‘À Chacun son Everest!’ has just reached a symbolic milestone: its 600th organised trip to Chamonix. Behind this figure lie more than thirty years of supporting children affected by cancer or leukaemia and women in remission from breast cancer. This summer once again, more than 90 children found in the mountains much more than just a playground: a space to regain their confidence, push themselves and, above all, simply be children again.
The rucksacks have been put away in the cupboards. The boots are drying for the last time and the chalet, after six weeks of laughter, excursions and adventures, is gradually returning to its usual tranquillity. In Chamonix, the 2026 summer camps organised by À Chacun son Everest ! have just come to an end. Over 90 children took part.
Climbing, tree-top adventure courses, hiking, outdoor activities… At first glance, the programme might seem similar to that of many mountain holiday camps. But for the children staying here, each of these experiences takes on a special significance. They have been through cancer or leukaemia. After their treatments and the long periods during which their daily lives were dominated by illness, the mountains offer them a different arena in which to challenge themselves.
600 holidays and more than thirty years of a belief: the mountains can help people rebuild their lives
The summer of 2026 will go down as a special one in the history of À Chacun son Everest! as the charity organised its 600th trip to Chamonix. An impressive figure that, above all, speaks to the longevity of an adventure that began over thirty years ago.
Founded in 1994 by Dr Christine Janin, the first French woman to reach the summit of Everest, and Professor André Baruchel, À Chacun son Everest ! supports children and teenagers with cancer or leukaemia, as well as women in remission from breast cancer.
The underlying idea is as simple as it is powerful: to symbolically transpose the stages of a mountain climb onto the journey through illness. Preparing. Doubting. Taking one more step. Pushing oneself. Reaching one’s own summit. And discovering that one is capable of going further than one ever imagined. In this context, reaching a summit is obviously not an athletic goal in itself. It is a symbol.
Once you have scaled the ‘Everest’ of illness, anyone can learn to scale the other peaks in their life.
When the mountains help you regain confidence in your body
One of the key issues during these stays centres precisely on the relationship with the body. Illness and treatment can profoundly alter the way a child perceives their physical abilities. Hospitalisation, fatigue, medical care, constant medical scrutiny: for months at a time, the body has been the object of examination, treatment and monitoring of its limitations.
In the mountains, that same body gradually becomes one that walks, climbs, plays and succeeds again. Completing a climbing route, covering a few extra metres on a hike, or overcoming a fear on a treetop adventure course may seem trivial. For some children, however, these represent an extremely tangible victory. Sport and the mountains thus enable us to shift our focus: from what the body has endured to what it is still capable of.
This belief that the mountains can become a wonderful place for recovery extends far beyond this one charity. I Love Ski had already seen this for itself when children with cancer discovered the joys of the mountains at Val d’Allos with the charity Sourire à la Vie.
The experience was different, but the principle was similar: to enable children who had long been defined by their medical history to rediscover the extremely simple (and essential) experience of pleasure, play and discovery.
The group: that other invisible summit
There is also something that the figures struggle to convey: what happens between the children. During a stay at ‘À Chacun son Everest!’, there is no need to explain certain experiences at length. The other participants know what it means to have been through illness. This mutual understanding creates a special atmosphere.
We encourage one another when faced with a challenge, we wait for those who are struggling to keep up, and we share our fears before overcoming them together. And above all, for a few days, the illness ceases to be what sets one child apart from the others.
It is probably no coincidence that the mountains provide the backdrop for so many charitable initiatives.
The mountaineering world has long been characterised by this ‘rope team’ culture: those who are ahead help those who encounter difficulties, and individual success only truly has meaning when the whole group makes progress.
It is this same philosophy that we see reflected in many of the initiatives we feature in our Ski Solidaire section, such as Les P’tits Flambeaux, which has rallied more than 150 French ski resorts in support of children, or Glisse en Cœur in Le Grand-Bornand, which over the years has become one of the major charity events in the French mountains. These are very different initiatives, but they all highlight the same simple truth: the mountains can also be a wonderful place for solidarity.
Christine Janin: from Everest to supporting patients
To understand *À Chacun son Everest!*, we need to look back at the founder’s career. A doctor and mountaineer, Christine Janin became the first French woman to reach the summit of Everest in 1990. Two years later, she completed the ascent of the Seven Summits – the highest peaks on each continent – before reaching the North Pole in 1997.
But in the end, it was another kind of Everest that came to take up a large part of her life. In setting up the charity, she applied what she had learnt from high-altitude mountaineering to supporting people who had been through the illness: moving forward in stages, accepting moments of weakness, trusting the group, and discovering resources one never knew one had.
Since 1994, thousands of children, teenagers and women have been supported in this way. The 600th trip organised in 2026 is therefore less a milestone than a new base camp.
‘Solidarity in the mountains’ is not just a catchphrase
At I Love Ski, this vision holds a special place. For several years now, we have been championing the idea of a mountain that can be at once a centre for sport, tourism, the economy and the environment… but also a place of social cohesion and solidarity. This is precisely the spirit behind Ski Solidaire by I Love Ski.
We have seen resorts welcoming sick children, instructors volunteering their time, ski areas making their facilities available, companies funding research, and charities using sport to restore confidence in vulnerable people.
Back in 2017, we reported on how Odysséa’s Courses des Neiges combined mountain sports with the fight against breast cancer. More recently, Skiset and EDL chose skiing as a way to support cancer research, through a limited edition collection, with a portion of the proceeds from sales and hire going to Gustave Roussy.
These initiatives vary in scale and approach. Yet they are evidence of a movement that deserves to be told: that of a mountain region which, at times, puts its infrastructure, businesses, professionals and its incredible power to inspire escape at the service of those who need it. ‘À Chacun son Everest!’ is probably one of the most iconic examples of this.
