Philippe Descamps

FranceJournalist and editor in chief of Le Monde Diplomatique

Philippe Descamps is a journalist, editor in chief of Le Monde Diplomatique, a monthly newspaper for which he also writes on environmental issues. He has also been a TV journalist, chief editor of Montagnes magazine, associate professor at Grenoble university and secretary general of the Petzl Foundation. His main publications concerning the mountains concern risk management and accident prevention: editorial coordinator of UIAA’s Alpine Skills: Summer; co-author, with Olivier Moret, of Avalanches, comment réduire le risque (how to reduce the avalanche risk), Éditions Guérin. He also conducted a study on accidents in the Goûter couloir of Mont Blanc (Accidentologie dans le couloir du Goûter, sur la voie normale du mont Blanc) in collaboration with the PGHM mountain rescue police and the Petzl Foundation, which reviews the emergency interventions organised along the Tête Rousse glacier route to the Goûter Hut between 1990 and 2011.