White
When Sylvain Tesson left the colorful yellow houses of the French Riveria for a ski trek across the Alps with his friend Daniel du Lac, a high-altitude mountain guide, he didn't know what exactly would await him. Over the course of four years, from 2018 to 2021, they ascended high into the Alps in winter, following the curve of the mountains from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, entering into a white world entirely of snow, bitterly cold, and overlooked by an empty sky; only the effort of moving forward, one stride at a time, separated the days from one another. He thought he was venturing into beauty but he was immersing himself in a substance. In the white of the high Alps all is canceled out—hopes, fears, memories, and regrets. What did he stand to gain by inflicting this ordeal on himself? This was no ordinary mountain trek: it was communion with a substance. Perhaps his longtime dream of transforming travel into prayer would come true at last.
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White
When Sylvain Tesson left the colorful yellow houses of the French Riveria for a ski trek across the Alps with his friend Daniel du Lac, a high-altitude mountain guide, he didn't know what exactly would await him. Over the course of four years, from 2018 to 2021, they ascended high into the Alps in winter, following the curve of the mountains from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, entering into a white world entirely of snow, bitterly cold, and overlooked by an empty sky; only the effort of moving forward, one stride at a time, separated the days from one another. He thought he was venturing into beauty but he was immersing himself in a substance. In the white of the high Alps all is canceled out—hopes, fears, memories, and regrets. What did he stand to gain by inflicting this ordeal on himself? This was no ordinary mountain trek: it was communion with a substance. Perhaps his longtime dream of transforming travel into prayer would come true at last.
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Overview

When Sylvain Tesson left the colorful yellow houses of the French Riveria for a ski trek across the Alps with his friend Daniel du Lac, a high-altitude mountain guide, he didn't know what exactly would await him. Over the course of four years, from 2018 to 2021, they ascended high into the Alps in winter, following the curve of the mountains from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, entering into a white world entirely of snow, bitterly cold, and overlooked by an empty sky; only the effort of moving forward, one stride at a time, separated the days from one another. He thought he was venturing into beauty but he was immersing himself in a substance. In the white of the high Alps all is canceled out—hopes, fears, memories, and regrets. What did he stand to gain by inflicting this ordeal on himself? This was no ordinary mountain trek: it was communion with a substance. Perhaps his longtime dream of transforming travel into prayer would come true at last.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9798228664432
Publisher: Tantor
Publication date: 10/13/2025
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Sylvain Tesson is one of France's leading travel and nature writers, whose books have won him a wide international readership and a number of top prizes, including the 2019 Prix Renaudot for The Art of Patience. His highly regarded book Consolations of the Forest was published in English in 2014.

Martyn Swain is a former NATO simultaneous interpreter. For more than thirty years, he interpreted in French and English for the world's senior diplomats and international organizations. He interpreted personally for Nelson Mandela shortly after his release from prison in South Africa in 1990. He is a professional audiobook narrator (APA and PANA member) with a home studio. He has significant titles (Christopher Hitchens, KJ Charles, John Marco Allegro, Bob van Laerhoven, Jung, Clausewitz, Heidegger, Popper, Thomas Aquinas, among others) to his credit. In the 1980s, he spent four years traveling the world by motorbike, summiting Kilimanjaro, and crossing the South Atlantic under sail. Martyn's French is native speaker level. He also speaks German and Spanish. He has acted on stage and screen, produced and voiced content for current affairs radio, and tutored in media and presentation skills.

Table of Contents

Foreword: What Is to Be Done?

Year One: 2018. Freedom
Year Two: 2019. Time
Year Three: 2020. Beauty
Year Four: 2021. Oblivion

Farewell to the White
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