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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Nov 20, 2012 - 05:49pm PT
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Nov 20, 2012 - 06:05pm PT
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qn.quotidiano.net/cronaca/2012/11/20/805224-morto-edlinger-
triste-destino-re-climber-arrampicata.shtml
"È caduto da una ripida scala di casa, battendo la testa e procurandosi una fatale emorragia"
(Google translation: He fell from a steep staircase of the house, hitting his head and by getting a fatal hemorrhage).
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Nov 20, 2012 - 07:10pm PT
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At the video bar in Chamonix, they would constantly play tapes of Edlinger soloing really long routes in the Verdon.
He was super handsome and well built. If he had a good sex drive, those movies alone must have had him rolling in girls.
He was so smooth soloing. I bouldered with him one day at an area outside of Chamonix. He was really good, but not amazing. He could take a route to his absolute limit and drop the rope, though.
He was like Bachar. An amazing soloist. Damn, but the dude was handsome in his glory days.
RIP to a visionary. Nice fellow as well.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Nov 21, 2012 - 06:42pm PT
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I didn’t attend the Snowbird competition, but heard so much about it, from so many people, that it’s almost as if I were there. The best US climbers were just astounded by his performance. Here are two joking responses that stand out in my memory, but they convey the impact of Edlinger’s mastery that day.
Henry Barber: “I’m just glad they didn’t have competitions like that in my day.”
John Long to some younger climbers: “ We were the best free climbers in the world. I can’t believe you let the frogs beat you.”
Adieu, Monsieur Edlinger; sincere condolences to his family and friends.
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Erik
Trad climber
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Nov 21, 2012 - 07:23pm PT
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I dig this: (from http://www.climbing.com/news/patrick-edlinger-reported-dead/);
"Edlinger also launched climbing development at the great crag above Ceüse, France, creating numerous spicy routes with widely spaced bolts. Asked years later why he didn’t put in more bolts, Edlinger said it was simply because he and his partners didn’t have enough money. They wanted to put up lots of routes, and thus they had to ration their bolts."
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
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Nov 21, 2012 - 09:03pm PT
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A tragic loss of a true visionary- RIP Patrick...
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Nov 22, 2012 - 02:52am PT
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I was at Snowbird to see friends and to cheer on A5's only ever cash-sponsored climber (Yabo, whom we provided with a few bucks for travel and some t-shirts). I must say, I was a bit skeptical at the time, as a "trad" climber (before the distinction was coined), of the idea of climbing as competition--until I saw Edlinger pull off that final route--the suspense had been building and all comers had failed in the last few metres. As Edlinger approached the final stretch, suddenly everyone was awestuck--he floated it. The instantaneous reaction of the crowd was palpable, like a great magician pulling off his most amazing performance. It was then that I realised the times were a changin', and the focus on climbing as the advance of the technical, rather than of the bold, was the future.
Of course, Edlinger was also intensely respected prior to the comp for his grace on hard bold climbs and solos, as the French counterpart to Bachar.
Sad news, indeed.
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Nov 22, 2012 - 03:05pm PT
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I'm just so sad to know that Patrick is no longer with us on this side of eternity. He was a true inspiration.
I cherish my copy of Life by Fingetips. I first watched it while drinking a beer in the bar in Chamonix. I was stunned. His climbing is perfection. I wanted to free climb as smooth and as perfect as PE did. He turned climbing into art. No doubt he made the women turn and look again and again.
I'm sorry to hear that he suffered from depression, and alcoholism. So many do silently. I wish it weren't so. We need each other.
Hope to see PE again as well as many others that I admire and miss, on the other side of eternity some day. Not too soon though, Hashem Adonai Elohim willing. Have Yeshua HaMashaich's work to do.
I have a subtitled English version of this . . .
La vie aux bout des doigts [Patrick Edlinger]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDcaPJXQAFE
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Nov 22, 2012 - 08:42pm PT
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One of the problems with depression is that it screws with sleep patterns and
the shadows lengthen further. Often, just to get a good night sleep, people will drink copiously, which only compounds both the sleep disorder and the depression.
If it can beat an icon like PE down then the whole business needs to be dragged out into the open and reviewed. I can't tell you how many people I have known in the adventure world who have roughly followed the same tragic and debilitating cycle.
Celebrate his life and achievements, certainly, but keep an eye out for friends that might not see a way out and get crushed to dust by addictions and desperate attempts to self medicate. It's a killer - of even the best of us.
JL
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wayne burleson
climber
Amherst, MA
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Nov 22, 2012 - 10:49pm PT
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Well said Largo, thanks
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msiddens
Trad climber
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Nov 23, 2012 - 11:03pm PT
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Another hero gone. RIP
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sunnyside
Big Wall climber
earth
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Nov 24, 2012 - 05:08am PT
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Into the Blue. Dr. Long
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sunnyside
Big Wall climber
earth
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Nov 24, 2012 - 11:15am PT
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Gorge du Verdon
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 27, 2012 - 08:16pm PT
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Sure wish I spoke French. Or at least could read it. My loss I'm sure.
Arne
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Nov 28, 2012 - 12:17pm PT
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Thanks for that, Lisa.
Well written, "a blend of sport, spiritualism, philosophy and bravado".
Hope things post-Sandy are getting back to normal.
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The Lisa
Trad climber
Da Bronx, NY
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Nov 28, 2012 - 03:09pm PT
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Thanks, Toke. The obit even explained sport vs trad climbing concisely!
I heard the term 'gained the Sandy Seven' for the first time today - people sat in the dark and ate all the time?
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