INTERVIEW
At 72, his taste for adventure remains intact. The explorer Jean-Louis Étienne, who publishes Aux arbres citoyens (Paulsen editions), is preparing for an unprecedented mission. In L'equipped sauvage , on Europe 1, he details his project while revealing significant periods of his life, surprising, frightening and sometimes comical. This new expedition, prepared for more than eight years, aims to explore the Southern Ocean, located around the South Pole. "It's a huge ocean, a kind of transmission belt that the Vendée Globe sailors use every four years," he says. The expedition of Jean-Louis Étienne, who will be accompanied by seven other people - scientists, sailors and merchant navy officers - will last two years.
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The Polar Pod, a revolutionary ship, will be a precious help to better know this ocean "very little studied and very windy", according to Jean-Louis Étienne. Descending to 80 meters, this vessel makes it possible to protect itself from gusts. "When the wind is blowing, it makes waves, but if you go down to 80 meters, you're in stable waters, the waves are passing you over, it's much more stable than a boat." he explains.
For the second time in history, he imagines a vertical ship
The last time such a ship was built in the world was in the 1960s, during the Cold War. The Americans had designed "a vertical ship that drifted to the Pacific to listen and spot the submarines". This is the first time that a vertical ship is used for purposes other than military.
He braved death at the North Pole
In addition to the avalanches he experienced in the Himalayas, Jean-Louis Étienne almost died drowned in the icy cold water of the North Pole. "The ice broke under my feet, and if I pushed myself down to the waist, I could not go back up, in which case I had to go to bed. go out, "he says.
He came face to face with soldiers
Jean-Louis Étienne also talks about his crossing of Greenland, during the Cold War period. He was accompanied by several other explorers: a Russian, an American, a Japanese and an Englishman. By chance, they came face to face with an American base equipped with "radars that detect missiles arriving from the Soviet Union", describes Jean-Louis Étienne. Inside, he said, were "Vietnam's elders" watered by anti-Russian ideology. "We, we arrive with our dogs quietly," he says ironically, adding to be mounted at the top of the base to knock on the door of these soldiers who "waited for a missile". "Faced with the Soviet, [the man who opens the door] freezes and says 'I have to call Washington' ('I must call Washington in VF).' Finally, Jean-Louis Étienne claims that this meeting ended in a good-natured atmosphere. "They came down with bottles of whiskey and we had a great night," he recalls.
Mitterrand wanted to offer him a ministry
Then President of the Republic, François Mitterrand had invited Jean-Louis Étienne to the Élysée. "He wanted to support me in a legislative election or offer me the Ministry of the Environment," recalls the explorer, who did not think "not being cut for the job". "I told him, 'President, I'm going to Erebus.' He then asked me, 'What is the Erebus?' I said, 'It's a volcano in Antarctica.' He tilted his head, looked at me and said, 'I can not go with you there.'