In his latest series called 'Fringale', the former professional runner Michel Lanne took Martin Fourcade and Julien Lizeroux with him for a four-day ski touring trip in fun and adventure mode.
At the beginning of 2021, Michel Lanne announced his retirement from competition, after 10 years spent treading the trails of the most prestigious trails in the world. But the Tarbes native was far from leaving the mountain world, continuing his work as a high mountain guide and member of the PGHM. Last month, the winner of the Mont Blanc Marathon also unveiled the second episode of his series 'Cravings'. After a first opus in high altitude slalom mode with Julien Lizeroux, Michel Lanne has once again found the former professional skier for episode 2, also accompanied this time by Martin Fourcade.
"The series 'Fringale' is a project I had in mind for several years but didn't have time to launch during my sports career," he explains. "I took the name from this excuse that many people sometimes use in high-level sport to justify a poor performance (laughs). The idea is to touch several universes that are close to my heart like trail, ski touring or mountaineering and to drift towards other disciplines that I master less like paragliding, mountain biking or snowboarding."
As for the casting, it is to the buddies that the former trailer turned. "They are people who come from their universe or that I bring in my universe. The objective is to introduce characters, friends, show how we practice the mountain between us. We also want to prove that we don't necessarily need to go to the end of the world to have great adventures."
"For this episode 2, I took Martin and Julien with me on a four-day trip through the Aravis mountains with the objective of sleeping in a tent. It is still something different than in a refuge. There, we leave with the tent, we put it for the night and it's your house for a few hours. When I proposed them a small raid in ski in bivouac mode, they said Banco. We arrived at the Trou de la mouche, the weather was good, we could see the lights of the city below, we took the shovels, put everything flat and it was the best place in the world. That night in the tent was the big highlight of the trip."
In terms of equipment, the four friends went on an adventure with Samaya tents (models to be found starting this Tuesday on Private Sport Shop). "Before, bivouacking was often done in the summer during the best days" adds Michel Lanne. "Today, it is no longer a problem to do it in winter with equipment that has evolved considerably. Tents and sleeping bags now allow us to live these adventures in winter as well. And this is the case with the Samaya tent that we put at the bottom of the bag as we can do with a small down jacket. It's solid, resistant, light and doesn't take up much space. Today, it is no longer a handicap to take it with you in the mountains. You can do your day of sport and have your tent with you in the bag. And finally, pink is a good idea. It brings color and it changes the usual khaki or navy blue tent a little sad. This is fun."
For the next episodes, the former top sportsman wishes to continue to put forward the Aravis massif and beyond. "I'm also thinking of the Mont Blanc Massif for example or the Beaufortin. I want to continue to show that when you are curious, you can have fun not far from home. And to continue with the concept of the tent, avoiding the refuges which are perhaps a little too comfortable for it to be a real adventure. It's so much stronger to live it while sleeping outside. We really enjoyed the first few episodes and it gave us ideas for the future.
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