Patrick Berhault

In 1980, with Jean-Marc Boivin, they took the incredible gamble of connecting the summits of Les Drus and Le Fou during the day by hang-gliding after having climbed the south face for Le Fou and the direct American for Les Drus. He will achieve in record time, and most often solo, the toughest routes in the Alps. The “Berhault style” was born, calling into question many uses hitherto based on slowness, and imposing technology. In particular, he does major routes in the Verdon, and "liberates" climbing routes marked as the first 8c in France. From 1985, while his colleagues were pushing for competition, Berhault refused competition by signing the Manifesto of 192. An admirer of Rudolf Nureyev, he developed a new discipline: “Dance-Climbing”; he has developed choreographies and gives shows, notably at the Châteauvallon festival.

At the same time, he became involved in social action by participating in climbing training courses for young people in Vaulx-en-Velin, today the 40-meter artificial climbing wall in the Mas du Taureau district. , bears his name. His project of a life in the countryside as a “farmer guide” materializes in Auvergne in his native hills of Forez; He moved into a farm in the hamlet with his company and his 2 daughters. Mason, farmer or carpenter, he spends his days without mountains driving his tractor and fixing up his farm. In the early 1990s, Patrick Berhault began his return to the mountains, passed his guide diploma and trained aspiring guides at ENSA, and returned from 1992 with express ascents. He then divided his life between expeditions in the Himalayas and Latin America, ENSA in Chamonix, and the development of climbing in Auvergne. In 1996, he opposed a controversial Franco-Chinese expedition to Tibet. His last project (March-April 2004) will consist in chaining the 82 peaks over 4000 m in the Alps, in the company of Philippe Magnin. Patrick Berhault will have a fatal fall on April 28, 2004, after the 64th summit, on the snowy ridge interspersed with rocky outcrops in the Mischabels massif in Switzerland.