From the open sea to the summits, the call of other horizons

The ocean and the mountains may seem worlds apart. Yet those who spend time in both often find the same demands, the same reflexes and sometimes the same emotions. These connections go far beyond the mountains and the sea. Mountaineering, trail running or triathlon: some sailors use these terrains to take on new challenges, enjoy the thrill of discovery and build qualities that prove invaluable offshore. Why look elsewhere for what you already experience at sea? What is there to gain from stepping outside the field you have mastered? And how do these experiences, in turn, shape their sailing? From Everest to the Alpine summits, from long crossings to races against the clock, Maxime Sorel, Aurélien Ducroz and Sébastien Simon each offer some answers in their own way.

Two terrains, one way of reading the world

Long before skippers began heading into the mountains in greater numbers, Isabelle Autissier had already explored the links between sea and summit. She was the first woman to complete a solo round-the-world race, and later competed in the 1996-1997 Vendée Globe. Alongside mountaineer Lionel Daudet, on an expedition to South Georgia recounted in Versant Océan, she ventured onto terrain where each had to learn from the other. That experience resonates today in the journey of Aurélien Ducroz. A two-time freeride world champion before becoming a sailor, the Chamonix native long saw sailing and the mountains as separate worlds. It took his first Mini Transat, in 2011, for him to see the similarities.

« At first, I hadn’t made the connection at all between the way I moved in the mountains and the way I sailed. To me, they were two different things. Then, all of a sudden, I felt good. I felt like I was doing something I knew, something I’d mastered. The way I analysed a face or a route in the mountains was, in the end, pretty much the same thing. » 

Sébastien Josse played a part in that realisation. A three-time Vendée Globe competitor, he is now sports director of Team Banque Populaire. While Aurélien Ducroz was still learning the basics of sailing, Sébastien Josse suggested he read a nautical chart the way he would approach a ski descent: identify the obstacles, spot the passages, weigh up the risks, choose where to push and where to hold back. « Ultimately, your job is to spend your time analysing the elements, then putting that analysis into perspective with your abilities, how you’re feeling, the state of your boat. Because there are days when you’re more capable than others. Then you add all that data together to make your decisions. » 

This philosophy now runs through Ocean Summits, Aurélien Ducroz’s project combining preparation for the 2028 Vendée Globe with climbing the 82 Alpine peaks over 4,000 metres. The two ambitions feed off each other, far beyond sporting performance. « Without the mountains, I could never have sailed. And without sailing, I might have been a worse mountaineer. » 

« In both environments, you’re constantly thinking and your analyses are constantly being challenged. One degree warmer or colder, a slightly stronger wind, and everything can change. What fascinates me is how close they are in the way you understand the elements, move through them and manage risk. We’re tiny in the face of both. And, ultimately, the method for getting through is quite similar. » Maxime Sorel largely shares this view. After completing the 2020-2021 Vendée Globe, he reached the summit of Everest in May 2023. The climb was part of his Mon Double Everest project, run in support of the cystic fibrosis charity Vaincre la Mucoviscidose. The adventure confirmed to him that the sea and high mountains demand the same kind of humility. « They’re two environments constrained by nature, by the elements. You can’t do whatever you want. You try to go with what comes, but you’re not the one choosing. When you listen to mountaineers’ or sailors’ stories, that’s something that always comes through. »

Preparation as second nature

Behind the spectacular images of a climb, a ski descent or a boat racing at full speed lie countless details no one sees. And a shared obsession: reducing the role of chance as much as possible, while knowing it will always have its say. « When you see the time spent packing your bag for each day of an expedition and the time you spend on a boat before a ten-day race, you quickly draw the parallel. Every gram counts, and so does the care you put into everything. You try to anticipate situations without knowing whether they’ll happen. And in the end, there are always things you hadn’t thought of  », says Maxime Sorel.

This attention extends to looking after his body. Now a keen long-distance trail runner, he draws on reflexes forged offshore during these long efforts.

« In ultra-trail, especially on the Tour du Mont-Blanc, I found that same self-management: clothing, food, water. It’s quite demanding, but I really enjoy it. Just like at sea, you have to look after yourself, pay attention to what you eat and drink, choose the right gear at the right time. » 

Not everyone is looking for peaks. For Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil), it is all about endurance. His adventure began in a far less solemn way. A member of his team challenged him to sign up for a Half Ironman in Les Sables-d’Olonne, and the skipper accepted on the spot.

Since then, the third-place finisher of the 2024-2025 Vendée Globe has gone all in. Four months after his round-the-world race, he completed an Ironman in 9 hours 31 minutes.« I put the same rigour into preparing for a marathon, an Ironman, a Half Ironman or any other race, because I want to give it everything. And I put the same rigour into preparing for a Route du Rhum or a Vendée Globe.» Even so, the Vendée native is careful not to put all these events on the same level. At the finish, a member of the Ironman organisation asked him which was harder, a triathlon or a circumnavigation. His answer was short: « Tonight, I’m in my bed! After ten hours of effort, it’s over. » 

Offshore, the commitment lasts for weeks, with fatigue that has to be managed without ever truly being able to stop. Yet one essential link connects all these disciplines, and according to him, it is mental. « Training every day helps me develop that mental ability to push myself more easily, to find resources even when there seem to be none left. Despite the fatigue, you always want to do more. But it doesn’t happen by chance, you have to work at it. In competition, you learn to push the limit a little further, not to give up at the first hurdle. »

The thrill of first experiences

Why leave a world in which you have gained so much mastery to take on another where everything, or almost everything, has to be relearned? For Maxime Sorel, the answer lies largely in the joy of discovery. After years on the offshore racing circuit, he enjoys finding sensations that had faded with time. « On the boat, I’d discovered something very powerful in those first experiences. Then, in other races, I didn’t feel exactly that anymore. It wasn’t worse, it was different. In the mountains, because I’m less experienced, I get that sense of discovery back. And sailing has become a job, whereas the mountains are still a passion. I don’t experience them the same way. » 

That difference shows even in his approach to training. « When you’re preparing an expedition, if you don’t go today, you can go tomorrow. When you’re preparing for a race with a result in mind, it’s today, not tomorrow. » The demands remain, but the constraints are not the same. Even time does not follow the same rules. An ultra-trail of around thirty hours, a forty-day expedition and a Vendée Globe lasting several months cannot be compared with a stopwatch.

« People sometimes tell me: "You’ve already spent eighty days at sea, so thirty hours is easy!" But no. The notion of time depends on what you’re taking on. When you get towards the end of an effort, you start to feel weariness and fatigue, however long it lasts. If you’d set off knowing it would last another fifteen days, that moment would come later.» 

Solitude also takes a different form in the mountains, where expeditions are usually a group affair. At very high altitude, however, everyone must find within themselves the resources to keep going.

Different challenges, the same driving forces

Sébastien Simon, for his part, has decided to step back from triathlon. It is not for lack of desire: he feels he has reached a level that would be hard to improve on without disproportionate sacrifices. Between training and the long working weeks devoted to his IMOCA project, his days had become particularly full. He still has a marathon in his sights, and above all a growing curiosity about ultra-trail running, encouraged by friends who are already passionate about it. « I think there’ll be more similarities with offshore racing, because fatigue comes into play. I love long efforts, when the wear and tear sets in and you have to manage mentally to take things step by step, stop looking at the time that’s passed and the time that’s left. I think ultra-trail could give me what I love so much about offshore racing. » 

What connects these adventures may have less to do with seeking thrills than with the pleasure of confronting what you have not yet mastered. At sea as in the mountains, experience takes you further. But it is sometimes by becoming a beginner again that you most surely find the urge to set off once more.