There are those who loved it and those who hate the very idea of such a challenge. The mountaineering community is divided on the subject of Inoxtag’s documentary retracing nearly a year of preparation and his ascent of Everest.
Six months after disappearing from social media and YouTube to undertake her Himalayan journey, the young Internet star, Inès Benazzouz, known under the pseudonym Inoxtag, revealed in 2015, reappeared on the small and big screens with a documentary called “Kaizen: 1 year to climb Everest”. In just over two hours, Inoxtag shows the main stages of her preparation as well as her journey to the highest peak in the world.
This project, the YouTuber had announced in 2023, was followed by significant training during which he climbed a dozen mountains including Mont Blanc (4809m) and Alma Dablam (6812m) in Nepal, while sharing his adventures on his social networks, of course it’s his job. After the release of his documentary, which bears the imprint of YouTube, the reactions were not long in coming. The film, first screened in cinemas before being available for free, broke records. 20 million views on YouTube in two days, and more than 300,000 admissions during its preview in cinemas, a real success for the young man – and his financial partners.
But this success is accompanied by many criticisms, on social networks but also among professionals and seasoned mountaineers. “When it was announced, I said that it was of no interest and that it was a disaster” Pascal Tournaire confided to The Teama mountaineer and photographer who himself tackled Everest to reach its summit, 34 years before Inoxtag.
Climbers worry about the post-Inoxtag
“After seeing the film I have absolutely not changed my mind […] It should be remembered that a 14-year-old boy and girl, an 83-year-old Japanese grandpa also managed to climb up there,” he continued, adding that: “If we give ourselves the means, it is accessible to any healthy person who kicks their own butt a little. I don’t see where the feat is.” Especially since for the professional, the use of oxygen assistance by the YouTuber and his team greatly diminishes the young man’s prowess. “Today, climbing Everest with oxygen is like doing the Tour de France with an electric bike,” he concluded.
Pascal Tournaire was not the only one to be critical of the YouTuber’s climb. In the spring, his former partner Marc Batard denounced the “commodification of Everest”, criticizing the fact that the roof of the world had become a tourist destination that led to pollution of the site. For the mountaineer, the YouTuber positioned himself “very far from the values of mountaineering”.
For others, the problem lies elsewhere. “In absolute terms, we should ban the summit of Everest from all attempts, as Bhutan does for the more than 600 m of its territory, and return this summit to its solitude and its sacredness” believes the mountaineer and artist Jean-Marc Rochette from his Instagram account. He adds that the ascent of this mountain constitutes an “ontological rape” while recalling that it would be necessary to “ban the toponym “Everest” […] and give her back her real Nepalese name “Chomolungma”, the goddess of the World”.
Legitimacy also at the heart of discord
But as with Internet users, some mountaineers do not view the adventure undertaken by the YouTuber with a bad eye. Starting with his guide, Mathis Dumas, nine years his senior, and with whom he shared a tent on the highest peak in the world. “A YouTuber, it necessarily smelled like a PR stunt. But as I got to know him, I realized that he had a real thoughtful approach behind it,” confided the mountain guide before their departure for Nepal.
The point of view is the same for the mountaineer François Damilano who delivered to France Info, seeing in several criticisms a form of “snobbery”, even of “sectarianism” on the part of his peers. He also denounced the “extremely condescending look towards people who dream of reaching these great summits and who throw themselves into them wholeheartedly” recalling that he himself was no more legitimate than anyone else to climb Everest.