During the end of the year celebrations, and while the health crisis has prevented the French from going around the world, Midi Libre offers Lozériens the opportunity to travel through adventure stories.
If the year 2020, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, did not allow the French, and by extension the Lozérians, to travel, if only in their own department and region, some already had their share of countries distant. If they could not satisfy their passion as they would have liked, they were able to go back to their memories to walk outside France in another way.
This is the case of Pascal Beaury, mayor of the municipality of Mont-Lozère-et-Goulet, who, in his last years, was able to start from South America and Nepal. A love for distant landscapes, and often at altitude, that he forged relatively late, thanks to another of his passions, running.
When I was 40 years old, when I felt I was getting closer to the end, I wanted to do one last good race, to stop in style.
“I did a lot of cross-country skiing, mountain running. When I was 40 years old, when I felt I was getting closer to the end, I wanted to do one last good race, to stop in style. I found one in a stage, on the Himalayan range. I signed up, and I left. There, I had several crushes. First for Nepal, but also for this very special race. In addition, at this level, this first meeting with Nepal went really well since I finished second in the event. From there, I forged links with the organizers, who then invited me back. I also became, a few years later, one of the coordinators of the event“, he says.
A love story that will not be limited to the trails of the pedestrian race. “As I came back every year, I took the opportunity to visit many places, and not be confined to one corner of the country. I have climbed some of the most beautiful peaks in the world in this region, such as Gokyo Ri, Saribung peak or Mount Keilash, this mythical mountain that Tibetan Buddhists traverse while bowing down. Knowing that the tour is almost 50 km with a pass at nearly 6,000 m. These are great experiences. All these trips and excessive climbs only exacerbated my new passion“, continues the city councilor.
More than twenty times in Nepal
A passion that he has never ceased to satisfy ever since. “There are plenty of places that I then wanted to visit. Especially Peru where I went twice. The first for the purpose of an adventure race. The second, with my family, to redo the route a little more quietly, because when running we sometimes miss certain aspects. It was a great discovery“.
But if South America enchanted him, his preference remains on the other side of the globe: “The Hymalaya massif was really a crush and something impressive. I climbed there like everywhere. A little further than Tibet, I was also amazed by North India and in particular Himachal Pradesh, where I was able to make mythical motorcycle routes with passes over 5,000 meters. It is an adventure that is both dangerous and also quite surprising. In fact, I think I experienced a lot of very strong little things all over the place. Like the time when, with a mountain friend, over a week in Nepal, we did three summits of a little over 6,000 m. “
The pleasure of running
A pleasure that combines with that of the race, which Pascal Beaury does not forget, despite the epidemic: “It was to be the twentieth anniversary of the race of which I became coordinator. As I am invited I will go back“, he laughs.
Despite the impossibility of leaving the territory for the moment, the mayor of Mont-Lozère-et-Goulet does not intend to stop there. If the preparations are, for the moment, only in their infancy, he is already thinking of the next trips he will be able to undertake: “Two years ago, I had planned to return to North India, in Ladakh, to climb next to Lake Tso Moriri, but the company I was supposed to travel with went bankrupt so I lost my ticket. But I still intend to go. So I think that it will be the next one. First, because there is a mountain range at 6000 m which is relatively accessible in a setting which is very particular. I think I would go, if the situation improves in the next months. “
An accident on Mont Blanc
“There are also other missed appointments that I would like to make up, such as Peak Lenin in the former USSR. Friends went to do it two years ago and I had not been able to accompany them, but I would like to go. Finally I also have a score to settle with the mountain because I unscrewed two years ago, in the descent, in the fog, on Mont Blanc. pass a rope, I put my foot in the void and I left. I am a miracle because where I slipped, normally, it does not forgive. It had snowed a lot two days before, so I managed to brake myself. But I need to go back there, to climb again, to regain the sensations and especially the confidence. I have had a bit of a second life for two years, “concludes Pascal Beaury. In the meantime, to be able to forge new memories.
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