Denis Steinberg

People experience adventures on mountains all around the world. Personalities, fascinated by the world of the mountains, bring us closer to the freedom many people experience in such breezy hights.

The World of Gaston Rébuffat is a documentary on mountaineering which takes place at Gendarme Du Pic Du Roc and Grande Candelle. Directed by Gilles Chappaz in 2009 and produced by Seven Doc, we find Christophe Profit, Françoise Rébuffat, Thierry Renault, Jean-Olivier Majastre, René Vernadet, Sam Beaugey and many others. Friendship of his rope companions, friendship of the mountain, friendship of all of nature, he spoke of the mountain with simplicity and happiness. A precursor, a visionary, Gaston Rébuffat was a resolutely committed person, without ever having spoken of an exploit, let alone a fight (among other achievements, he was the first to climb the six north faces of the Alps in a lifetime as a mountaineer).

André Payraud, born in 1948 in Passy, ​​Haute-Savoie, nicknamed "the swimmer of the impossible," is a major figure in French whitewater swimming, known by the nickname "Dédé the Carpet." He is renowned for his daring descents of large mountain rivers and for having helped popularize the sport from the 1980s onward. His achievements include swimming down the Mont Blanc torrent in 1980, the first in a long series of filmed feats: swimming Everest in 1982; the Ganges in 1985; the Colorado; Annapurna; the Jordan River—no river can stop Dédé in his quest for adventure. For his whitewater exploits, André Payraud was made a Knight of the National Order of Merit and received the Silver Medal for Youth and Sports. Alongside his exploits around the world, Dédé set up the first rafting company in Haute-Savoie in 1982, in Domancy, Session Raft, Aventures Payraud mont-Blanc..