“Creativity and art are key for the problems we’re going to face.”
An interview with Gavin Fernie-Jones, skier, and founder of Re-Action collective, who lives in the French Alps
“Creativity and art are so key for the problems we’re going to face, and I don’t think people realise that. They think the solutions are based in science but creativity and community and coming together around ideas is so powerful, despite those being the parts that are generally dismissed now in education.”
I’ve been wanting to chat to Gavin, who is based in Bozel near the 3 Vallées ski area, for a while. Past interviewees Cecile at Montagne Vert and Valerie at Resilence Montagne recommended I speak to him, and he also did a great interview with , which I will link to below.
In this enjoyably wide-ranging conversation, we talk about how money and snow scarcity is changing the Alps, the work of Re-Action Collective, the power of community spaces, and how AI might encourage us to reconnect in person. I left our conversation feeling more hopeful than I have in a while and I hope you enjoy this chat.
Hey Gavin, how is this winter going?
Right now [we spoke last week before it snowed], it’s very warm and there are all sorts of things popping up in the garden that would normally come up in six-eight weeks’ time, like daffodils and the leaves on the gooseberry bush.
It hasn’t snowed for a good while and the last few times it snowed high it rained where we are, which is about 900m. It often only dumps at the very top now.
Rain up a mountain can be quite depressing…
It’s not the best thing to ski on or when you want to sit down on a chairlift.
You wrote an interesting blog post on the problem with fake snow, and in it you talk about how you don’t think the wealthy will put up with skiing in the rain.
As low resorts close due to a lack of snow, places that are high up will become even more exclusive and expensive. Especially as seasons get shorter because resorts will have to make more revenue the rest of the time, so they’ll put prices up.
There is a bit of that going on already but then also if you spend 10k as a family on a ski trip for half term week, and the snow conditions aren’t great, it only has to happen a couple of times before you think am I going to spend that next year?
Things have become crazy expensive…
I did my first seasons in Courchevel with a whole group of mates. A few of us have got businesses and stuff out here, but quite a few of them have returned to the UK and they just don’t come skiing anymore, they can’t afford it.
Has the scarcity of snow made it more attractive to the super wealthy do you think?
Courchevel is very showy, you have Prada and Moncler – a lot of people just come here for the shopping – it’s like the capitalist system at its zenith.
During the school holidays, the helicopter transfers haven’t stopped. You can hear them going back and forth because people don’t want to do the transfers on the road, and they can afford to use a helicopter.
Has witnessing this extreme wealth and the effects of the climate crisis changed how you interact with the mountain?
I still love skiing. It’s just a joy isn’t it? Bombing down the mountain, but most of my community can’t afford to live on the hill anymore, we live lower down in Bozel, which has a lovely, community feel to it.
There has been talk of a lift going in at Bozel which would connect the village to the 3 Vallées but I hope that doesn’t happen as I think that would push rental prices up and push our community out again.
There are some interesting discussions around how public money should be spent, as you mention in your blog, and whether that should go on things like snowmaking. Are people sticking their fingers in their ears about it?
You have to think of the people who live here. They have careers, mortgages, and investments tied into the ski industry. All of us are stuck in a system that demands we grow and it’s not going to be easy to get out of that. Say if the ski industry did disappear here in 10 years’ time, nothing equivalent is going to replace it. I think it's important that we're empathetic to all the people that live and work in this industry.
Maybe summer tourism from people escaping the heat in the valleys?
There will definitely be tourism here but it’s not going to bring the same level of money in. People come here and spend £500 a day on an instructor and think of how many people ski on a piste.
The conversation around climate change was always a difficult one to bring up here but it’s not anymore, people are saying: “Jesus, this isn’t looking great, is it? It’s not going to be great for my career.” But those thoughts aren’t always turned into action yet, perhaps as people feel powerless.
Let’s talk about Re-Action, how did it all come about?
It evolved out of running a community hub called One Tree at a Time, which is this mega cool space that isn’t just centred on the transaction of money for products, instead there is sharing of skills and materials. It's quite unusual and unique and people just hang out in there and chat.
A lot of it centres on the repair stuff, but next weekend we’ve got a film night going on. Also 10 artists have created some graphic patches, which will be screen printed onto waste fabric, and lots of people have been coming in to help with that.
It's about asking: how can you get a group of people together sat around a table working on stuff? Because that’s when you chat and talk about the sorts of things we’re talking about now. It’s easier to do that in person than it is on social media.
AI is going to make it very difficult for us to understand truth on the internet, and what is reality? And I think there will be a big pushback and yearning to be face to face with people.
Alex, a guy I know, runs 99p films in Cornwall which is this social cinema club, where you pay 99p to watch a set of thought-provoking films, and afterwards you discuss them and have a vegan meal that’s cooked using local produce and supporting local farms. I can see it really developing.
Getting back to Re-Action. The community space in Bozel works and I got together with my good friend Heather to think about how we could scale our impact. We settled on the idea of building Re-Action, a collective of organisations that are working in the outdoor industry to make outdoor sports more accessible while building community action.
What has been really exciting from the start is that Re-Action isn’t a fixed idea. There is no clear agenda or decisions made now for what we will be like in a year’s time. It’s a collective of organisations each with the same say, and there are no obligations to do anything apart from listen.
On the repair stuff, can anyone be taught to sew?
Our big advantage is that everything which is handed to us is waste [brands will often hand over a load of old jackets, and the collective will cover the logos with patches and then resell them] , so there is more freedom to learn. We have six people now patching over the logos, and we’re really not prescriptive on what that patch should look like.
Stu, who is a mate of mine, has never sewed much before, his patches are wild, and he does whatever he likes, and his stuff does really well.
Creativity and art are so key for the problems we’re going to face, and I don’t think people realise that. They think the solutions are based in science but creativity and community and coming together around ideas is so powerful, despite those being the parts that are generally dismissed now in education.
How has being part of this community helped you?
Two years ago, I was feeding my 16 month-old son and out the window I could see a forest fire that had been going for two and a half weeks. It’s a really difficult thing to witness, especially for someone so connected to nature, but I’m part of a collective and we have some really cool stuff going on so I can see past that and get out of that state of anxiety. When you’re in a collective you have some resilience, that’s why Valerie Paumier’s collective is such a good name.
One of the key books in all this is Citizens by Jon Alexander. He used to work in advertising but then started questioning what he was doing and whether it was good for us to see so many ads [the average person sees 6,000 to 10,000 ads every day] and to see ourselves primarily as consumers.
Whereas the citizen story is more about people coming together in their communities and creating agency and being involved in all sorts of things, be that local politics or what we’re doing here. There is so much community-led action going on, and this need to feel like you’re involved in something much bigger, and that can probably scale incredibly fast.
How many organisations is Re-Action connected to?
40 now including quite a few in the UK. We want to get enough funding to create ways to share knowledge so other people can start to build their own spaces and collective action, whether that’s a film night, or repair day or clothes swap, or something focused on food or regenerative agriculture. These things are popping up everywhere, but people don’t always know about them.
Is a love of nature and the outdoors part of what gels it all together?
Generally, yes. We’re running this campaign called Citizen Friday, which is like an ongoing anti-Black Friday campaign, and the idea is to repair, share and get some fresh air. The act of getting out in the fresh air is the antithesis of shopping, it releases a lot of feel good chemicals and helps with resiliency.
Have you consciously tried to keep brands, even ethical ones, out of what you’re doing?
Yes. Our job is to disrupt, and we can best do that by being free and going where we need to go.
Find out more about the work of Re-Action here & listen to Gavin’s interview with
here.Other news:
Following on from the last newsletter about the bulldozers destroying the village of Imsouane, I’m grateful to former interviewee Chris Hines MBE for getting in touch to let me know about his friend Hafid Id Abbou whose house, which his father had built 80 years ago, was demolished. It was his sole income, and he is now crowdfunding to hopefully build a new guesthouse in an alternative spot. You can support him here.
This RIP snow piece was a good read on how the American Midwest, a place with deep winter traditions, is being affected by global heating.
Loved “Hireth”, a new Finisterre short film set in the Outer Hebrides, starring Mike Lay and Colin MacLeod, and directed by Seth Hughes. I watched it with some pals at the Brighton Finisterre store & you can find out more about those kind of events here.
Former interviewee, and defender of marine life versus toxic industrial dredging, Sally Bunce is raising funds to stand as the Green Party candidate for mayor in the Tees Valley. You can support her here.
Not really related to Climate or Boardsports but I like
’s newsletter on creativity & especially last week’s advice: Go outside. (To quote Eden Phillpotts: ”The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”)As ever, please fwd this newsletter to anyone who you think might be interested & if you have any story tips on any of these themes pls get in touch.