A trailer viewed more than three million times. 200,000 places sold. The indoor outing this Friday, September 13, of Kaizena year to climb Everest, the documentary retracing the ascent of the French videographer and Streamer Inoxtag, could almost overshadow the various mountaineering records beaten this summer on the summits of Asia.
In July, the Haut-Savoyard Vadim Druelle, a 22-year-old mountain designer, climbed into the Himalayas three peaks over 8,000 meters in one go, in record time of 18 days. Mountaineer Benjamin Védrines, his ten -year -old elder, confronted himself on July 28 at the legendary K2, the second summit in the world after Everest, culminating at 8,611 meters. He reaches the top in eleven hours, offering himself, as a bonus, a descent … in paragliding; With a beaten ascent record and an unprecedented flight performance in pockets!
If, in recent years, mountaineering has been on the rise, a trend has appeared: the “eight-mallism”, that is to say the fastest ascent of the fourteen peaks culminating at more than 8,000 meters above sea level. Ten of them are located in the Himalayan massif, four northern, in the Karakoram chain. The marketing of these expeditions has massified, becoming a product almost accessible to everyone with a minimum of training and a plump sum.
The journalist François Carrel, who deciphers this phenomenon in an exciting investigation, Himalaya Business. What did we do with 8,000?*, date the entry into the era of industrial Himalayism with the handling of this market by the Nepalese. To feed a flourishing business, the Sherpas (Nepalese guides) standardized the organization and logistics of the ascents supported by fleets of helicopter flying from morning to night. The Sherpas equip the ascent pathways with fixed strings upstream, carry the equipment of their customers as well as the artificial oxygen bottles which serve almost systematic.
The mountains become real open -air discharges
Thanks to these industrial methods, there were more than 600 mountaineers and guides in 2023 reaching Everest, over the opening period between April to the end of May, when they were only 145 in 2000. On April 6, it was the influencer inoxtag, of his real name Inès Benazzouz, a French youtuber of Algerian origin to the seven million subscribers, who announces The Everest, multi -owned and copiously prepared for a year by a experienced guide, alone illustrating the commodification of Everest.
Responding to one of his fans on his budget, he believes that“With the production, the team and the shooting I want to do … I think we are between 600,000 and 1,200,000 euros”. These influencers seek to establish artificial records. But the assessment of the methods used to satisfy mass tourism on Himalayan peaks is catastrophic. The mountains become real open -air discharges, especially near the basic camps where mountaineers do not hesitate to throw their waste, from their oxygen bottles empty to their tents. In the logistics of expeditions, the use of helicopters replaces the local bearers and breeders of Yaks, “Bans animals historically used to transport the equipment”.
For the first time in 2024, the Supreme Court of Nepal summoned the government to reduce the number of permits issued. If this recommendation was not followed this year, it testifies to taking into account the challenges of preserving these mountainous regions. François Carrel regrets that fewer and fewer virgin heights are explored in the region. But performance standards may be changing. Last May, two very high level French mountaineers, Charles Dubouloz and Symon Welfringer, opened a new track in a virgin side of the Hungchi, a summit of 7,029 meters at the border between Nepal and Tibet, in a single milking, without fixed strings, oxygen or carriers. They entrusted to Figaro :: “It was a way to make a nice nose in commercial expeditions that multiply on the 8,000 and some of which are very relayed on the internet! »»
* François CARLEL, Himalaya BusinessPaulsen, 159 pages, 22 euros.
