Jean Afanassieff — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Jean Afanassieff, born February 17, 1953 born in Paris and died in the same city on January 10, 2015, is a French mountaineer and director of Russian origin, considered one of the best climbers of his generation. On October 15, 1978, he was one of the first French people to reach the summit of Everest, with Pierre Mazeaud and Nicolas Jaeger Accompanied by the Austrian Kurt Diemberger, altitude cameraman.

Grandson of the Russian emigration of 1917, having fled Crimea, son of Igor Afanassieff engineer at Thomson, Jean Afanassieff was born on February 17, 1953 in Paris. He discovered climbing in Fontainebleau with his family before his parents enrolled him at the age of fourteen in the French Alpine Club. He made his first races two years later [ref. desired] then left at the age of eighteen for Chamonix where he made several first solo ascents. Became a high mountain guide at the age of twenty, a member of the Chamonix Guides Companion, he was the first to climb Mount Ross with Patrick Cordier in the Kerguelen Islands in 1975. The same year, he founded with Patrick Cordier, Gilles and Patrice Bodin, the independent association of Mont Blanc guides (AIGMB).

On October 15, 1978, Jean Afanassieff, Nicolas Jaeger and Pierre Mazeaud are the first three French people to reach the summit of Everest. Jean Afanassieff and Nicolas Jaeger then made the first descent of Everest on skis, from an altitude of 8,300 meters. This ski descent (cable bindings) is done without oxygen.

With the TF1 team which follows the expedition, he is interested in this other passion which was going to make him rock in his second life di him: the audiovisual one. The documentary film will become his job di him, he will realize nearly 80 for various television channels. Jean Afanassieff makes documentaries by first filming the expeditions in which he participates, including four expeditions to Everest, K2, Broad Peak and Nanga Parbat, two to Fitz Roy in the Andes of Argentina and Chile. He then moved away from mountaineering, traveled with the schooner Antarctica around the Antarctic and devoted himself to his new job as a documentary filmmaker. He makes documentaries on various themes, especially in Russia where his family was originally from.

Little by little Afanassieff will divert his camera from this mountain which has lost the scent of adventure of the pioneers to film other horizons. Off the marked paths, he will capture ever more captivating subjects. Afanassieff, the terrible child, once unable to line up two sentences in a conference, having not done serious studies, becomes a member of the society of men of letters. Him and Knight of the Legion of Honor. Since the 90s, it was difficult not to browse a TV program without coming across a report signed by Afanassieff. His last series di lui, in 2014, Les Alpes Vues Du Ciel, was a reflection of his talent di lui and his sense of aesthetics. Married, father of four children and grandfather twice, he shared his life between Paris and his chalet des Bois in Chamonix.

Jean Afanassieff died of pancreatic cancer on January 10, 2015 in Paris at the age of 61 years.