Christophe Delachat
Crew
Biography
Christophe Delachat, born in 1963, is a French mountain guide, writer, extreme cameraman, reporter, and documentary filmmaker. He climbed the highest peaks in the world before turning to reporting and documentaries. His career as a mountain guide led him to discover other mountain populations around the world. He became an extreme cameraman for the France 3 program "Montagne" (Mountain). This collaboration lasted ten years: Ushuaïa and Okavango, Zone interdite with Toni Comiti (France Televisions), the Albertville and Athens Olympic Games, and all international television channels to film reports on Mont Blanc, which Christophe Delachat has climbed more than 250 times. He rounded Cape Horn aboard the sailboat Balthazar, then explored Tierra del Fuego as a trapper and made several treks up to 6,000 meters in the Andes, in the Ruwenzori Mountains in Africa, Greenland, Everest, and Annapurna without reaching the summit. "The mountains taught me everything; they are still my school of life because I left the other world at 16 out of a thirst for adventure. I am a true autodidact, with all the pitfalls that entails, until the day I was able to prove to the system that this school also works. That's why I created the character of Louis Galion, who will cross seven continents to advocate for oppressed populations whose natural environment is threatened." Christophe Delachat, in the same spirit, created the Heirs of Mont Blanc association to preserve the cultural identity of mountain populations. He has directed three films, the first of which, "Les Héritiers du Mont Blanc," traces the lives of the guides of the Saint Gervais company from 1760 to the present day. The second, "Les Caravanes de l'Ombre," shows the work of the volunteers of the Mont Blanc mountain rescue society, and finally, the third installment of the Mont Blanc trilogy, "In the Footsteps of Charles Hudson," traces the route of the Royal Route to Mont Blanc, which Charles Hudson opened in 1855. These three DVD films are available, and the Héritiers du Mont Blanc association is marketing them to reinvest in other projects. Christophe Delachat is preparing the next adventures of Louis Galion in Peru. A blue-eyed adventurer with a tender heart, Christophe Delachat invites us to share his stories, his adventures, and his images, and reflects on the profound meaning of life, the earth, nature, and what we do with them, while campaigning for oppressed mountain peoples.
Known For
La Cordée de Rêve traces the great alpine journey made from August 2000 to February 2001 by Patrick Berhault. His great crossing of the Alps, here told to his daughter, will be done sometimes alone, sometimes surrounded by friends: Patrick Gabarrou, Patrick Edlinger, Ottavio Fassini, Gaël Bouquet des Chaux, Valérie Aumage, Philippe Magnin. During this alpine trip he will find his brother-in-arms Patrick Edlinger for the dolimitic part and will also see the genesis of the "Cordée Magique Berhault/Magnin". For 167 days, in sneakers in the fall, on touring skis in the winter, Patrick Berhault chained 2 to 3 stages of an average hiker daily, swallowing 1,500 to 2,000 meters of vertical drop and up to 45 kilometers per day. , and climbed 22 peaks. It's called that: "La Grande Cordée" but behind this title lies an exceptional human and sporting performance.
La Cordée de Rêve
The American mountaineer Gary Hemming marked the era of the 1960s. The story of this "exceptional" character is intimately linked to that of the rescue of the two German mountaineers on the west face of the Drus, in 1966, a rescue which he had took the initiative. While the official emergency services of the EHM try to reach them from above, a pirate rope made up of Gary Hemming, René Desmaison, Lothar Mauch, Gil Bodin, Mike Brurke, François Guillot, the filmmaker Gérard Bauer organizes to join them from below and succeeded after a fierce struggle the rescue. The press seizes the event and elevates Gary Hemming to the rank of national hero. All the newspapers feature this big guy with a cool attitude, mismatched clothes, jovial smile and long blond hair on the front page. From then on, he was nicknamed: "the beatnik of the peaks".
Gary Hemming, le beatnik des cimes
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.
Everest At Any Cost
Fifteen years have passed since the spectacular images of Jean-Paul Janssen's "Life at Your Fingertips" introduced the general public to free climbing and its embodiment: Patrick Edlinger. We witnessed the birth of a sporting phenomenon that would leave a lasting mark on generations of climbers. But fifteen years later, in 1997, beyond the myth, where is Patrick Edlinger? Gilles Chappaz found him on some of the most beautiful walls of the Verdon Gorge and other cliffs during the filming of Maurice Rebeix's documentary "Roc'n Wall 97," where he shares his climbing practice and philosophy with the younger generation, including Liv Sansoz and Arnaud Petit.