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Scientific expeditions: Jean-Louis Étienne, the tireless adventurer of the poles
Scientific expeditions: Jean-Louis Étienne, the tireless adventurer of the poles – (France 2)
The 13 Hours is boarding the boat “Persévérance” this week, designed by Jean-Louis Étienne to sail as close as possible to the polar circles. France Télévisions followed the tireless adventurer, aged 77, for three weeks in the heart of the Southern Ocean.
Jean-Louis Étienne is the last great explorer. He has been surveying the polar regions for almost 40 years. Regions that he crossed in sled dogs, flew over in a balloon, and over which he allowed himself to drift aboard a capsule. His Everest is of course the North Pole, which he is the first man to have reached on foot and alone, in 1986. While the France Télévisions teams disembark with the explorer on an island in the north from the Antarctic Peninsula, Jean-Louis Étienne remembers this moment which marked his existence.
The “Polar Pod”, one of his most ambitious projects
The explorer enjoys sharing his lessons from a lifetime of expeditions with the crew members on his new boat, the “Perseverance”. A privileged witness to the evolution of the poles in the face of climate change, Jean-Louis Étienne, aged 77, spares no effort. His new project, the “Polar Pod”, is a 100 meter high vertical vessel, still under construction. It is intended to drift around Antarctica to study the Southern Ocean. This project is one of Jean-Louis Étienne’s most ambitious.
