Isabelle Agresti
Actor
Isabelle Agresti is a French mountaineer and professor of classical literature who participated in high-altitude expeditions and is recognized for her commitment to promoting the place of women in the history of mountaineering. With her husband, Henri Agresti, they formed a high-level mountaineering team, conquering peaks in the Alps and around the world, achieving numerous firsts in the 1970s. They have four children, including Blaise Agresti, also a mountaineer and mountain advisor to the General Directorate of the Gendarmerie. They traveled to Afghanistan twice, in 1966 with Polish troops, and in 1968 (the first all-French expedition), where they spent more than two months. Two months there, but a total of three and a half months on the expedition, as they traveled there in a 4L, crossing Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Italy! They made several first ascents, some of which would never be repeated, and their expedition led to a film and a 41-page booklet, "Arid Mountains of the Wakhan." In the 1970s, they developed a passion for the mountains of the Hoggar massif in Algeria and completed several route openings, including the Agresti dihedral, a daring route of the 1970s, opened in about ten days using artificial ascents. The couple published numerous books and mountain guides and gave numerous lectures throughout their lives.
