Since mountaineering or winter sports such as skiing have developed in the Alps and elsewhere, it is clear that the mountains have become the terrain of deep inequalities. An area of altitude reserved for those who have the means to survey it, to project themselves there. A space of privileges, often masculine, of whiteness too. Like a ceiling, not of glass, but of ice or snow… But some are determined to break it.
In the Alps, the Grandes Jorasses, the Droites, the Matterhorn, the Schreckhorn, the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey, the Brouillard ridge, the Weisshorn or Mont Blanc are among the 82 peaks that rise to 4000 meters or more. . Reaching these peaks is an old and great mountaineer’s dream. The dream that for ten years has been the French association 82-4000 Solidaires (a name given in echo to these Alpine peaks) goes further. And consists in taking to the high mountains all those who are excluded from it; because a climb with a guide is expensive, because they consider that up there is not their place, because no one ever took them there, invited them or welcomed them.
Today, skiing, the king winter sport in the mountains, concerns only 7% of French people and it costs nearly 4000 euros for a week of skiing for a family of four. Also, the snow classes, which until then offered the greatest number of people a first taste of the mountains, are melting like snow in the sun: a 30% drop for example in the Paris region, often due to a lack of resources, due to budget cuts. . However, the snow classes and this idea more broadly of the mountain for all, educator, benefactor, it was in France a founding ideal of the post-war period, resulting from the great movements of popular education, secular or Christian, born between the wars in the wake of the social achievements of the Front Populaire.
Defending an accessible, inclusive and united mountain is therefore the mission that the association 82-4000 Solidaires has given itself, in collaboration in particular with the ATD Fourth World movement. Made up of guides, French mountaineers or mountain enthusiasts, the association offers mountaineering courses to people in great difficulty and thereby claims a right to leisure and the mountains for all. Since 2013, this network of volunteers has already carried out 75 courses, making the mountain and roped climbs a tool for personal construction, social integration and simply sharing.
Meeting with Hugues Chardonnetdoctor, deacon, mountain guide and founder of the association 82-4000 Solidaires.
More informations :
– About the association 82-4000 Solidarity born in Briançon in the Hautes-Alpes. A branch in Haute-Savoie has already been set up and a new one in the Pyrenees will soon open.
– On “ Shared Mountain Encounters » co-organized each year by « 82-4000 Solidaires », « CAF Youth in the Mountains ” And “ Passing through the mountain », 3 associations working to make the mountains more accessible, united and inclusive.
– On the move ATD Fourth World with which the association 82-4000 Solidaires collaborates.
To read :
– ” Summits are for everyone! Sharing the mountain with the poorest by Laureline Dubuy and Hugues Chardonnet. Editions Glénat. 2022
– “ The mountain for everyone. The genesis of an ambition in 20th century Europe by Olivier Hoibian. Editions Le Pas d’oiseau. 2020.
-« From the MJC to the Alpine summits. Issues around popular mountain culture “. An article by the doctoral student in geography Léa Sallenave, dating from 2019, find it here online
-« The Children of Clarée by Raphael Krafft. Editions Marchialy. 2021. A story around the arrival in 2017 of migrants, often Guineans, at the Franco-Italian border, near Briançon and the network of inhabitants who have formed to help them.