Liliane Barrard ( – 24 June 1986) and Maurice Barrard ( – 24 June 1986) were a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
couple who gained fame climbing at high altitude, mainly in the
Himalayan and
Karakoram
The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...
ranges, and emphasizing
Alpine-style 'fast and light' ascents.
Early life
The couple met while climbing in South America, having previously worked mainly in teaching.
Billing themselves as the 'World's Highest Couple', they successfully climbed
Gasherbrum II
Gasherbrum II ( ur, ; ); surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan a ...
(8,035 m/26,360 ft) in 1982 with Liliane's brother, Alain Bontemps, and
Nanga Parbat
Nanga Parbat ( ur, ) (; ), known locally as Diamer () which means “king of the mountains”, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth, its summit at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in ...
(8,126 m/26,658 ft) in 1984 (first female ascent of this peak for Liliane). Although narrowly failing to make the summit of
Makalu
Makalu ( ne, मकालु हिमाल, Makālu himāl; zh, t=馬卡魯峰, p=Mǎkǎlǔ fēng) is the fifth highest mountain in the world at . It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas southeast of Mount Everest, in Nepal. One of th ...
(8,462 m/27,765 ft), they nevertheless put the finances together to attempt
K2 (8,611 m/28,268 ft) in 1986 with a small team consisting of themselves, Polish climber
Wanda Rutkiewicz
Wanda Rutkiewicz (née Błaszkiewicz) ( 4 February 1943 – 12–13 May 1992) was a Polish mountain climber and computer engineer. She was the first woman to reach the summit of K2 and the third woman (first European woman) to summit Mount Ev ...
and French climber Michel Parmentier.
K2
The start to the Barrards' K2 expedition was not a promising one: Maurice and Liliane "had left their entire expedition budget—thousands of dollars plus airline tickets and passports on the backseat of a taxi!" Everything was sorted out in due course, and the Barrards,
Wanda Rutkiewicz
Wanda Rutkiewicz (née Błaszkiewicz) ( 4 February 1943 – 12–13 May 1992) was a Polish mountain climber and computer engineer. She was the first woman to reach the summit of K2 and the third woman (first European woman) to summit Mount Ev ...
and Parmentier arrived at the K2 motel at about the same time as
Alan Rouse's British expedition, then headed to Base Camp.
The Barrards' expedition ascended the mountain very slowly, spending nights at 6300, 7100, 7700, 7900, and 8300 meters (20,669; 23,294; 25,262; 25,919; and 27,250 feet, respectively) on the climb. They spent their last night before their summit attempt bivouacked with a tent but no sleeping bags. The Barrards, Rutkiewicz, and Parmentier all summited successfully by 11:00am on June 23, 1986.
Wanda Rutkiewicz
Wanda Rutkiewicz (née Błaszkiewicz) ( 4 February 1943 – 12–13 May 1992) was a Polish mountain climber and computer engineer. She was the first woman to reach the summit of K2 and the third woman (first European woman) to summit Mount Ev ...
was the first female ascender of K2, a mere 30 minutes before Liliane Barrard. Both women summited K2 without using supplemental oxygen.
The four climbers descended only as far as their bivouac site from the night before, near the
Bottleneck
Bottleneck literally refers to the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle
A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids ...
(a treacherous terrain feature at around 8,300 m/27,250 feet). The Barrards and their group had run out of fuel for their stoves (which are necessary to melt snow for water in order to prevent dehydration at high altitude). Parmentier descended first, to try and borrow some stove fuel from a nearby pair of
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
climbers,
Mari Abrego and
Josema Casimiro. The others descended after him. Rutkiewicz caught up with Parmentier; the Barrards lagged behind. The Basque climbers had also run out of gas, and accompanied Parmentier and Rutkiewicz back to the French Camp Three, at 7800m/25,600 feet.
Rutkiewicz and the Basques continued down the mountain, and Parmentier waited for the Barrards to reach Camp Three. The weather was deteriorating. A French climber climbing with an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
expedition,
Benoît Chamoux
Benoît Chamoux (19 February 1961 – 6 October 1995) was a French people, French Mountaineering, Alpinist, who claimed to have summited 13 of the Eight-thousanders in the Himalayas.
Three of these climbs are disputed and are not formally rec ...
, tried to convince Parmentier to come down, without success, and left him a radio before turning around and heading back toward Base Camp. Eventually Parmentier, who had tried to wait for some sign of the Barrards, began to descend, in white-out conditions and gale-force winds. Parmentier was eventually guided down the mountainside via radio directions from Base Camp, about 3000m/9,843 feet below, based on the few landmarks he could find in the blizzard.
Rutkiewicz, suffering from frostbite, and Parmentier both reached Base Camp alive. The Barrards were never seen alive again. The morning after summiting, Maurice had been very tired, and he and Liliane had left their tent after their climbing partners. It was windy and visibility was poor. The most likely scenarios are that the Barrards wandered off-route in the storm; that they fell; or that they collapsed from exhaustion and possible
hypoxia
Hypoxia means a lower than normal level of oxygen, and may refer to:
Reduced or insufficient oxygen
* Hypoxia (environmental), abnormally low oxygen content of the specific environment
* Hypoxia (medical), abnormally low level of oxygen in the tis ...
.
Aftermath
A month later a South Korean team found Liliane's body on a snow field at around , nearly lower than where she was last seen; Maurice's body was not found until 1998 on the glacier just above Base Camp, and both are now buried at the Gilkey Memorial at the base of K2.
Notes
* That summer, known as the ‘Black Summer of 1986’, saw 13 deaths and 27 ascents on K2.
* During the 'Black Summer', many expeditions shared in a surfeit of tragedies. An
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
expedition to the South-South-West Ridge suffered two casualties --
John Smolich and Alan Pennington were killed in an avalanche on June 21, after which their teammates left the mountain. Maurice and Liliane Barrard were lost on their descent after a successful summit bid, on June 25. A
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
climber,
Tadeusz Piotrowski, fell to his death after a successful summit of the Central Rib of the South Face, on July 10. On July 16,
Renato Casarotto
Renatus is a first name of Latin origin which means "born again" (natus = born). In Italian, Portuguese and Spanish it exists in masculine and feminine forms: Renato and Renata. In French they have been translated to René and Renée. Renata is a ...
fell into a crevasse, after an unsuccessful attempt at climbing the South-South-West Ridge, and died later that day after being pulled out.
Wojciech Wroz
Wojciech () is a Polish name, equivalent to Czech Vojtěch , Slovak Vojtech, and German Woitke. The name is formed from two components in archaic Polish:
* ''wój'' (Slavic: ''voj''), a root pertaining to war. It also forms words like ''wojownik ...
, a Polish climber, died during his descent on August 3-4, after a successful ascent of the South-South-West Ridge. On August 4, Mohammed Ali (Sirdar, or leader, of a South Korean expedition's high-altitude porters) was killed by stonefall on the Abruzzi Ridge.
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
climber
Julie Tullis
Julie Tullis (née Palau) (15 March 1939 – 6/7 August 1986) was a British climber and filmmaker who died while descending from K2's summit during a storm, along with four other climbers from several expeditions, during the "Black Summer" of ...
died after a successful summit attempt and forced descent to Camp Four, possibly from
High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) on August 7. Two
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n climbers,
Alfred Imitzer
Alfred may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series
* ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne
* ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák
*"Alfred (Interlu ...
and
Hannes Wieser
Hannes is a masculine given name and a diminutive of Johannes or Hannibal.
Hannes may refer to:
*Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) Swedish chemist and Nobel-prize winner
*Hannes Aigner (born 1989), German slalom canoeist and Olympic medalist
*Hannes An ...
, died in a descent from Camp Four during a storm on August 10. British climber
Alan Rouse is presumed to have died the same day; as was
Dobroslawa Miodowicz-Wolf, a Polish climber who disappeared on fixed ropes below Camp Three. Difficult weather conditions caused many other injuries and near-fatalities throughout the summer.
[Curran, Jim, ''K2: Triumph and Tragedy.'' p.187-88. Grafton, 1989. ()]
* The Barrards had planned to attempt the notorious East or Kangshung face of
Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heigh ...
(8,848 m/29,028 ft) following their K2 bid.
See also
*
1986 K2 Disaster
*
List of climbers
This list of climbers and mountaineers is a list of people notable for the activities of mountaineering, rock climbing (including bouldering) and ice climbing.
A
* Vitaly Abalakov (1906–1992) Russia, climbed Lenin Peak (1934) and Khan Te ...
*
List of solved missing person cases
Lists of solved missing person cases include:
* List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000
* List of solved missing person cases: post-2000
See also
* List of kidnappings
* List of murder convictions without a body
* List of people who dis ...
References
Books
*Jordan, Jennifer, ''Savage Summit: True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2'' (2006)
*Reinisch, Getrude, ''Wanda Rutkiewicz: A Caravan of Dreams'' (2000)
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrard, Liliane and Maurice
1940s births
1980s missing person cases
1986 deaths
Formerly missing people
French mountain climbers
Married couples
Missing person cases in Pakistan
Mountaineering deaths on K2
Sport deaths in China