Profession grimpeur, Eric Escoffier

Fifteen years have passed since the spectacular images of Jean-Paul Janssen's "Life at Your Fingertips" introduced the general public to free climbing and its embodiment: Patrick Edlinger. We witnessed the birth of a sporting phenomenon that would leave a lasting mark on generations of climbers. But fifteen years later, in 1997, beyond the myth, where is Patrick Edlinger? Gilles Chappaz found him on some of the most beautiful walls of the Verdon Gorge and other cliffs during the filming of Maurice Rebeix's documentary "Roc'n Wall 97," where he shares his climbing practice and philosophy with the younger generation, including Liv Sansoz and Arnaud Petit.

Climber Patrick Edlinger visits various climbing areas in the American West, including Joshua Tree (routes and bouldering), Yosemite (bouldering), Hueco Tanks (bouldering), and Smith Rock (routes). He is seen climbing alongside Russ Clune, Ron Kauk, Jean-Paul Lemercier, and Todd Skinner in numerous sequences accompanied by Native American-inspired music composed by Benoît Fromanger. Less well-known than his two previous films, "La Vie au bout des doigts" and "Opéra Vertical," it remains a benchmark for all climbing enthusiasts and admirers of Edlinger, the world's most famous climber. His familiar voice provides narration throughout many sequences with iconic phrases that encapsulate the man, such as: "Climbing, this useless thing to which I dedicate my life."

"In 1983, a French expedition, led by Yannick Seigneur and including Jean Afanassieff, left for Tibet to climb the western ridge of Everest on the Chinese side in alpine style. Jean Afanassieff films the Tibetan population between tradition, religion and modernity and tells us about this expedition."

Vertical Opera is a documentary film directed by Jean-Paul Janssen, with climbers Patrick Edlinger and Jean-Paul Lemercier in the Gorges du Verdon. The film opens with a training sequence of Patrick Edlinger then he links the routes with Jean-Paul Lemercier "L'Ange en décongelation" (7a), in which he falls voluntarily to demonstrate the usefulness of the rope, then "Le Septième Saut" (7b+). Finally, the final scene, an anthology, consists of a close-up of Edlinger who climbs free solo and barefoot the route "Débiloff", still in the Verdon, above hundreds of meters of void, all to lyrical music. It is "Wie Furchtsam Wankten Meine Schritte", the aria for alto voice from Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata BWV 33, music not unrelated to the subject of the documentary: "How faltering and fearful my steps were".

Oversand is one of the first films about free climbing, the third film in a series of three with "Overdon" and "Over-Ice". Directed by Jean-Paul Janssen, the film was shot in 35mm in Algeria, in the Sahara Desert, in the Tamanrasset region, on the walls of the majestic peaks of the Atakor massif, central sub-region of Hoggar, mountainous heart of Hoggar, a volcanic plateau of almost circular shape, whose average altitude is 2000 meters, and which culminates at Mount Tahat (2918m), the highest point in Algeria. The Atakor is distinguished by its spectacular volcanic peaks, its needles, and its rugged landscapes, resulting from the erosion of ancient volcanic chimneys, which make it the most emblematic summits of the Hoggar, such as the Assekrem, the Ilamane, or the Tizouyag, where climbers Patrick Edlinger, Patrick Bérhault, Bernard Gorgeon, Hugues Jaillet, Jacques Perrier, Stéphane Troussier and Odette Schoënleb evolve under the watchful eye of the Tuareg caravans.

A 2016 film about the Cateissard, a mountain overlooking the Val di Susa near Turin, a laboratory of innovation and evolution in Italian climbing. From the Risveglio route opened by Grassi, Bonelli and Galante in 1974, in the heart of Nuovo Mattino, to Patrick Berhault's visit in 1980 and his legendary climbing demonstration on the Nani Verdi route, to the rediscovery of these rocks by Andrea Giorda who, with Marco Croce, Fabrizio Pennicino, Aldo Tirabeni and Claudio Battezzati, Marco Bernardi, Federica Mingolla, Carlo Giuliberti and others, opened 116 new single-pitch routes, graded from IV to 8b. The success of these climbing sites is undeniable; the cliffs of Profondo Rosso, Falchi Penne and Croci, Neverending Wall, Cateissoft, Sky Wall and Cateisstrong, opened by Giuliberti and Lotito, attract dozens of climbers, even from elsewhere.

With the proliferation of private climbing gyms and the sport's inclusion in the Olympic Games, climbing, long a counter-cultural movement, is undergoing a profound transformation and facing a major paradox. On the one hand, private gyms are enjoying increasing popularity, while on the other, natural climbing sites are under serious threat. What vertical legacy will we leave to future generations? Is outdoor climbing destined to disappear? What will the future hold for climbing? Led by Cédric Lachat, a multi-award-winning Swiss climber, the film provides an international overview of this counter-culture, which has recently become a social phenomenon.

In a vertiginous sequence, Claude Lelouch's camera follows Patrick Edlinger climbing with his bare hands one of the routes of the spectacular Cimaï cliff. The action takes place in the Consensus voice (7c+/8a+) at the Cimaï quarry. In a place large enough where Claude Lelouch had been able to take out his crane to make a vertical trip. Later, in 2013, the foot of the Consensus route will experience landslides, the climbing sector has since been prohibited by municipal decree, huge blocks threatening to fall.

“The Conquerors of the Impossible: Group Portrait” is a documentary on free climbing which takes place in the Verdon Gorges and Toulon. It was directed by Bernard Dumont in 1986 and produced by Les Films du Soleil. It is part of the series The Conquerors of the Impossible (3-3). There we find Patrick Berhault, Patrick Edlinger, Eric Escoffier, Christophe Profit, Laurent Chevallier, Jean-Paul Janssen and other pioneers of free climbing.

To understand the difficulties of an ascent to over eight thousand metres, it is enough to remember the almost 300 victims these peaks have claimed. The Swiss alpinist Ehrart Loretan, the third alpinist in the world to have climbed all 14 8,000, and the Austrian alpinist Kurt Diemgerger cover the whole history of the conquest of the world’s 8,000, from the fifties to the present day, together with other alpinists and film directors who have climbed them. They talk about their experienced when they ventured into the death zone.

Less than two years after his serious road accident, Eric Escoffier brought together the "Turbo" team (Frédéric Ancey, Michel Fauquet, Christine Janin and Stéphane Schaffter) with whom he will attempt to climb Everest without oxygen and without prior acclimatization in the Himalayas, the project being to complete the Paris-Everest-Paris loop in two weeks. It is also a medical experiment: the athletes spend a week at Mont Blanc, at the Vallot observatory between 4000 and 4800m, then a week in a hypobaric chamber in Grenoble. Doctors (Dr. Richalet, Herry and Bittel) perform tests throughout this training, which will learn about how the body acclimatizes to altitude and allow applications in the management of mountain-related illnesses . On September 2, 1989, they arrived at Everest base camp in China. They attempted the ascent via the North Col but could not carry out their project, prevented by bad weather.

Meeting in Chamonix with Éric Escoffier, famous mountaineer of the 80s, victim of a car accident in September 1987. Victim of multiple fractures and total paralysis on his left side, Escoffier managed to walk again, despite the doctors' pessimistic prognoses... The commentary on images of Éric Escoffier in his daily life in Chamonix and archive images and photographs alternates with archive documents, extracts from the films "Profession grimpeur" by Philippe Lallet and "Face nord" by Jean Afanassieff as well as interviews with the protagonist, Rémi Éric Escoffier and Michel Garcia. Great among the greatest, Éric Escoffier, who disappeared in the mountains at Broad Peak on July 29, 1998, will never have been an ordinary man.

In 1983, three climbers became the first French people to reach the summit of Everest. Among them were expedition leader Pierre Mazeaud and a promising 25-year-old climber, Jean Afanassieff. Twenty years later, the two legends, accompanied by mountain guide Michel Pellé, retrace the steps of their exploit and make the trek from Kathmandu to the foot of the roof of the world. This is an opportunity to retrace the history of the successive assaults on Everest and to assess the current situation of a mountain that has become a victim of its own success: while Sherpas have been able to take advantage of Western enthusiasm and thus enrich themselves and equip the summit to make it more accessible, the site's attendance poses numerous problems, both human and ecological.

March 12, 1987. The young French mountaineer Eric Escoffier prepares his equipment, very reduced in material and food. He leaves the next day and intends to chain three north faces in the Alps: Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses. The ascent of the first summit, the Eiger is slow, difficult and full of pitfalls. It takes 17 hours to reach it. Without recognizing the terrain -he prefers to improvise- the mountaineer continues through the Matterhorn. When night falls, anxiety is felt on Zermatt's side. Help is organized to pick him up. Despite his refusal to return, Escoffier is finally hoisted. Christophe Profit, a few hours earlier, managed the chain of three summits.

An American general with highly confidential defence information has been kidnapped by terrorists and is being held in a cliff-top fortress in the Mediterranean.

"Droit de Réponse" (Right of Reply) is a French debate program broadcast between December 12, 1981 and September 19, 1987 on the TF1 channel, presented by Michel Polac and produced by Maurice Dugowson. Broadcast live on a weekly basis, on Saturdays from 8.30 p.m., the right of reply has been the source of many controversies, due to the various speakers who have come to present their point of view on the show (which leads to famous scandals , remained in the memory of viewers), but also for the variety and relevance of the topics covered, which ensured the success of the program on the air for several years. On French television, this program is considered by some observers as a “pioneer program in terms of controversy-show or clash, in modern language”.