JOE METZGER 🇫🇷

Joé is part of the Transalpins, a group of three agronomy and environment students who hold the mountain high in their hearts.

For their gap year, they wenttook on the challenge of crossing the Alps on foot, from Nice to Ljubljana via Switzerland and ItalyThey didn't just want to hike, so they used this challenge to serve reflections that are dear to them.

They traveled these 1700 km with, in their bags, all the necessary equipmentthe production of a documentary on the perception of the wolfby the actors of our mountains.

Hiking

Who are you?

My name is Joé and I am from Marseille. My father spent a lot of time in the Southern Alps where he passed his BE in Kayak and hiked and skied a little everywhere in these mountains. As soon as I was old enough, we didn't stop going back and forth between Marseille and the Alps: he took the time to pass on his passion for the mountains to me. Afterwards, I quickly gave up skiing for the summer mountains and their colorful landscapes.

In Paris, during my studies focused on agronomy, I met Joseph and Jules with whom I share a love of the mountains. We had this idea to explore the massif from one end to the other in 4 months to discover all its landscapes. As a bonus, we were interested in the problem of the wolf which has been shaking up the Alpine arc for thirty years. Our documentary will be released in July 2025: we will keep you informed!

Tell us about your best memory of crossing the Alps!

Oddly enough, one of my best memories is a psychological breakdown on the part of the whole team.

If you are a mountain lover, you probably know that the year 2024 was particularly rotten in terms of weather. No luck. It was May 30th, it had been raining on us for 3 days and this day, we had been under a storm for a few hours. We finally arrived at the end of the stage in what was supposed to be a refuge, but which was in fact an abandoned and partially waterproof stable at an altitude of 1700m. We went to bed, but it was impossible to sleep because of the din the rain made on the sheet metal of the roof. Miraculously, the storm stopped around two in the morning and we managed to fall asleep until the next day.
Surprise when I wake up: there is snow everywhere. The storm never stopped, it just stopped making noise...
And the fact that it was snowing on us so late in the year and so low in altitude made us completely crack. And here we are, three morons, all alone, screaming at the weather, having a nervous breakdown. In the end, we managed to go back down to the valley to stay there for a while, this episode was our last big surprise with the snow.

What are your plans?

Even though the wolf was originally more of a pretext to carry out the project than anything else, we became passionate about this issue. In six months, I will be an agricultural engineer. The prospect of working for the cohabitation between large predators and pastoral livestock farming appeals to me a lot and I think about it more and more. I think that there is still a lot to do to move forward on these issues that combine sociology, politics, economics and biology. Also, the multidisciplinary dimension of these projects particularly excites me.

Why the Lagoped Family?

When the three of us thought about what this project and its values represented, the first idea that came to us was that we could go on long trips without going to the other side of the world. We then bet on French mountain equipment, produced locally and which shares our values: commitment, sharing and respect for the environment. Lagoped was for us the ideal mountain brand to accompany us in this project. So being part of the Lagoped Family is an honor and we warmly thank all the members of Lagoped who support us.