Patrick Cordier (alpinist)

Patrick Cordier (29 December 1946 – 5 June 1996) was a French alpinist. He was killed on 5 June 1996 in a motoring accident riding his motorcycle whilst travelling on the Marseille to Aix-en-Provence motorway.[1]

Patrick Cordier

Career

Born in 1946,[2] Cordier learned to climb at Fontainebleau near his home in Paris.[2] He moved on quickly to the Alps, where he became one of the most recognizable climber of his generation. In 1967 he was a member of the French team that made the first ascent of the French Direct on Norway's Troll Wall.[2] Through the 1970s he climbed many new routes in the Vercors and the Chamonix Aiguilles, the Cordier Pillars on the Grands Charmoz[2][3] and the Aiguille de Roc[2] bear his name. He climbed, solo, the Nose on El Capitan in America's Yosemite Valley in 1972.[1]

His new route on the East Ridge of the Lepiney was accomplished using new climbing ideas brought back from the US.[2] Cordier climbed further a field making the first ascent of Bubulimoting Spire above the Hunza Valley in the Karakoram.[4] In 1976, Cordier accomplished a solo ascent of the American Direct on the South face of the Fou in the Chamonix Aiguilles.[2] His ascent took three days to accomplish. In 1977, he became a founding member of the Independent Company of Mont Blanc Guides. Now Doctor Cordier, from 1977, he worked as an instructor for the Ecole National de Ski et Alpinisme at Chamonix.[1]

References
  1. (in French) Gilles Modica, "Patrick Cordier Un grimpeur libertaire", Montagnes Magazine, n°236, mai 2000
  2. (in French) Grande encyclopédie de la montagne, éditions Atlas, Paris, 1977, t. 3 p. 717
  3. Pilier Cordier – Cordier Pillar – 5.9 TD
  4. Patrick Cordier, "Bubuli-Mo-Tin", American Alpine Journal 1983, pp. 280–281.
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