FODACIM

It is a fact that our winters are less and less cold. Therefore it is harder and harder to get the conditions for ice-climbing. Fortunately, man adapts to his environment and makes progress: this is how dry-tooling was born. This movie will make you discover this discipline: its history, its evolution and the current practice. You will also see how much excitement dry tooling can bring. Dry-tooling now allows to free-climb some routes which were impossible to climb without aid in the past.

Nicolas Jean, a 14-year-old climber, decided to meet climbers who have left their mark on their era and contributed to the evolution of climbing in their own way. Among them is his coach, Laurent Perez, who will guide him on an original project: re-equipping a 7c+ route and adding a variation that will make it his first 8a if he manages to complete it! Nicolas Jean will later become a high-mountain guide and the alter ego of his climbing partner, Benjamin Védrines, with whom he will achieve numerous first ascents, including the summit of Jannu Est (7468 m) in October 2025.

A shepherd in his childhood, Sunar tended his flock, barefoot, in the pastures of Laprak, a small village at an altitude of 2000 meters in the Himalayas, in the Manaslu region. At twenty years old, he decided to become a porter for trekking agencies and met a couple of French trekkers who became attached to him and brought him to France to help him. Sunar then dreams of becoming a mountain guide. Thanks to his determination and perseverance, supported for years by a chain of solidarity set up to allow him to realize his dream, Sunar won the prestigious high mountain guide medal from ENSA in 2008. He did not stop there, and benefited his country by creating, with his friends, a guide school in Nepal like that of Chamonix. Today, the skills of the Nepalese resulting from this training are recognized internationally. A first!

When Katherine Choong suggested to her friend Éline Le Menestrel that they tackle the Zahir, a classic route in the Swiss Alps and a demanding gem of the Wendenstöcke, Éline agreed... on one condition: that they only use sustainable transport to get to the foot of the wall. As the days passed suspended on the rock, they realized the scale of the challenge: intense commitment, tiny holds, accumulated fatigue from cycling... every movement became a challenge. Between motivation and euphoria, perseverance and doubt, would Katherine and Éline manage to reach their Zahir, that summit where audacity and wild beauty come together?