Henri Sigayret

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!

A shepherd in his childhood, Sunar tended his flock, barefoot, in the pastures of Laprak, a small village at an altitude of 2000 meters in the Himalayas, in the Manaslu region. At twenty years old, he decided to become a porter for trekking agencies and met a couple of French trekkers who became attached to him and brought him to France to help him. Sunar then dreams of becoming a mountain guide. Thanks to his determination and perseverance, supported for years by a chain of solidarity set up to allow him to realize his dream, Sunar won the prestigious high mountain guide medal from ENSA in 2008. He did not stop there, and benefited his country by creating, with his friends, a guide school in Nepal like that of Chamonix. Today, the skills of the Nepalese resulting from this training are recognized internationally. A first!