A Journey in the Wild American West

Deceased but not forgotten. In 2017, Switzerland's most famous mountaineer, "Swiss Machine" Ueli Steck, fell to his death in the Himalayas when he was just 40 years old. Three close friends travel again to the Everest region where he died. His family in Emmental has to deal with premature death.

For twenty years, the Beghin-Lafaille route on the South Face of Annapurna was considered one of the most difficult and dangerous in the Himalayas. In the autumn of 2013, it was climbed first by Ueli Steck solo, and then by the team of Yannick Graziani and Stéphane Benoist. It is an extraordinary route that profoundly changed the lives of those who tackled it. The film recounts the remarkable convergence of destinies surrounding this climb and explores how such an ascent can transform a life. Drawing inspiration from the experiences of astronauts returning from the moon—who suffered from "absolute achievement" syndrome—the filmmakers sought to understand how the deep-seated drives that compel mountaineers to prepare for and commit to such climbs can shatter at the very moment a lifelong goal appears to have been reached.

Writer Sylvain Tesson accompanies the French High Moutain Military Group in their Patagonia expedition. United by the same love of moutaineering, they want to pay tribute to the Aéropostale’s heroes – Mermoz, Saint-Exupéry and Guillaumet – climbing the Fitz Roy range’s and jumping from one of its summits.

The mountains are a barometer of the state of the world because global warming is three times more visible there than elsewhere. After a year marked by the confinements of March and November and the closure of ski resorts, the high peaks have regained their appearance of the first days. It is in this fragile setting of beauty that a young committed rope party sets out to cross the heart of the Alps on ski touring, to decipher for themselves the visible and invisible signs that threaten them, and to question a situation that goes beyond mountaineering

French author Sylvain Tesson pays tribute to the heroes of the Russian Revolution as he crosses the Pamir mountain range in Tajikistan, which boasts a multitude of peaks at more than 7,000m. They will have the occasion to look back on some of the major figures and events of the Revolution. Lenin Peak, Revolution Peak, Karl Marx Peak, and also the October Glacier and the Soviet Officer range – all names which evoke the Revolution in these remarkable yet little-known locations. He is accompanied by two friends, author and lover of all things Russian, Cédric Gras, and the former Soviet mountaineering instructor, Nicolay Taran. Along the way, the author and his traveling companions observe the traces left by the former USSR on daily life here, and they listen to the memories of the populations who live in the Pamirs, whether Kyrgyz nomads on the high plateaus or Ismailis in the valleys. For Sylvain Tesson, the journey will serve as a source of inspiration for his future writing.