Thanks John, just above. Very good little video monologue of Hans Jorge Auer's. One gets a good picture what it could be like, finding oneself in such a dream .
All sports - climbing icon: Died At stairs fall?
Shock to the growing community of climbing: A legend of the Free Climbings died. At the age of 52 years was Patrick Edlinger was at his home in southern France, La Palud-sur-Verdon dead Frenchman aufgefunden.Der a pioneer of free climbing and in 1982 also on expert panels also known by two films of his incredible achievements in the light public engaged:
In "La Vie au bout des doigts" and "Opera vertical" can still amazed at how he climbs about unsecured by the Verdon gorges.
Until 1995, when, after a heavy fall suffered a cardiac arrest, climbed the "Le Blond" called exceptional talents continue at the top level, then he moved increasingly into private life. Of the birth of his daughter in 2002 he renounced risky solo trips.
He was supposed to be a few days ago at a Mountain Film Festival. A documentary film about his life was also in the works, such as a biography of the year 2013 - it had the dark side of an extraordinary way of life found their place.
Because Edlinger struggled for years with severe depression and was therefore become alcoholics - "my most difficult fight," as he has recently been quoted in the local newspaper "Dauphine Libere".
Reports that he died in a fall from a stairway in his house have not been confirmed to date. For now, the cause of death remains unexplained.
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.
Patrick Edlinger was supposed to be at the mountain film festival happening in Grenoble now; instead, he will be honoured and remembered tomorrow evening at this same festival.
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.
"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."
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.
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.
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.
Let us know!