The best stories of the year
All week, “Sud Ouest” returns to stories that marked, moved or amazed our readers in 2024 across the four corners of the region.
LThe story begins like a Christmas story. By a message via Instagram, December 24, 2023. Louis Jammes, originally from Villeneuve-sur-Lot (Lot-et-Garonne), contacted, “without really believing it”, the YouTuber with several million subscribers, Inoxtag, to offer him his services. At that time, Inoxtag took on the challenge of climbing Everest and making a documentary about it. He was looking for seasoned and competent men to film the adventure. A profile that fit perfectly with that of Louis Jammes. For seven years, Villeneuvois has spent his life climbing the highest peaks in the world. It's been his hobby ever since he walked 1,400 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago on a whim as a teenager. “I learned to surpass oneself there. »
A lesson that has become an addiction for the man who becomes an extreme mountaineer. He knows Everest well. When he contacted Inoxtag, he had already climbed it a few months before, hired by an Australian “who also wanted to make a documentary. This is where I experienced for the first time taking images at very high altitude with a drone.”
It's this little extra thing that appealed to the YouTuber, who has been looking for months for the rare gem capable of flying a drone throughout his expedition. A meeting took place in Paris. “It was out of the question for me to go on an extreme adventure for several weeks without knowing the people at all,” he says. Louis Jammes is recruited: “I knew it would have an impact on my mountaineering career… but not to this extent. »
Millions of views
When he leaves for Kathmandu in April with the Inoxtag team, Villeneuvois has only one thing in mind: successfully capturing images with the drone. The flying machine does not cope well with violent winds and low temperatures: “We therefore had to rely on luck, that of having good weather once at the summit. This was the case, although the drone still crashed in the end. Fortunately, we were able to recover it and the images with it. »
Inoxtag: why is the documentary “Kaïzen” already a phenomenon?
The young content creator Inoxtag reaches heights with his documentary “Kaïzen”, broadcast in cinemas, on YouTube and soon on TF1, which recounts his ascent of Everest. A craze that breaks down generational boundaries, but also opens new horizons to the world of influence. Decryption
“A few months after a message on Instagram, I was at the summit of Everest with a guy known to all French youth”
Images which were, from September, discovered in the documentary “Kaizen”, broadcast throughout France on the big screen in front of 350,000 people, and viewed 40 million times on YouTube. “A few months after a message on Instagram, I was at the summit of Everest with a guy known to all French youth; I looked at my images at the Grand Rex and talked with Léon Marchand. Everything is possible,” commented Louis Jammes upon the release of the documentary.
Since this extraordinary adventure, the mountaineer has continued his enormous climbs, accompanying other climbers wishing to surpass themselves. The latest was a blind Mexican, Rafa Jaime, with whom he reached the highest peak in Oceania. There too, he produced breathtaking images: “These expeditions as a cameraman allow me financially to continue to reach my own heights. » His next goal? Climb the highest volcano in the world, Nevado Ojos del Salado, between Chile and Argentina.
