The Department of Alpes-Maritimes has chosen to honor Hervé Gourdel, a high mountain guide who tragically passed away a year ago, by presenting the exhibition “To My Mountains.”
The Department of Alpes-Maritimes has chosen to honor Hervé Gourdel, a high mountain guide who tragically passed away a year ago, by presenting the exhibition “To My Mountains.”
At the age of 13, Hervé Gourdel discovered the mountains by climbing to the summit of Mont Ténibre in Haute-Tinée. From then on, he was captivated by the passion for the mountains, their exploration, and the freedom they provided. He turned his passion into a profession, and his love for sharing, his deep humanity, and his respect for nature naturally led him to pursue a career as a high mountain guide.
It was in Saint-Martin-Vésubie that he opened a guides’ office with friends who were eager to work in the mountains, bring them to life, and follow in the footsteps of their predecessors, Victor de Cessole, Jean, and Jean-Baptiste Plent. Their goal was to share their knowledge of a natural treasure, the Mercantour, so close to the Côte d’Azur, with as many people as possible.
Hervé Gourdel possessed qualities imbued with human warmth, humility, and serenity—qualities of genuine men, men close to nature, men with heart. These attributes led him to explore other peoples, other civilizations, and other mountains.
Just like with our massifs, he knew how to capture their beauty, originality, and character through photography, his second passion.
It is the combination of these two aspects of his personality—the mountain guide and the photographer—that this exhibition presents, inviting us to follow him on the path of his passions.
