The number of trails explored by Alexis Nantel is matched only by the number of projects that abound at home in connection with his great passion, hiking.
Better known by the moniker Alexis the Hiker, this perpetual subscriber to the great outdoors shares his love of the great outdoors via numerous platforms.
Already, his podcast Vertices and Collars attracts many nature lovers via its site alexislerandonneur.com. His show Alexis the Hiker will be in its third season, on TVA Sports, starting July 3.
And now, in the company of Véronique Champagne, he is preparing to launch a book entitled Hiking guide, everything to make it work!, available Wednesday. Who said this hobby was easy?
“The book is one of my outcomes from hiking. It’s a way of establishing my credibility in the field. I wanted a guide that could serve as a model for Quebec, a kind of “hiking 101 for dummies”. »
“It’s a way of talking about the history of hiking, gear, clothing, outings with a dog or kids, but all from my personal points of view,” he explained.
Lifestyle change
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The passion for hiking is transmitted each month via the Sommets et Collets podcast.
Before deliberately getting lost in the forest, it was in a completely different professional life that Alexis the hiker got lost. An entrepreneur in the field of advertising, he ended up being eaten up by stress to the point of clinging to what served him as a natural calming agent.
“I worked a lot in order to create the largest possible heritage and I lived badly with that,” he says.
“In my crazy routine as an entrepreneur, I wanted the mountains, the forest. It was the only thing that calmed me down completely. I realized that it would be beneficial for me to build something around my passion. »
Saving crossing
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Alexis Nantel’s book will be available this week.
In 2016, at age 40, Alexis Nantel offered himself a sailboat crossing to Saint-Martin. The expedition allowed him to reflect on the idea of parting with his clientele to create his new working environment in hiking.
“I felt that this niche needed to be developed. I made myself known on the radio and on social media starting from very little to build myself. I started thinking about TV and other branches to create my ecosystem aroundAlexis the hiker “, he explains.
The first season of his show was presented in 2019 on TVA Sports, and the second, two years later.
“The pandemic has led many people to take up hiking. People have discovered a great outlet,” he notes.
Even in beer
Despite all the projects piling up, Alexis Nantel continues to make an appointment every first day of the month with the listeners of Vertices and Collarswhere he shares his passion for hiking, but also microbrewery beers.
Moreover, in collaboration with the Farnham microbrewery, he will now have his own NANO IPA, l’Après-Rando, in the fridges in June.
“Everything I do on my site or in all my projects is with the aim of making it an environment designed and thought out for hikers. It fills me because even though I’m still in business, I never feel the stress of before. I always look forward to getting up to pass on my passion, in close proximity to people,” he savors.