Mountaineer

The demands of the practice, combined with the beauty of the environment and the sharing within the rope team, reveal character and forge serenity.

The demands of the practice call for sharp, reliable knowledge, of oneself, of one's gear and of the terrain. Neglecting any one of them means raising the risk for no reason. So mountain sports remain a subtle alliance of physical, technical, mental and social ability, one that still delights me every time my boots touch rock.

The beauty of the environment will always astonish me just as much. Grand landscapes sit alongside the simplest scenes. An ancient mountain range is just as magnificent as the fragile edelweiss hidden in a crevice.

The sharing within the rope team is total: you share the goals, the decisions, the moments of giving something up. You share the emotions as much as the reasoning, the hardships as much as the successes. Good rope-team partners make the outcome, both for finishing the climb and for making it memorable.

These challenges also exist in the civilized world: what happens in the mountains still applies down in the valley, in private or professional life. I apply the same values up high and down low, because the lessons I learn up there are entirely applicable down here to reaching my goals.