David Malacrida has been working as a media content creator since 2009. He notably worked 6 years as a photo editor for Downdays magazine and 3 years as a content creator at Like That, an event-creating agency based in Annecy and active in the French mountains. At the same time, 10 years of independent work are emerging for many clients such as tourist offices, ski resorts, outdoor brands, film productions, etc.

The COVID-19 pandemic, like global warming, has forced us all to change our old habits and to take a new look at our immediate surroundings. In today’s world, looking for adventure in your own backyard makes so much sense. In June 2020, I proposed a movie project based on a local expedition. 10 days in the mountains featuring riders and production crew with the goal to explore an outstanding area and make the best of it.

Alone at my office, I’m preparing everything to make our daily first crew job easier : packing the backpacks. For the filmers and me, packing one week of needs and the camera gear is a real challenge and it’s taking around 4 hours and some hard choices to nail it. For the food, we use the dust bag of f-stop in which the pack is delivered and attach through the straps. For the clothes, we roll everything in our biggest jacket and strap it on the the bag. Using straps and gatekeeper to create an original piece of art weighing around 30 kilos and trying to carry it at the office is already hilarious and scary… 

on the photo below - Pierre with his 70 L Sukha

The departure day started with 500 meters on the flat to join the train by such a desperate conclusion : "our bags are way too heavy" - and a good point : "We should be strong enough to carry them two days." This departure day is also the first day of shooting with the question of : «  how to be able to use the camera while carrying the backpack Pierre and Jake decided to have another small pocket in front of them and I choose the shoulder attach. Still every occasion to put the backpack down is restful as painful such the bag is pleasant ton see on ground and hard to put back on the back. 

3 hours of train and stuck down couloirs later we join the rest of the crew and head up to the mountain by car. Ready to put the skis on. At the end of the day, resting at the shelter we are so glad to made it, to hike 600m high and around 7km length with our houses on shoulders helping and supporting each other and creating a real groupe by the difficulties. 

The next morning we leave the shelter two dry food meals and 3 energetic bars lighter ( which sadly makes no difference…) and head up to our final basecamp spot. 
The difference to the first hiking day ? A 45° steep icy face to ski down and quite a contest of who’s the best sliding snail, ( I think I lost ), and the incredible feeling of letting the backpack on the ground and taking stuffs out that we will not have to carry in the future. 

I’m waking up for the first time in the place I dreamed about and the view is gorgeous, the memories from our first outstanding sunset is still very strong in my head. I can’t believe it will be our daily life. I can’t believe 7 others people followed me in that adventure to share more than thinking and skiing, but a slice of life. 
on the photos below - Pierre with his 70 L Sukha

From now our schedule is simple : We decide every morning what we want to ride and shoot, go ahead, come back with the footage at the camp eat and laugh and go to sleep. Of course there would be way more to describe here but there is a movie about it. Check it out below.

On the producing team side, the pleasure to get back our normal weight camera bag ( around 10 kilos ) is a real pleasure and I think we didn’t even feel it the first morning leaving the camp. Without 10 kilos of food, the laptop for one, the battery tank for another, our workflow came back fast. 

The last day, after taking the time to enjoy the landscape and catch the last piece of memories around the camp we clean the place as if only tracks on snow could tell we were here and say hello back to our  « just less » heavy friends for the trip back. 4 hours later, drinking beers together, I’m thankful as sad to see this adventure ends.   

on the photos below - Jake with his 70 L Sukha

In every adventure and in this one in particular, the backpack is one of the key point and definitely your best friend. Without sherpas, we had to think from the beginning the opposite way with the question : « What can we carry? » and not « What do we need?» and if it took 4 hours to pack, it took days to decide what to take and organise this adventure. It was way more than just a heavy back pack story of course but this part was definitely the only hard one we had to deal with so let’s get bad ass and keep the focus on that point… 

THE F-STOP AND CAMERA GEAR USED: