French author Sylvain Tesson pays tribute to the heroes of the Russian Revolution as he crosses the Pamir mountain range in Tajikistan, which boasts a multitude of peaks at more than 7,000m. They will have the occasion to look back on some of the major figures and events of the Revolution. Lenin Peak, Revolution Peak, Karl Marx Peak, and also the October Glacier and the Soviet Officer range – all names which evoke the Revolution in these remarkable yet little-known locations. He is accompanied by two friends, author and lover of all things Russian, Cédric Gras, and the former Soviet mountaineering instructor, Nicolay Taran. Along the way, the author and his traveling companions observe the traces left by the former USSR on daily life here, and they listen to the memories of the populations who live in the Pamirs, whether Kyrgyz nomads on the high plateaus or Ismailis in the valleys. For Sylvain Tesson, the journey will serve as a source of inspiration for his future writing.

Octobre blanc: Sylvain Tesson sur les sommets de la révolution

The mountains are a barometer of the state of the world because global warming is three times more visible there than elsewhere. After a year marked by the confinements of March and November and the closure of ski resorts, the high peaks have regained their appearance of the first days. It is in this fragile setting of beauty that a young committed rope party sets out to cross the heart of the Alps on ski touring, to decipher for themselves the visible and invisible signs that threaten them, and to question a situation that goes beyond mountaineering