The Ecrins - Lionel Daudet's base camp
© R. Faure – OT Pays des Ecrins
"All I need to do is lift up my eyes to feel happy here", says Lionel Daudet, twice awarded the "Golden Ice Axe".
"Humanity is totally reliant on water. Here in the Ecrins, thanks to our two glaciers, there is water everywhere. They reach a height of 4,000 metres, meaning we can trek over snow and ice all summer long", says Lionel Daudet, aged 40 and one of the greatest French Alpine mountaineers.
Originally from the vicinity of Tours, a sworn fan of nature and of the mountains, he has conquered mountain tops in five continents. He elected to settle in the Ecrins, in L'Argentière-la-Bessée, with his partner Veronica. "It's a region which is experiencing a revival, where the quality of light is just as important as the warmth and strength of the social ties between the original inhabitants and the newly arrived."
"I just have to go outside my front door to wander a new route. It's possible to roam from peak to peak for days on end without coming across any sign of human activity. The mountain has preserved its original untamed character. This makes me feel that my choice of vocation as a mountaineer was the right one."
But for Lionel Daudet, what counts most is what he calls the "skyline", an unrivalled line-up of summits over 3,000 metres high. "All I need to do is lift up my eyes to feel happy here."
He is intimately acquainted with the skyline in question. He toured the mountain ridges of the Hautes Alpes in Spring 2007 in the company of two other guides, Fréderic Jullien et Guillaume Christian. Which is to say a total of 700 kilometres from the Lauteret pass, through the Italian border and the Queyras, the Serre-Ponçon lake and Le Buech, to his beloved peaks in the Ecrins (Barre des Ecrins, la Meije ...).
Contact us
Bureau des guides des Ecrins
05290 Vallouise
(0033) (0)4 92 23 32 29
Website
See the access map
Chalet-étape du col de la Pousterle
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Gîte de Tournoux
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Objective 4000
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Six important moments in Lionel Daudet's life
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The Pays des Ecrins Tourist Office
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Topic : Landscapes and nature
Published on : 2008/12/23
Tags : mountain lionel daudet alpine mountaineering
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