Jean Verly and a love of mountaineering

A 28-year-old Vietnamese-French man who graduated from two famous French universities and has a great passion for mountaineering is about to launch a climbing project in Tay Ho district, Hanoi.
 

Jean Verly is climbing up a rocky mountain in Hoa Binh Province.

Anyone who lives in Hanoi and is a fan of mountaineering knows Jean Verly, the founder of the first website on mountaineering in Vietnam – vietclimb.com – in 2006.

This website is in English, French and Vietnamese, and guides people on how to learn climbing and join a mountaineering group led by Jean Verly.

With over 40 members, mainly foreigners in Hanoi, Verly’s group gathers at least twice a month to conquer mountains in Vietnam. The team has climbed up almost all the challenging rocky mountains in Vietnam.

Verly was born and grew up in Paris. His father is a French doctor and his mother is Vietnamese. However, Verly lost his mother at birth so didn’t grow up speaking any Vietnamese.

He began mountaineering at the age of 12. When he was 15, an accident occurred while he was conquering the 4,810m Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. Very was fine but a fellow climber broke his arm and needed to be airlifted to safety.

Verly was very scared but his love for mountaineering still fired and he became a professional climber. However, he didn’t attend professional mountaineering competitions but instead chose to conquer new heights in new lands.

After taking a diploma in literature at the Sorbonne University, Verly received a masters degree for business administration from Toulon University. He decided to go to Vietnam in 2005.

Besides his official job in Vietnam, on his old motorbike, Verly traveled to mountainous areas in Vietnam with his friends to climb mountains. He started the website in early 2006 to introduce mountaineering to Vietnamese people and a community of expats in Vietnam.

The Vietclimb.com forum currently has 140,000 members. Hundreds of articles and thousands of pictures of rocky mountains in Ha Long, Ba Be, Hoa Binh, Ha Tay, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Ninh Binh and Nha Trang.

“Climbing mountains in Vietnam is not as ideal as in France or Switzerland but mountain tops full of obstacles in Vietnam ensure climbers are interested. The natural landscape here is number one,” he said.

This great passion for mountaineering has urged Verly to quit his job to start a new one: building a mountaineering project in An Duong bank, Tay Ho district, Hanoi. Verly is awaiting the license of the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment.

He says that coming to this site, everybody, both old and young, can take exercise by climbing on artificial walls 4m high.

Verly said mountaineering helps people enhance their health, their resistance and confidence. It is also a sport of the community.

VietNamNet/TT

Tags: Jean Verly, Physics games

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