LOCAL FREEDOM 2
SOUTHERN ALPS STEPPES

Every year Maël and friends have such good times in the mountains. They always try to go for few days in a hut and disconnect from “outside” world. For the second season, the Local Freedom crew went on an amazing adventure spending four days in a valley without seeing anybody, without contact with the outside world, to enjoy natures most precious goods: water, snow, and sun.

MAËL OLLIVIER

Born and raised in Val d'Allos in the Southern Alps of France. Maël competes on the Freeride World tour and enjoys every single day outside of the slopes.

He quit the discipline for something more fun; freestyle skiing. He knew he always enjoyed powder days and Freeride experiences, so he made a comeback to competition on the FWQ circuit. In 2020 he won the overall FWQ and qualified for the Freeride World Tour which only selects the 24 best freeskiers in the world.

Now at the age of 30, he is happy to reach that goal and claim his place beside the best skiers in the World. He still enjoys every single day of skiing, spending most of his time at his home mountain of Val d'Allos with friends, but still travels the world in search of great skiing with friends.

It's #AlwaysGoodTimes to be on skis!

LIST OF EPISODES

EPISODE #1

After sharing a ride in a small car to access the snow, we're off with the touring set up, and a heavy bag (approximately 25Kg) mostly composed of video equipment.
We have approximately 3 hours of hiking to reach the hut. Then we’ll drop the bag and turn around for another hour to get back to the source and fill up 40 litres of water. Big day successfully done, all the crew is very happy to enjoy our first night up there.

EPISODE #2

First sunrise, first summit and first runs ... what a day ! Blue bird and spring snow conditions, maybe the best day of the trip?

EPISODE #3

After an amazing sunrise, cloud cover has arrived, and the snow is still frozen. Hopefully in the afternoon the sun comes back so Maud, Squal and Maël went to the top of La Mole mountain to ride a nice couloir. Unfortunately the snow wasn’t as good as the previous day but the vibes is still super high!

EPISODE #4

The last but not least, A really nice hike to the summit of Carton just above the hut (which is also named Carton), we wait on to for the spring snow, enjoying the view on all the summits of southern alps: from the Mediterranean Sea all the way to the Ecrins. After riding some perfect couloirs we packed all the gear and it's time to come back: approximately 2 hours later we are back to the civilization.

CREW

Directed, produced and edited by Maël Ollivier
Videography: solid rusk Julien Geay
Photography: Solid Rusk & Eliott Nicot
Skiers: Maud Ringwald, Pascal Follen aka Squal, Maël Ollivier