Dominique Martial

With four mountaineering friends, Yannick Seigneur climbs the Taboche to a 6540-metre summit in Nepal's Khumbu Valley. The first ascent of this summit was successful by this French expedition on April 16, 1974. With Yannick Seigneur, Louis Dubost, Jacques Brugirard, Jean-Christian Michel (doctor).

480 minutes of absolute live broadcast on French Television during the ascent of Everest of the French expedition Sagarmatha 88. The first live broadcast of an Everest ascent. The program showed images on the progress of mountaineers, the Sherpa country, Nepalese sites and the technical and human resources used for this great adventure. The team, led by Serge Koenig could not provide live images from the top of the mountain as their television camera failed, but they succeed in making a live audio transmission from the summit.

Everest Ascent and Tragedy. A French expedition of Chamonix guides was led by Serge Koenig and composed of Denis Ducroz, Hervé Thivièrge, Alain Payot, Jean-Paul Chassagne, Marc Galy, Daniel Audibert and Jean-Paul Balmat. They had hoped to broadcast for television from the summit. On October 12, Koenig and Lhakpa Sherpa left the South Col and arrived on top at 1:30 P.M. Their television camera failed and so they left it on the summit for a second try later. On the descent they met Galy and Lhakpa’s brother Pasang Temba. Some time later, Galy descended to the South Col, figuring it too risky to continue.

The first winter ascent of the Pointe Whymper in les Grandes Jorasses in 1974 with Yannick Seigneur, Marc Galy, Michel Feuillarde and Louis Audoubert. Generally the alpinistic expeditions become famous only when they are ruined by drama and tragedy. This film shows a serene expedition of four climbers on the north side of the Jorasses. The documentary received the Grand Prize of the 6th Diablerets festival in Switzerland. The jury considered that the film was marking a turning point in the expression of the alpine film, because it was showing without any sentimentality the reality of a first winter ascent: 'truth cinema in the true sense of the word'.

Climbing K2 by its difficult and unconquered south-west ridge is the goal that Bernard Mellet set after two years of careful preparation. To overcome this ambitious achievement he has selected fourteen of the best french climbers of the moment. The team reached a height of 8400 meters, 200 meters below the summit. The route, called the 'magic line' was first climbed seven years later, in 1986, by a Polish team. The route was not successfully repeated until 2004, when Jordi Corominas, from a Catalan team, completed it.