Arc’teryx Film Festival — A Interview with Maude Besse & Coline Ballet Baz!

Arc’­te­ryx invi­ted us to their film fes­ti­val in Zurich and show­ed us five won­derful and inspi­ring movies that got us even more hoo­ked for win­ter. With that, we had the chan­ce to talk with Mau­de Bes­se and Coli­ne Bal­let Baz, about their pas­si­on, how it is to be a Freeri­de Ski Pro, and much more… Enjoy the Inter­view and make sure to watch their movies!

What does it mean to both of you, to be a fema­le Pro Freeri­de Ski­er?

[Mau­de] It is just a dream to live off my pas­si­on in Win­ter — pret­ty simple![Coline] I con­sider it as a big chan­ce, I try to enjoy the most out of it — espe­ci­al­ly becau­se some years ago, the­re were not many many fema­le frees­kiers and freeri­ders.

Mau­de Bes­se & Coli­ne Bal­let Baz

Would you say the­re is an important dif­fe­rence bet­ween fema­le and male riders in this sport? Like tal­king about cycle but as well the meta­bo­lism or per­for­mance…

[Mau­de] Yes, ever­y­bo­dy is dif­fe­rent and we just need to accept this dif­fe­rence and enjoy it. We all have our per­so­na­li­ties and I think that is very important. [Coli­ne] …True, yes — the­re is a dif­fe­rence for sure becau­se we are women and the­re are for sure more men in this indus­try. Like you said with the cycle and the fact that our bodies are dif­fe­rent, we for sure feel that in the sport. In the moun­ta­ins, it feels like we all push in the same direc­tion, we all love to ski, freeri­ding, ski tou­ring, or wha­te­ver and we do it for the same pur­po­se and moti­va­ti­on. I think it is an issue of socie­ty and in that case super important for us to show young women that they abso­lut­e­ly can enjoy that field.

As soon as we all sit in a cine­ma or on our couch at home and get to watch tho­se sick movies, we often for­get about all that hard work that was put into this pro­duc­tion. What is in your opi­ni­on, the har­dest part for the riders, in pro­du­cing a Back­coun­try Movie?

[Coli­ne] I would say — deal­ing with the con­di­ti­ons! It is part of the game, so I don’t com­plain but some days you have orga­ni­zed a full day to film, and then the whea­ter is get­ting shit­ty. It’s a lot of work to get the right peo­p­le, the right set­ting, and con­di­ti­ons till you have that per­fect line film­ed. We do a sport that is very rela­ted to the wea­ther, which for me is some­ti­mes dif­fi­cult in film­ing. Becau­se it takes so much and you can some­ti­mes tra­vel some­whe­re and don’t get a shot at all. [Mau­de] …and to still respect natu­re with all of it, to have a clean and sty­lish ride, even if we some­ti­mes just have one try! What you don’t see as well, is that we train all year for tho­se moments and the­re is a lot of work to get the bud­gets and to pro­du­ce a full film, so I guess it is a full com­mit­ment.

Arc’teryx Presents: LEXICON — TRAILER

Arc’teryx Presents: Moonlines — TRAILER

LEXICON will be online to watch on Janu­ary 22nd and MOONLINES on Febru­ary 15th, 2024. Make sure to check out the Arc’­te­ryx You­Tube chan­nel to see their full ver­si­ons.

So what is the most fun part about it?

SHARING! And we love all the work we have to put into, may­be the com­pu­ter works a litt­le less — but that’s part of the game too.

Coli­ne, you even mix two extre­me sports with Freeri­ding and High­li­ning! What freaks you out more?

Both are sca­ry, but on a High­li­ne, I can be pret­ty ratio­nal and tell mys­elf “ok, this is sca­ry but I am secu­red on the rope” so the­re is not­hing real­ly bad that could hap­pen. But of cour­se, my first tri­es on High­li­ne nee­ded a lot of con­fi­dence to over­co­me. But in ski­ing, you always have to be so focu­sed, becau­se you can get insu­red easi­ly in the smal­lest things. But High­li­ning you get some fee­lings that are mind­blo­wing in a super safe sur­roun­ding. So for your ans­wer, I am more scared of ski­ing!

And do you get the same fee­ling of adre­na­line or is it com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent?

It is my goal that two sports give me tho­se sen­sa­ti­ons! But I just star­ted High­li­ning two years ago, so it is all pret­ty new and I am still real­ly exci­ted about it. So may­be at one point, the­re is even more adre­na­line than in ski­ing but I have ski­ed for so many years, that I am more used zo the skiing-excitements. All in all, ski­ing is still my abso­lu­te big­gest pas­si­on, but it is fun to get mys­elf pushed in other sports as well.

Mau­de, you live in Valais, a dream spot for the back­coun­try ter­rain. What are your favo­ri­te freeri­de spots that you can share and would you say freeri­ding at home is still the best?

Valais is excep­tio­nal for ski­ing and for freeri­ding, but for me, my favo­ri­te spot is Bruson. The ter­rain is just so cool in the forest and I can go to the other side to Ver­bier and get ever­y­thing from tree-riding to big moun­ta­ins. The­re is such an ama­zing com­mu­ni­ty in all gene­ra­ti­ons, so it is awe­so­me to share that pas­si­on with ever­yo­ne. I can go ski­ing alo­ne and I will always find some good fri­ends on the moun­tain.

What does home mean to both of you?

[Coli­ne] For me home has a lot to do with the peo­p­le, which is a real­ly big part of me to feel com­for­ta­ble. And of cour­se four walls whe­re I have my stuff and being able to reset and con­nect. [Mau­de] …I feel rela­ted to that! Home means a fee­ling of secu­ri­ty and a good time with my fami­ly, for me extre­me­ly important!

To end this love­ly inter­view, we did some QUICK ANSWER ques­ti­ons, find that video on our Insta­gram chan­nel bel­low. Thanks so much to Arc’­te­ryx for that chan­ce and thank you Mau­de and Coli­ne for your time!