New horizons Activities report / 2012 Contents A new path for the Conscrits refuge .....................................................................4 - 5 Serving our communities Protecting seabirds in Brittany .............................................................................6 - 7 Thanks to the good work of our team, our foundation has continued to strengthen the links Working with Aron Ralston to protect the canyons of Utah .....................................8 - 9 and relationships that hold our Communities together. Success for the first Mountain Citizen Meetings ................................................10 - 11 Our desire to move forward towards shared goals has motivated us to act positively with the Enhancing the Mont Blanc experience ..............................................................12 -13 growing number of mountain communities we have met since we set out on this journey. A Handbook for mountain club leaders ...............................................................14 -15 The position of the Foundation is not always clearly understood, but when it’s a matter of Towards autonomy of training courses in Nepal .................................................16 -17 public interest, the Petzl Foundation very quickly becomes an inseparable partner for the communities we serve. Piedra Parada, showing respect to a major site ................................................18 - 19 Mission to study very cold waterfall ice in Alaska ......................................................... 20 Funded by our company, the Petzl Foundation is at the service of our customers who have Understanding mountain accidents ........................................................................... 21 enabled us to exist. By our actions in the public interest, the Petzl Foundation also reflects the image of the Petzl Group and as a result, helps us protect the jobs of those who work A handbook for arborist rescuers ............................................................................. 22 for us. Connecting those who need it most! ...................................................................... 23 Thank you for your confidence. Underground from Toulon to Bizerte ........................................................................ 24 Environmental caving inventory ............................................................................... 25 Paul Petzl, president Havens of tranquility in the mountains ...................................................................... 26 A new camp in the heart of the Mandé .................................................................... 27 Other projects supported in 2012 ...................................................................28 - 31 Key figures ....................................................................................................32 - 33 In the words of the foundation trustees ............................................................34 - 35 The Petzl Foundation For almost forty years, Petzl has been designing vertical access equipment for recreational and professional use providing technical solutions to help people achieve their dreams of ascension in daylight and darkness, while ensuring maximum performance, freedom and safety. Petzl’s corporate philanthropy has a long history in the USA. Paul Petzl, President and founder, gave this activity a boost in 2005 by creating the Petzl Foundation, to serve the environment that has enabled the company to exist and thrive. The mission of the Petzl Foundation is to conduct activities contributing to sustainable development. Our priorities are education and safety in vertical activities, as well as research into a harmonious balance between man and his cultural, economic and ecological envi- ronment. The Petzl Foundation supports non-profit projects that work for the benefit of our society and in the public interest, most specifically in these three areas: - Accident prevention and risk management training, - environmental preservation, - scientific research. © Eric Lescarcelle Cover photos : the Utah canyons ©Crusher Bartlett / seabirds ©Kelig Gourvennec Training courses for trekking guides in Kakani, Nepal. 2 3 A new path to the Conscrits refuge “In the midst of this remarkable site, protected by the Natural Reserve of Les Contamines- Monjoie, it was imperative to conduct such a project in consultation with the various stakeholders: municipalities, the French Alpine Club, and envi- ronmental associations such as Asters. From the mountaineering pers- pective, the new route isn’t any easier, but it is much less dange- rous. From an environmental perspective, the new route required the construction of a footbridge, but on the positive side, the bridge allowed us to eliminate all of the ladders on the face of the cliff.” Olivier Bégain, guide and President of the Mountain Photos © Gilles Lansard Guides Office Last September a brand new path was created to reach the refuge of the Conscrits in the heart of Mont Blanc, via a Himalayan footbridge. The Conscrits refuge (2,580 m) is on the access route to several peaks including the Aiguille de la Bérangère, the “Dôme or guides and the municipality of to rockfall. At the junction between the to local and European funding of de Miage”, the Lex Blanche and the Les Contamines, it was an inno- glacier and the cliff, where the glacier €130,000. Together with the guides Aiguille de Tré-la-Tête. In 1997, the Fvative way to meet the increasing has retreated, new ladders had to be of Les Contamines, the Petzl Foun- old shack which was often completely dangers associated with the retreating added every year. dation is committed to this project covered by snow in winter, was replaced Tré-la-Tête glacier. This new route Over the years, the issue of a new and to respecting the environ- by a modern building which can reduces the risk of accidents to this summer route had been discussed ment of the Natural Reserve of Les accomodate 90 mountaineers. remarkable site. several times. After location scouting, Contamines-Monjoie. guides of Les Contamines proposed The Conscrits refuge is an access an entirely new path. It now runs This is an exemplary solution to the route to the southwest side of Mont along the right side of the glacier and problems raised by glacier retreat and Blanc, as well as the “Dôme de Miage”. is criss-crossed by old hunting and climate change. It is also the opening Access to the Tré-la-Tête glacier has animal trails. However, this path came of a beautiful gateway to the moun- become very delicate and dangerous up against deep ravines which were tains. Risk reduction makes the refuge in the summer, including the aptly difficult to cross on foot, hence the more accessible and enables younger named gorge of "Mauvais Pas" (bad idea to build a sixty-meter footbridge. generations of hikers to explore the steps), which is increasingly exposed Work began in June 2012, thanks highest mountains. Project partner: Bureau des Guides des Contamines-Montjoie (Mountain Guides Office). Budjet: €10,000 in 2012. 4 MONT BLANC 5 Protecting seabirds in Brittany “I have been passionate about the red-billed chough for many years. I admire their prowess in the air! To find their breeding sites in deep caves battered by strong Atlantic waves, I was trained to work on ropes. This is an essential skill for field monitoring in this harsh envi- ronment. This year, I'm glad I don’t have to use the 40 kg ladder anymore!” Photos © Romain Guenard Morgane Huteau, a researcher at Bretagne Vivante The red-billed chough is a corvid which is emblematic of the coastal cliffs in Brittany, France. Today there are less than 60 pairs and their protection requires regular monitoring in a vertical world which is not always easy to access. © Gaétan Guyot or the past twenty years, ornitho- caves by providing the association with © Kelig Gourvennec logists of the Bretagne Vivante rope descent equipment. Climbing Fassociation have been studying and rope descent are essential to the red-billed choughs to ensure their smooth running of monitoring opera- preservation. To better understand tions. Using ropes minimizes tidal their population, the chicks are ringed range constraints and allows ringer using an individual color coding climbers to intervene more efficiently system. without endangering themselves. © Jean-Philippe-Sanquer Choughs nest in coastal caves, so In 2012, despite bad spring weather Ringing a red-billed chough chick. The black-legged kittiwake also wears colored rings. access to nests is often perilous for conditions, 23 chicks were ringed in ornithologists. The Petzl Foundation about twenty sites on Cape Sizun and helped facilitate rope access to the Ouessant Island. Project partner: Bretagne Vivante Association / www.bretagne-vivante.org. Budget: climbing equipment. 6 BRITTANY, FRANCE 7 Working with Aron Ralston to protect Utah’s Redrock desert canyons “Today, not least for my expe- rience in Blue John Canyon, red sand is forever embedded in my spirit. Unique in the world, Greater Canyonlands, the defi- ning landscape of the West, is under attack by gas, oil, tar sands, and uranium compa- nies, who threaten to destroy one of our nation’s most special wild places. I urge President Obama to recognize Greater Canyonlands’ significance for our national heritage, and to take swift action to steward this land- scape into the future. In doing so, he will save the region from imminent degradation. That’s my wish: that Greater Canyonlands National Monument will