Search Results for "french alpinism"

In 1951, the 3rd French expedition to the Himalayas set out to conquer Nanda Devi (7,800 m). The attempt to cross the ridge between the main peak and Nanda Devi East resulted in the death of two members of the expedition. Expedition leader Roger Duplat and Gilbert Vignes disappear on the ridge somewhere below the main peak. Tenzing Norgay is part of a support team on this expedition; he and Louis Dubost climb Nanda Devi Est in search of the two missing people. A few years later, Tenzing discovered that Nanda Devi was the most difficult climb he had ever made.

Three years after the 1959 expedition, abandoned 350m from the summit, Lionel Terray leads a new assault on Jannu, one of the most demanding peaks in the Himalayas. At the base camp, equipment and food rations are prepared. The conditions are optimal and the ascent can begin. The camera follows the progress of the mountaineers and Sherpas as closely as possible, from one high-altitude camp to another: installing fixed ropes, progressing over crevasses, in the middle of frozen towers, vertically down immense ice falls or along the edge of sharp ridges. From 7000m, oxygen bottles become essential, as the difficulty of the climb prevents acclimatization. The expedition is a total success: the majority of its members reach the 7710m summit.

The story of the ascent of the Aiguille de la République by mountaineers Jacques Fromentin and Michel Bastien. The Aiguille de la République, in the Mont-Blanc massif, culminates at an altitude of 3,305 meters among the Aiguilles de Chamonix group of summits. In the Fontainebleau forest, children learn mountaineering techniques on the bouldering climbing site. In 1954, rock climbing was also practiced in the Chamonix valley. The Montenvers train crosses the viaduct taking tourists or athletes to the Mer de Glace viewpoint. The two climbers take an approach step and reach the Envers des Aiguilles refuge. They then climb this steep and smooth wall, progressing along the ridge. On the platform, a rope throw allows them to climb up and sit at the top to dominate the panorama. Then the return: abseiling from the summit block.

In 1983, three climbers became the first French people to reach the summit of Everest. Among them were expedition leader Pierre Mazeaud and a promising 25-year-old climber, Jean Afanassieff. Twenty years later, the two legends, accompanied by mountain guide Michel Pellé, retrace the steps of their exploit and make the trek from Kathmandu to the foot of the roof of the world. This is an opportunity to retrace the history of the successive assaults on Everest and to assess the current situation of a mountain that has become a victim of its own success: while Sherpas have been able to take advantage of Western enthusiasm and thus enrich themselves and equip the summit to make it more accessible, the site's attendance poses numerous problems, both human and ecological.

Pierre Mazeau has managed to unite three of his passions which seem to have nothing in common, at a very high level: mountaineering, jurisprudence and policy. The Everest mountaineer, rescued from the Freney Pillar, the passionate jurist, the former sports minister, privy counsellor, and president of the French Constitutional Court is a charismatic personality. This sensitive film portrait follows a line, which Pierre Mazeaud himself has quoted: “Alpinism belongs to those who provide themselves with means to reach their goals, to those who are fully committed to a goal, to those, who know the value of solidarity of men, and to those who are aware that true human existence can only be fulfilled by proceeding with a team of roped-partners.”

The two brothers Jean and Pierre Ravier have opened almost all the "classic" (difficult) routes in climbing and mountaineering in the Pyrenees. Roped together at the waist using a few flat knots and little equipment, the two twin brothers achieved more than 200 firsts across the entire massif. A unique style and commitment, a state of mind made up of adventure, literature, inventiveness and friendship. Unclassifiable and outgoing, after 60 years of Pyrenees, their desire for the mountains is intact. When does a race start? How does the idea, the desire, come about? What sense does it make to only achieve firsts? And what is the role of the Pyrenees themselves in this reciprocal and endless game of attraction?

For the documentary series Les Ascensions Célèbres, Denis Ducroz has created this historical reconstruction of the first ascent of the Meije, exploring etymology, physical geography, and the history of the emergence of mountaineering in the Oisans massif. The first ascent of the Grand Pic was made on August 16, 1877, by Emmanuel Boileau de Castelnau with Pierre Gaspard and son; the rope party moved along the Promontoire ridge on the south face to the Glacier Carré, where Jean-Baptiste Rodier, the second porter, separated from the three climbers who managed to overcome ice and granite to open the famous "normal route" to the summit.

The French High Mountain Military Group (G.M.H.M.) expedition to Everest in 1981, led by General Pierre Astorg, took place on the north face of the mountain. Fifteen military climbers participated in this expedition, which lasted approximately ninety days. Their goal was to reach the summit by following a siege approach, but despite their efforts, the expedition failed to reach the summit. The French military, engaged since the beginning of March on the north face of Everest (8,848 meters), gave up less than 300 meters from the summit. The climbers, Jean-Claude Mosca, Hervé Sachetat, and Hubert Giot, gave up on setting up Camp 7, the last planned intermediate camp, at 8,600 meters. Poor weather conditions and the physical condition of the expedition members were the reasons for the failure of this meticulously prepared expedition...

The word Pyreneism was invented by the writer Henri Beraldi at the end of the 19th century. Its definition did not come down to a simple practice of mountaineering in the Pyrenees. To be recognized as a Pyrenean, it was necessary to “ascend, write and feel”. An approach to the mountains, according to him, necessarily accompanied by an artistic or intellectual activity. This documentary looks back at the Pyrenees who have left their mark on history, before interviewing contemporary mountain dwellers who, through their mountain practice, consider themselves, or not, Pyreneanists. What prompted Beraldi to coin this term? Does it result from a Pyrenean complex facing the Alps? Chauvinism or a demand for identity? And today, does this word still have meaning? Beyond the reflection on the subject, this film is a wonderful tribute to the massif.

A film about the 1979 expedition to Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, led by Lyon native Jean-Pierre Frésafond. After a city tour, they set off by bus and then on foot with Sherpas to base camp. Having set out to attempt the Rupal Pillar, the expedition was unable to reach its objective in time (torrential rain, blocked roads, scree, etc.) and lost precious time before choosing to attempt the Mazeno Ridge by default. The team theoretically had the means to do so, since it brought together no fewer than 21 strong climbers, with a large core from Lyon—a concentration of talent rarely seen. But the resulting group dynamic worked contrary to expectations, and they had to settle for the most modest of consolation prizes: the ascent of the First Peak (6,880 meters). Frésafond recounted this in a book-testimony "The Revenge of the Himalayas - The Human Adventure at Nanga-Parbat".

No description available for this movie.

In 1975, Raymond Renaud, Yves Pollet-Villard, Maurice Gicquel, Maurice Cretton, Jean Coudray, Yvon Masino, Walter Cecchinel, all teacher guides at ENSA in Chamonix, with the help of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, set out to cross the 2 peaks of the highest mountain in India. After 43 hours in a truck, 10 days of slow and difficult approach walking, helped by goats for the portage due to lack of sherpas, the base camp is set up on the Nanda Devi glacier. Two groups share the two eastern and western slopes, 3 kilometers separate them: the goal being to meet between the two summits by the ridge. But on the big day, with the monsoon, bad weather arrives with wind and snow, we will have to give up. Like the French expedition of 1951 which lost two mountaineers, Roger Duplat and Gilbert Vigne, to whom Paul Gendre and Louis Dubosc pay tribute.

In 1979, aboard the Basile, a Damien II type ship (Joubert design), French sailors and mountaineers sailed in the footsteps of the explorer Ernest Shackleton, considered one of the main figures of the heroic age of exploration in Antarctica, towards South Georgia, where they climbed Mount Paget, which is part of the Allardyce range and peaks at an altitude of 2,935 metres.

At 5959m, Mount Logan is the second highest peak in North America, and certainly one of the wildest mountains in the world. To reach it, Hélias Millerioux, Alex Marchesseau, Thomas Delfino and Gregory Douillard did not choose the easiest option. The approach is done on foot and on skis, in total autonomy, with 80kg per person to carry over hundreds of kilometers of moraines and tormented glaciers! We head for the East ridge, where the 4000 meters of vertical drop have never been skied before, then return to the ocean by raft... A total adventure, with friends, in a hostile but grandiose nature… Just magical!

Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps, rises to 4,810 m and was first climbed on August 8, 1786. Chamonix natives Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard set out on the afternoon of August 7 and returned victorious on the morning of the 9th, after two nights spent outdoors. This film is a staging that reconstructs this great event with all the problems it created and resolved, thus contributing to the emergence of the modern concept of mountaineering. Denis Ducroz, guide and filmmaker, immerses us in the minds and times of these two men, 224 years later.

On April 29, 1983, three French alpinists reached the summit of Jannu, having climbed its 7,710 meters via the very steep southwest spur. The success of Luc Jourjon, Jean-Noël Roche, and Roger Fillon echoed that of the 1962 national expedition, which had been celebrated by Lionel Terray alongside the leading climbers of the time, Desmaison, Paragot, Magnone… But in 1983, the goal was no longer simply to wave a French flag on a virgin summit. The focus was already on a more "alpine" style, and there was even the idea of ​​descending from the top… by air!