Last week I posted the story of Sylvain Tesson, a popular French writer and adventurer who was injured after falling ten meters while climbing a chateau on Chamonix. Tesson, who routinely scales man-made structures such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, landed on his back, and struck his head on the ground, causing serious injuries and putting him in a coma. At the time of the original story, it was unclear if he would recover, but since then he has made significant progress, and doctors are cautiously optimistic that he will suffer no long term effects from his injuries.
According to a recent update, Sylvain has awoken from the coma, and shows no signs of memory loss. Furthermore, he appears to have full use of his limbs, and while still going through the recovery process, it appears that he has escaped permanent physical damage. He is progressing so well in fact, that he was moved from the critical care hospital he had been in to a more general facility on Sunday. He will continue to recover for some time, and likely faces some physical therapy, but it appears that he will eventually regain his strength and be able to continue his life normally.
A best-selling author in his home country, Tesson has had a number of interesting adventures throughout his life. For instance, he and a companion once spent two years cycling around the globe, and later trekked across the Himalaya from Bhutan to Tajikistan. He has ridden across the Asian Steppe from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan on horseback, and lived in a small cabin on the shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia for five months. That last adventure was the subject of his book The Consolidation of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin on the Siberian Taiga, for which he received numerous accolades.
It is good to hear the news that Sylvain is on the road to recovery. So often in the world of adventure and exploration these kinds of stories end in tragedy, so it is nice to have one that sounds like it will turn out okay. Hopefully his recovery will continue at a speedy pace, and Tesson's friends and family can rest a bit easier.
Thanks to Louis-Philippe Loncke for providing the update on this story.
