Last year, he opened a technical new route on a 7000-meter peak in Nepal. Then, he set off to Greenland's East Coast, traveling completely self-supported by sea kayak to open a big wall route on an unclimbed summit. These bold expeditions led him to question his own motivations.
"Why do I go? Why sacrifice so much time and push myself so far for a piece of rock? Am I looking for happiness? For glory? To appreciate my own bed more after 40 days in a wet tent? I keep going back, searching for the answers to these questions."
For the Grenoble-based alpinist and 2021 Piolet d'Or recipient, these expeditions are both the question and the answer. A way to feel alive — to experience rare and powerful emotions, both during the climb and long after, in reflection.
"I struggle to separate dreams from reality. Up there, it all becomes one. The sensations stay with me, burned into memory — the joy I felt after three years of frustration and failure in the Himalayas. The exhilaration of spending ten days braving the elements in sea kayaks loaded with over 100kg to reach the foot of a virgin wall and be able to climb it. And a smile that can only come from the moment you share a summit with people you love."
To experience moments like these, you have to be truly prepared when you arrive at the base of the wall. There are no official competitions or marked playing fields in alpinism. In the mountains, anything can happen at any time — the idea of "being prepared" starts to lose its meaning.
"You can't plan your training or your prep perfectly. Being good at everything, but excellent at nothing means being able to adapt when the time comes. Most of what we train for is adaptability.
On remote expeditions, the list of potential hazards is long: weather, mountain conditions, the physical and mental state of you and your team. Countless factors come into play. Conditions are never ideal. Success is never guaranteed.
The idea of adaptation resonates differently in each of us, but for alpinists, it's the key to performance — having more than one string to your bow without breaking it. That's the beauty of alpinism. There are no rules, no competition. You have complete freedom, limited only in what you can dream up. Performance can take many different forms when we venture into unexplored terrain, always adapting and pushing ever-further into the wild, the untouched."
To dive deeper into Symon's stories, you can watch the films dedicated to each expedition. Find more on his Instagram account.
Article by Gabriel Cavalier, with quotes from Symon Welfringer.
