the Ridge of Dream Icefield to the Gulf of Alaska by following the water and melt trail. of snow.
Alexandre Stolypin known as “Psyckoze” is a French graffiti artist and painter, one of the precursors of graffiti culture in France. In the underground quarries of Paris or on the walls of cities around the world, he has left his mark since 1984. He will present and complete a sail which retraces his journey to Madagascar (Film: Graffiti in the sails).
Mathieu Crepel, snowboard champion (Big Air & Half Pipe) gives us the pleasure of a freestyle demonstration on the snowpark!
We invite you to an introduction to freediving with Guillaume Néry. This high-level athlete, multi-record holder, does us the honor of sharing his passion with the Festival public.
On the program: breathing exercises, relaxation and getting into the water!
JB Chandelier, talented paraglider will honor us with a proximity flight demonstration.
Come discover the art of graffiti with the artists Cart’One and Psyckoze. These renowned graffiti artists from Lyon and Paris are preparing a special creation which will adorn the slopes container located at the top of the OK slope.
Nam and Sébé from the film “Par-de-la-la-hauts”, young professional players, are coming to meet you for a special session. Demonstration, shooting on goal and finally a spring snow football tournament.
Photographer - Paul Tixier
Paul Tixier is a marine biologist, freediver and above all a photographer. Discover photos from the film in the fjords of Alaska in search of predators and wild nature.
Photographer - Laurent Baillestra
Laurent Baillestra, photographer, diver and biologist, reveals his ocean secrets to us, which he also shares with us in a brand new book to discover.
RETROSPECTIVE
Discover 20 years of the Festival through the portraits of our guests, jury, directors, athletes, adventurers, the atmosphere and the activities that surrounded this event.
Photographer of the “OLYMPIQUE” Festival - Andy Parant
Adventure and discovery accompany you to the top of the slopes, for the duration of a trip. The Festival opens the doors of the Olympic gondola for the first time! Discover the spirit of the mountains and its outdoor activities through the photos of Andy Parant. A true immersion in the world of the official Festival photographer.
Photographer - Andy Parant
Discover the never-before-seen images of photographer Andy Parant, who followed the filming of the series “Super-Heroes – The Hidden Face” and set out to discover the worlds of Alain Robert (urban climbing), JB Chandelier (paragliding), Géraldine Fasnacht (wingsuit), Yoann Zéphyr-Leroux (Parkour / freerun), Kilian Jornet (trail), Eric Deguil (Kayak), Umberto Pelizzari (apnea), Justine Dupont (big wave surfing).
10 portraits of mountaineers sketched by 10 authors and exhibited to pay tribute to those who have marked the history of the mountain for more than two centuries through their personality, their climbs, their books, their influence… They are the heroes if unusual of the subjective Pantheon orchestrated by the
Sculptor - CHRISTIAN BURGER
A well-known sculptor in Val d’Isère (Festival trophies, giant snow sculptures), he will present two new sculpted works, one in steel and the second in stainless steel. Special creations for the 20th anniversary of the Festival!
BOOKS
Olivier Weber
FRONTIÈRES
“To travel is to become attached and then to be detached” (Nicolas Bouvier, l’usage du monde). Traveling for 25 years from South America to Asia and the Middle East, Olivier Weber crosses borders, often invisible and hypothetical lines which are places of fractures, conflicts and contraband.
“Borders: in political geography, imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary lines of one from the imaginary lines of the other” wrote Ambrose Bierce. This masterfully written journey into Absurdy plunges us into the heart of these improbable limits and is also the opportunity for striking portraits, a keen look at our globalized society and nods to the great travelers present and past who are witnesses of our history.
Louis Meunier
LES CAVALIERS AFGHANS
“In this ageless country, we do not speak in nationalities, but in peoples. We don’t count in kilometers, but in days of travel. When we leave each other, we say Zenda Bashi, be alive, because existence is uncertain.” Louis Meunier delivers a powerful initiatory story in the Afghanistan of legends and spirits: Ashvagan, literally in Persian, “the Land of Horses”.
Laurent Jourdain
AU SUD LA MER EST BLANCHE
To the south the sea is white… is not only the story of a man and his boat, it is above all the story of a human adventure, of a team and its partner united to achieve the same objective. In the south the sea is white… sounds like a secret that the ocean revealed to the navigator during his numerous trips around the world and to which Bilou comes to bear witness through a book and a film.
Guillaume Néry
PROFONDEURS
A man’s life is the time interval between his first and last breath. Guillaume Néry’s dives are between a last and a first breath. Each immersion of this constant weight freediving world champion is a spiritual journey, an inner journey towards better self-knowledge, a rebirth of sensations that have disappeared since the foundation of the world.
Stéphanie Bodet
SALTO ANGEL
The incredible ascent of a wall of almost 1000 m under the spray of the highest waterfall on the planet. An extraordinary adventure experienced by a handful of climbers not prone to vertigo. However, no drama will darken this story, full of delicacy, emotion and humor. Stéphanie Bodet also knows how to sharpen her pen when it comes to evoking the tensions and dangers that threaten the small troop of climbers.
Laurent Ballesta
SECRETS D’OCÉANS
“At the bottom of the sea, strange creatures flourish in secret. They are hidden, rare, often inaccessible. Going to meet them is not a trivial process. I say it’s an adventure. Behind a natural story, there is always a lived story. I’m going to tell you some of the most unexpected of the last 20 years…” LB. Very large format art book (50×33), limited edition of 300 numbered copies. 21 exceptional photographic prints accompanied by texts at the crossroads between natural history and real history.
Paul Tixier
MERS AUSTRALES
The fruit of several years spent in the heart of the famous roaring 40th century, “Southern Seas” brings together previously unseen animal images from a little-known universe. When orcas and albatrosses play with the Dantesque waves of the open sea, the book is a true immersion in an exceptional nature hidden behind the mask of the storms of the South Seas.
Caroline Riegel
MÉANDRES D’ASIE
Meanders of Asia is, after Soifs d’Orient (Phébus, 2008), the second of the two volumes which retrace Caroline Riegel’s journey from Lake Baikal to Bangkok.
Travel writer and geographer by training, Sylvain Tesson made his first expedition to Iceland in 1991, followed in 1993 by a world tour by bicycle with Alexandre Poussin. He also crossed the steppes of Central Asia on horseback with the explorer Priscilla Telmon. He then published “The Immensity of the World”. In 2004, he took up the route of the gulag escapees and published “The Ax of the Wolf”, a journey which took him from Siberia to India on foot. “A Life to Sleep Outside” (Goncourt Prize for short stories), “In the Forests of Siberia” (Prix Médicis Essay 2011) and the collection of short stories “Abandoning to Live”, make Sylvain Tesson an author recognized by the critically and appreciated by the public. “Bérézina”, published in January 2015 by Guérin, tells the story of her journey in a sidecar in the footsteps of the Grande Armée during the retreat from Russia led by Napoleon.
Ecrivain-voyageur et journaliste, Olivier Weber, Prix Albert Londres, Prix de l’Aventure et Prix Joseph Kessel, est notamment l’auteur du « Faucon afghan », de « La Bataille des anges », du « Grand Festin de l’Orient » et de « Barbaresque ». Longtemps correspondant de guerre pour la presse française et britannique puis ambassadeur de France pendant cinq ans, il a séjourné avec une quinzaine de mouvements de guérillas et a couvert une vingtaine de conflits, de l’Erythrée à l’Afghanistan, du Sahara à l’Irak. Ses romans et récits de voyage ont été traduits dans une dizaine de langues. Il vient de publier « Frontières » aux éditions Paulsen.
Après des études de géographie menées de par le monde et des voyages au long cours, Cédric Gras a passé cinq années à sillonner la Sibérie et l’Extrême-Orient russe dont il a tiré « Vladivostok » et « Le Nord, c’est l’Est », tous deux publiés aux éditions Phébus. Il vit en Ukraine. « Le Cœur et les Confins » est sa première incursion dans la fiction.
Écrivain traduit dans le monde entier, Philippe Claudel est aussi cinéaste et dramaturge. Il a notamment publié aux éditions Stock « Les Âmes grises », « La Petite Fille de Monsieur Linh », « Le Rapport de Brodeck ». Membre de l’académie Goncourt, il réside en Lorraine où il est né en 1962.
Stéphanie Bodet was born in 1976, in Gap, in the Hautes-Alpes. Winner of the Bouldering World Cup in 1999, she shares her passion for vertical travel with her companion Arnaud Petit. From Pakistan to the United States, via Venezuela, Morocco and Patagonia, she travels the planet in search of the most dizzying walls. She is the author of “Salto Angel” published by Guérin and co-author of “Parois de Légende” published by Glénat. She has just completed, “The Lizard and the Butterfly”, a book about her journey, to be published in September 2016.
