Oô (France) (AFP)

Linked to his guide by a hiking stick, David Labarre, visually impaired adventurer, strides surprisingly confidently along the steep path leading to the peak of Spijeoles, the last summit of a crossing of the Pyrenees, between cycling and mountaineering, in good shape. of rite of passage in the midst of the mountain people.

The sun has not yet risen on the Espingo cirque, whose ceremonial silence is only broken, at the foot of the sleeping peaks, by the rustling of the streams, copiously fed by the torrential rains of the night.

Barely slowed down by the slippery and unstable ground, David Labarre relies in the half-light in the light hanging in front of him on the bag of his partner, Morgan Périssé, who sometimes comes to forget his handicap.

The mountain guide Morgan Périssé (on the left) points out the obstacles to David Labarre while the sun has not yet risen on the Espingo cirque Valentine CHAPUIS AFP

"He is so autonomous that I do not think all the time to point out obstacles to him", tells the mountain guide, struck by the "sense of the route" and the "resistance" of his companion, "very attentive to sounds ".

David Labarre, 33, has suffered from Stargardt's disease since childhood, a disease of the retina that only allows him to distinguish shapes and spots.

After winning a silver medal in blind football at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the visually impaired athlete, originally from Aspet (Haute-Garonne), in the foothills of the Pyrenees, swapped his molded crampons for mountaineering ones.

"It's another philosophy," he explains with humility.

"You are not in competition with the mountain. There is no defined field, with rules and referees".

The peak of Spijeoles (Haute-Garonne) culminates at an altitude of 3,065 m VALENTINE CHAPUIS AFP

"People sometimes ask me what's the point of going up there so you can't enjoy the view. You don't necessarily go up for that, but for what's in your guts, deep inside you."

Deep down, David Labarre has the painful memory of the disappearance of his mother, to whom he was very close, when he was 14 years old.

"It's my real handicap, not my eyes."

- "Hold on, Labarre" -

He "approaches" her a little with each ascent, during which the emotions jostle under his helmet.

"It soothes me. I feel alive," he says.

“I didn't cry at the Olympics, but I couldn't help myself at the top of Mont-Blanc”.

Still focused on performance after quitting football in 2015, he quickly tackled two prestigious summits: Aneto (3,404 m), the highest point in the Pyrenees, and Mont-Blanc.

David Labarre, surrounded by Pyrenean guides Morgan Périssé (left) and Fred Talieu VALENTINE CHAPUIS AFP

The Paralympic vice-champion follows from another approach, more focused on meetings and sharing than on the purely sporting side.

This is the spirit of his last Pyrenean challenge, a journey "between friends" mixing cycling and mountaineering, started on September 6 in Pau and ended Thursday at his home, in his village of Aspet, via Vignemale and the wall of the Gavarnie waterfall.

Accompanied by seasoned Pyrenees (Christian Ravier, Rémi Thivel, Fred Talieu) along emblematic routes, he also climbed in tandem several passes made famous by the Tour de France (Tourmalet, Aubisque, Aspin, Peyresourde ...) alongside by Morgan Périssé.

David Labarre and Morgan Périssé at the top of the Col de Peyresourde, September 14, 2021 Valentine CHAPUIS AFP

"It's a beautiful encounter on a human level", testifies the guide, also 33 years old.

"The confrontation with the handicap is very enriching, it makes you relativize your small worries".

On the rock face of the peak of Spijeoles (3,065 m), his hands groping in search of holds, David Labarre dedicates blind trust to his partners at the end of his rope.

"You have to be afraid, it's essential, but you have to tame it", says the thirty-something with the endearing personality, who only asks to be considered "as someone normal".

David Labarre (on the left) on the rock face of the Pic des Spijeoles, last ascent of his challenge VALENTINE CHAPUIS AFP

Positive and determined, he accepts with great self-mockery the jokes of his mountain friends - "It is not because you are disabled that you should not wear anything";

"Hold on, Labarre".

No doubt the sign that he is now one of them.

© 2021 AFP