Tout là-haut” by Serge Hazanavicius was the first French feature length movie in twenty years focused on free-riding and was screened at the Trento Film Festival. It is about a young “crazy” snowboarder who dreams about going to Everest and snowboarding down the so-called “Holbein Corridor”. The movie is also a tribute to Marco Sifreddi a young snowboarder who lived in Chamonix and died trying to snowboard down Mt. Everest

After the screening, the director shared his experience in making the film, which is going to be shown in 300+ cinemas, but has yet to come to many cinemas worldwide .

Set mainly in and around Chamonix, hometown of the director, and Monte Bianco, the story moves to Nepal and then the North Face of Everest (though shot on the Indian side, with some scenes in Europe, since the crew couldn’t actually go up to 6000 meters of altitude). One of the reasons Tout là-haut was made now was thanks to the new technologies, especially the small cameras, and the fact that only a limited crew was needed to film the extreme action scenes in the forest and close to the cliff faces. The film had countless hair-raising action scenes that highlighted  mountain backdrops that were stunning and perilous at same time.

Hazanavicious explained that too many movies about mountains were made by people who don’t know mountains and portray too much suffering—whereas people from mountains need to know the rules of narration—to achieve a good balance, where doing stupid things on skis could be entertaining in a movie.

The film involved actors from different countries who were all enthusiastic about the project, but did not actually ski in the film.The lead actor is the very well known French comedian, Kev Adams, who started on stage at 18 and has a good energy on screen and also helped in getting funding for the film. Bernard de la Pierre from Chamonix is also involved in the mountain scenes. The French actress who plays the wife of the older guide is also in the film “Drei Zinnen” which takes place in the Sextner Dolomites

The film takes place in France and Italy in the mountains the director knows. When asked if he has worked in the mountains as an actor, he replied that he has played a doctor twice and that it is not often they make movies like this in France because usually the films talk about women.

The movie took 6 years to make, due to financing requirements, weather and snow conditions. The director was asked if he went to Everest. he said they went to the North Face in order to finish writing the film, but it was impossible to shoot the film there, It was not possible to go to 6300 meters with the whole crew. They found a location in Northern India, Ladakh at around 4500-5000 meters that looked similar to Everest. While no one has yet skied or snowboarded down the mountain, it is just a matter of time before it will be done and then a page will be turned in making the impossible possible as Reinhold Messner famously said.

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by Laurence F. Hopper

I did not realize thald do. After all, I walked a couple of kilometers every day and ran 7km once a week, played soccer or tennis once a week and cycled around three hours on weekends. My diet was balanced, although I ate heavy meals at dinner and never left the table unless I was full.  Despite my exercise regime, I had a bit of a belly —though I felt good. I thought I looked good.

My cycle buddies all weighed much less than me. They would shoot up the hill and I was always lagging behind. They all said I weighed too much and that was why I had a hard time going uphill.  The wife’s comments about my love handles did not help. It was at that moment that I realised I needed to do something.

If you want to feel good, then whatever exercise you can do is fine. But if you want to lose some weight, even if you are not overweight, then what you are already doing is not enough. You need to change your diet and increase your exercise (burn more calories).

What I decided to do was not radical.  I did not stop eating or drinking anything in particular.  I did not take up a strange sport or start some activity I never did before. All I did was eat more fruits and vegetables and exercise more.  I increased my cycling to two times a week from one time a week and made the weekend ride longer. I started eating more vegetables and drinking less beer, although I did drink one whenever I felt like it. Same with alcohol in general – glass of wine and sometimes a bit of hard liquor.  I increased my walking during the week to about three kilometers a day by walking to and from work and increased my cycling on weekends to over three hours. I didn’t see this as a burden.

Losing weight felt good. I needed another hole on my belt to hold my pants up on a skinny waist – my clothes all felt baggy and looked baggy on a slimmer frame.  I am more energetic and feel better – a spring in my step

This is the key to success. You can either exercise a lot more or eat a lot less or strike a balance between the two which is what I did.  But it needs to be done over time and worked into your daily routine to be sustainable over the long term or you risk going back to your original weight.

The key was to stuff myself with vegetables – salad with olive oil and mixed with all kinds of vegetables to make it taste better– and soups, hummus. Meat and steaks will not make you fat or grow a belly, so that is fine.  Drink a lot of water to feel full.

I increased my walking during the week to about five kilometers a day by walking to and from work and increased my cycling.  Tennis and soccer will not make a big difference in weight. A glass of wine a day will not make a difference either. Cycling is great since you can take a 3 hour ride and burn around 800 calories per hour going at a good pace, so that in three hours you can burn around 2400 calories which is around 3 pounds. But then stick to the raw vegetable/ fruit / meat diet so that you don’t regain all the weight.

HORIZONSPORTS.TV, the world’s only Nature Sports & Wellness video platform has been selected as Official Media Partner by the Ultra Trail World Tour (UTWT).  All twenty-one UTWT races on six continents will be available for viewing anywhere and anytime in the world through the HorizonSports.TV, smart phone, APP and browser as well as on Smart TVs, reaching over 200.000 unique viewers. All participants will receive a discounted subscription to HorizonSports.TV so that they can easily enjoy watching all the UTWT races whenever they want.

Laurence Fox Hopper, HorizonSports.TV CEO said: “We are thrilled to be the Official Media Partner of the Ultra Trail World Tour and to be able to showcase some of the most amazing Ultra Trails in the world such as the UTMB, the Marathon des Sables, the Western States 100… ”

Marie Sammons, Ultra Trail World Tour Director added, “HorizonSports.TV is a very good way for us to reach a much larger audience and be able to work together to extend and enhance the sports popularity worldwide”.

About HORIZONSPORTS.TV

HorizonSports.TV is the only nature sports & wellness subscriber video on demand (SVOD) platform that caters to people who hike, run, cycle, love mountains, want to be healthy and more active in nature with over 200,000 unique viewers per month through a combination of SVOD platform, Android / Apple App, and through smart TVs. HorizonSports.TV aggregates and produces the best inspiring video content from the top outdoor, sports events, lifestyle and adventure TV producers with a balance of sports and Wellness premium programming available for unlimited on demand, Live sports and streaming TV viewing.

About UTWT ®

The Ultra-Trail®World Tour is the Unique Series of the most emblematic Trail running and ultra-distances races in the World. It illustrates the wide diversity that Trail Running represents : with the narrow and steep paths in the Alps, the hot Californian trails, the hundred steps in Australia, beaches in HK, the dunes in Morocco…. On all continents,  UTWT gives that unique opportunity for all runners participating in a minimum of 2 races of the calendar to get a ranking among the Top International Elite Runners. While being fundamentally different, the Ultra-Trail®World Tour races have common values, which they are proud to share and promote. Ethics, equity in sports, self-respect, respect for others, for the environment.

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