Lionel Daudet
Acting
Biography
Lionel Daudet, known as "Dod," born on February 4, 1968, in Saumur, is a French mountaineer, adventurer, and writer. Known for his solo ascents and his purist ethic (he often climbed faces independently, completely cut off from the world), he has undertaken expeditions to mountains in polar climates. Living in L'Argentière-la-Bessée in the Hautes-Alpes, he is also a writer and a high-mountain guide. Born to schoolteacher parents, he quickly developed a passion for climbing and mountaineering, which he first discovered through adventure books. Family hikes allowed him to experience the peaks that fascinated him. It was through the French Alpine Club that he pursued his passion at the age of 13, climbing notably with his younger brother, Damien. Around this time, a lecture by René Desmaison in Saumur had a lasting impact on him. After completing his physics degree, he decided to pursue mountaineering full-time. At 23, he was selected for the FFME's (French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing) high-level Young Mountaineers team and the CAF-GHM (French Alpine Club - High Mountain Group) high-level team. He received the collective Piolet d'Or in 1993 for the Pamir-Alai expedition and was nominated for the FFME Crystal Award. In 1994, after numerous ascents, he embarked on a year-long world tour of remote peaks and faces. In 1996, he repeated this feat with an 18-month "Vertical Odyssey," which took him from the walls of Greenland to the United States and Mexico. Since then, his list of distant summits, new routes, and attempts has grown. He received another Piolet d'Or in 2000 and the FFME Crystal Award for the Alaska 99 expedition to the Burkett Needle. In 2002, he received the FFME Crystal Award for Eldorado. Also in 2002, he attempted a solo winter trilogy of the great Alpine north faces (Grandes Jorasses, Matterhorn, Eiger) via direct routes. Severely frostbitten, he had eight toes amputated. He returned in 2004 for a closer adventure, "The Skyline," a tour of the Écrins massif from above. Attempting the direct route trilogy again in 2005, he turned back after a few days. Not wanting to "do one solo too many," he definitively gave up on extreme solo climbing. In 2007, he completed a tour of the Hautes-Alpes, a warm-up for his "Tour de la France, Exactement" (Tour of France, Exactly), a project to closely follow the land and coastal borders of mainland France for fifteen months, during which he combined numerous non-motorized activities and made countless encounters. He also developed a passion for the Southern Ocean, which he explored on several occasions: the Kerguelen Islands approached aboard the Marion-Dufresne, South Georgia, and Antarctica by sailboat, skippered by the navigator Isabelle Autissier. In 2013, he received the André de Saint-Sauveur Prize awarded by the French Academy of Sports. Since 2018, sea-to-mountain expeditions, particularly in Greenland, have held a special place in his heart. He is deeply concerned about the climate upheavals that are severely impacting high-altitude mountaineering, having served as an international guarantor for Mountain Wilderness. He also opposed the installation of high-voltage power lines in the Haute-Durance region. The climbing gym located in Pollionnay in the Monts du Lyonnais bears his name.
Known For
Salut les Terriens! is a French talk show hosted by Thierry Ardisson, launched on Canal+ on November 4, 2006, and then moved to C8 on September 10, 2016. The show subsequently changed its name and format in 2018 to become Les Terriens du Samedi! (The Earthlings of Saturday!). Initially conceived as a humorous take on current events with several guests and various games and segments, it later evolved into a more structured format with panel discussions and regular segments. In 2018, Thierry Ardisson sought to revamp the concept, believing the previous version had run its course, hence the transition to Les Terriens du samedi! with a new set and new segments, and a 360-degree turn in the ideology of the guests.
Salut les Terriens !
Lionel Daudet and Isabelle Autissier are renewing their collaboration for a combined sailing and mountaineering expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula. The crew consists of three sailors and three mountaineers, whose skills complement each other perfectly. Departing from Ushuaia, their goal is to reach summits that have rarely, if ever, been climbed. Isabelle's boat, "Ada Dos," will serve as their mobile base camp. Ice, wind, and fog are just some of the obstacles that make both sea and land routes difficult, making access to the continent complex and unpredictable. The ascents are technical and require meticulous planning. Their only regret will be not being able to climb Pierre Premier, as the risks involved are simply too great.
No Man's Land
After South Georgia in 2008 and Antarctica in 2010, Isabelle Autissier, Lionel Daudet, and their crew set off on a new adventure to Greenland. This non-motorized sporting, environmental, and scientific expedition began on June 10th and concluded in mid-September 2016. Aboard a sailboat with an aluminum hull capable of navigating Arctic ice, the crew sailed to southwest Greenland. Lionel Daudet, Enzo Odo, and Siebe Vanhee embarked on a journey to explore this land of discovery, aiming to open new and breathtaking routes on big walls. An adventure between sea and mountains, crew and climbing team.
Big Walls Big Seas
"Chroniques d'en Haut," the mountain magazine, has been exploring the trails, mountains, and valleys of the massifs since 1998, meeting passionate people who live there, protect them, or traverse them... The magazine offers a glimpse into unexpected, and sometimes even urban, worlds...
Chroniques d'En Haut
On August 10, 2011, Lionel Daudet set off on the Dodtour, a circumnavigation of France without motorized transport, following the land border and coastline as closely as possible, from the Alps to the Rhine, from the English Channel to the Atlantic, from the Pyrenees to the French Riviera. On November 15, 2012, he returned to his starting point, the summit of Mont Blanc, after traversing the country on foot, by bicycle, through fields and along beaches, by kayak, and by sailboat, sometimes alone amidst breathtaking landscapes, sometimes accompanied on the outskirts of towns. 3,000 kilometers of mountain ridges, forests, and rivers, and 3,500 kilometers of coastline. A 15-month (465-day) journey to take on a physical challenge, explore, and tell the story of what makes France what it is.
Le Tour de la France, exactement
A documentary about climbing in mythical climbing locations with bouldering in grace (Tinos), in South Africa (Rockland), in Italy (Chiomonte) and in Annot (France), on routes in Fournel and Tournoux, all in a friendly atmosphere with a cast of international climbers including Tony Lamiche, Gérôme Pouvreau, François Lombard, Yann Ghesquier, Ben Semiond, Mat Semiond, Vincent Albrand, Wills Young, Isabelle Carrier, Jérémie Pancol, Lionel Daudet & Véro Daudet.