Eric Escoffier

"Escoff", the gymnast converted into climbing, was a pioneer, one of the leaders of this generation who revisited the great routes of the Alps, dividing the timetables by two, three or four, and chaining at the same time two, three or four main routes during the day thanks to hang-gliding or paragliding; of a generation now largely decimated, who, at the start of the 1980s, practiced "excessive" mountaineering, making him take such a leap forward that some people today wonder if he has really recovered . At 25, he became, with Christophe Profit, the star of a demanding system. The scene of this confrontation in the shadow of sponsors and helicopters was the winter trilogy. At the beginning of March 1987, Profit succeeded where Escoffier had failed, the latter having gotten lost on the north face of the Eiger, where he had refused to do a reconnaissance.

Escoffier was constantly inventing new challenges: lining up the summits, taking part in the Monaco rally, flying hang-gliding or paragliding, practicing free solo climbing... In 1985, among some of his many exploits, he succeeded in overcoming three eight thousand meters in the Himalayas, Gasherbrum 2 (8,035 meters) Hidden Peak (8,068 meters) and K2 (French premiere, 8,611 meters).

Above all, the life of Eric Escoffier, a motor racing enthusiast, changed six months later, on September 18, 1987, when his car rolled over in the Arly gorges, leaving him hemiplegic for more than six months. By force of will, thanks, he said, to his habit of training, Escoffier fought against this handicap, a word he refused to pronounce until quite recently. He had relearned to walk, overcame two new serious accidents, falls in a paraglider (in 1988) and in a crevasse of Mont Blanc (in 1996). He swallowed up kilometers on a mountain bike, but walking on uneven terrain (scree, mixed, or deep snow) was a constant battle for him. He had two children, aged 8 and 10, and was expecting a third, in December, with his new partner.

Not resigning himself to living in anonymity, he found himself a somewhat disproportionate challenge, combining all the fashionable challenges: he wanted to have climbed the fourteen 8,000, the summit of the seven continents (Arctic and Antarctica included) , and reached the two poles in the year 2000. By passing the McKinley, the Kilimanjaro, the Aconcagua and, above all, last September, the Cho Oyu (8,201 m), he had rediscovered the pleasure of his first roles. With his partner Pascale Bessière they disappeared while attempting the ascent of Broad Peak on July 29, 1998. A Polish mountaineer, Piotr Pustelnik, had seen them one last time on the summit ridge while a very strong wind was blowing. The day before, they had spent the night without bivouac equipment in a snow hole dug at 7,700 meters, under the pass which leads to the summit ramp. “Nothing is impossible”, Eric Escoffier liked to repeat to anyone who wanted to hear it.