Patrick Berhault

Patrick Berhault

Born: July 19, 1957
Died: April 28, 2004
in Thiers, Puy-de-Dôme, France
Patrick Berhault, born July 19, 1957 in Thiers (Puy-de-Dôme), grew up by the sea between Nice and Monaco. He joined the Club Alpin Monégasque at the age of 13 and started climbing with friends at La Turbie. He left school after the second, and devoted himself to his passion for the mountains and opened these first routes in the Mercantour massif.

In 1978, Patrick Berhault had his first accident in the mountains with his friend Pierre Brizzi, following the break of a ledge, they descended an 814 meter corridor at the three Dents du Pelvoux. and should only salute them to a rope of mountaineers bivouacking near the place of their fall. At the end of the 1970s, together with Patrick Edlinger, he took part in the free climbing revolution in France. In 1980, he "released" the first 7c+ in France. He also practices full soloing in a confidential manner, always in a style based on fluidity and the search for gestural aesthetics. He will share three years of climbing and mountaineering with his brother in arms Patrick Edlinger, and will live from day to day solely for their passion between climbing and intensive training.

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.

Movies for Patrick Berhault...

Partition Libre - Sur Les Traces De Patrick Berhault
Title: Partition Libre - Sur Les Traces De Patrick Berhault
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2019
Type: Movie
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Chamonix - Mont Blanc, Une histoire de conquêtes
Title: Chamonix - Mont Blanc, Une histoire de conquêtes
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: December 2, 2015
Type: Movie
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Berhault
Title: Berhault
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2008
Type: Movie
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Sur Le Fil Des 4000
Title: Sur Le Fil Des 4000
Character: Self
Released: July 1, 2004
Type: Movie
Sur le fil des 4000 is a documentary film by Gilles Chapaz, which traces the last rope of the mountaineering duo Patrick Berhault and Philippe Magnin. The objective of the roped party was to climb the 82 peaks over 4000 meters in the Alps, by carrying out the connecting routes on foot, on skis or by bike. All at the end of winter and the beginning of spring. They left on March 1, 2004, from Saint Christophe en Oisans. The film shows us in images this alpine adventure, from which the spirit of competition is excluded, to make way for the simple pleasure of being in the mountains. This posthumous film was edited after the disappearance of Patrick Berhault, which occurred during the expedition on April 28, 2004.
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Dans la voie, Portrait d'un guide au travail
Title: Dans la voie, Portrait d'un guide au travail
Character: Self
Released: May 19, 2004
Type: Movie
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Là-Haut, Un supplément d'âme
Title: Là-Haut, Un supplément d'âme
Character: Self
Released: December 1, 2001
Type: Movie
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La Cordée de Rêve
Title: La Cordée de Rêve
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2001
Type: Movie
La Cordée de Rêve traces the great alpine journey made from August 2000 to February 2001 by Patrick Berhault. His great crossing of the Alps, here told to his daughter, will be done sometimes alone, sometimes surrounded by friends: Patrick Gabarrou, Patrick Edlinger, Ottavio Fassini, Gaël Bouquet des Chaux, Valérie Aumage, Philippe Magnin. During this alpine trip he will find his brother-in-arms Patrick Edlinger for the dolimitic part and will also see the genesis of the "Cordée Magique Berhault/Magnin". For 167 days, in sneakers in the fall, on touring skis in the winter, Patrick Berhault chained 2 to 3 stages of an average hiker daily, swallowing 1,500 to 2,000 meters of vertical drop and up to 45 kilometers per day. , and climbed 22 peaks. It's called that: "La Grande Cordée" but behind this title lies an exceptional human and sporting performance.
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Title: Premier De Cordée
Character: Fernand
Released: April 19, 1999
Type: TV
Chamonix in the 1930s was a resort where a cosmopolitan, fashionable and sporting society thronged, in search of novelties and thrills found in mountaineering. These people rub shoulders with the Chamoniards but do not meet except on the trails of Mont-Blanc. The accident of Joseph, the patriarch of Servettaz, guides from generation to generation, marked the spirits. It is his son Zian who decides to take up the torch. Married to Bianca, the daughter of the wealthy Milanese industrialist who was partly responsible for her father's death, Zian lives out her great love story - a threesome - with the mountain always remaining the most demanding mistress. Tired of the agonizing expectations and loneliness during her husband's ascents, Bianca returns to Italy, Zian joins her, but society life is not his world, he returns to Chamonix. During an outing in the mountains, Zian falls into a crevasse. Bianca, alerted by a presentiment, returns to the one she loves above all...
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Verdon forever
Title: Verdon forever
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1998
Type: Movie
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Patrick Berhault - Il Gesto e La Grazia
Title: Patrick Berhault - Il Gesto e La Grazia
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1997
Type: Movie
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Fortune Express
Title: Fortune Express
Character: Doublure séquence montagne
Released: April 24, 1991
Type: Movie
Following a climbing accident in the mountains, Pascal loses the use of his legs and is confined to a wheelchair. The film follows his gradual acceptance of this during his stay in a rehabilitation centre and, with the support of fellow residents, the return of his will to live.
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Metamorfosi
Title: Metamorfosi
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1987
Type: Movie
Metamorphosis is a real ballet dance on the rocks, interpreted by a great climber, Patrick Berhault, and set in the picturesque countryside of Cote d'Azur and the Lingurian coast. Berhault's evolutions, in the sea, in the grottoes, on the rocks and precipices, are exceedingly difficult but they are chiefly performed to give the movement an aesthetic value. Matemorphosis is the story of a cycle without words, narrated with gestures and music. The climber Monique Dalmasso also partecipates in the film.
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Les Conquérants de l'Impossible: Portrait de Groupe
Title: Les Conquérants de l'Impossible: Portrait de Groupe
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1986
Type: Movie
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The Backstage Wall
Title: The Backstage Wall
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1983
Type: Movie
Behind the scenes of the filming of a film on climbing a cliff by Patrick Berhault and Georges Unia on the parishes of the route "La Tête de Chien" in Monaco. Director Laurent Chevallier explains the difficulties of filming at height, the kind of shots that are suitable and the specifications of equipment suitable for filming on a cliff.
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Oversand
Title: Oversand
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1981
Type: Movie
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Dévers
Title: Dévers
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1981
Type: Movie
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Over-Ice
Title: Over-Ice
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1981
Type: Movie
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Nanga Parbat 80, La revanche de futur
Title: Nanga Parbat 80, La revanche de futur
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1980
Type: Movie
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Overdon
Title: Overdon
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1980
Type: Movie
First film in a series of three with Over-Ice and Oversand and one of the first films on free climbing shot in the cliffs of the Gorges du Verdon in several parishes. We meet a certain Patrick Edlinger, Patrick Bérhault, but also Jean-Marc Troussier, Jacques Perrier, Stéphane Troussier, Hugues Jaillet, Gilbert Thomann, Odette Schoënleb, Bernard Gorgeon, Christian Guyomar. Thanks to the program Les Carnets de l'aventure, then broadcast on Antenne 2, and its producer Pierre-François Degeorges, this film was made. The chain gave its production agreement during the day, while the climbing was very confidential, no one knew Patrick Edlinger and the project itself contained only a few lines on a sheet
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Voie Express
Title: Voie Express
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1979
Type: Movie