On some peaks in 2003, the statistics are impressive. For the K2 dubbed "wild mountain" or "ruthless mountain", only 240 reached the summit and more than 60 perished in the ascent. An unimaginable rate of one death in four to survive. And these statistics are even worse At the start of the 2004 climbing season, only five talented and determined women had reached the 8,616-meter summit of K2, but only two made it out alive. , they too perished while climbing other peaks of 8000 meters, these five women all disappeared in the mountains.
11-30-2003
47 min
THIS
HELLA
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Jennifer Jordan
Writers:
Jennifer Jordan, David Parks
Production:
National Geographic, Fox Television Studios, Skyline Ventures Production
Key Crew
Producer:
Jennifer Jordan
Executive Producer:
David Paris
Sound:
Jennifer Jordan
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Filming:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Liliane Barrard
Liliane Barrard discovered mountaineering at the age of thirteen, in the Chamonix valley. In 1973, she met her future husband Maurice while organizing an expedition to Peru. But not knowing his abilities in the mountains, and although his freshly graduated physiotherapist diploma could be useful, Maurice declines his collaboration, offering Liliane to participate in a less perilous race in the same country but without him. Maurice and Liliane see each other again and their common passion for extreme ascents brings them closer together. They get married and settle in Francourville in 1977.
A first success at Gasherbrum II leads the Barrards to set themselves the goal of becoming the highest couple in the world by climbing the Nanga Parbat without oxygen. The obstacle is considerable because, before them, only two expeditions have conquered this summit of Pakistan. Riding with two companions who give up along the way, the couple persists before giving up after 19 days, undermined by bad weather. They lose thirteen and ten kilos respectively, their fingers have frozen and Liliane has to have a toe amputated. A year later, in 1984, after intensified physical and mental preparation, they tried their luck again with two other people, including a doctor. The weather is better than the previous year, the head and the legs too. In four days, the Barrards become the first couple to climb an "8,000" and Liliane the first woman to conquer this summit.
A year later, it was at Makalu that the Barrards attacked. After fourteen days of approach to base camp at 6,700 m, they keep their crampons in favor of skis. They thus confirm and improve their denomination of the highest couple in the world. More than Everest, it is the mountain of mountains, K2, which the Barrards now dream of.
In 1986, the Barrards set their sights on K2. Faced with the enthusiasm for the second highest mountain in the world, you have to wait your turn to climb the southern slope: Maurice and Liliane will team up with Polish Wanda Rutkiewicz and RTL reporter Michel Parmentier. After five days of extreme effort, exhausted, they reach 8,400 meters. For the last 211 meters remaining to climb, the bivouac group in a single tent, without down, without sleeping given the cold and the lack of oxygen. At noon the next day, they reach the summit. During the descent, Parmentier, the least exhausted is in the lead and ahead of the others. Then Wanda arrives at camp, thinking the pair are following. But the storm rises on K2 and the Barrards do not arrive. At the first light of day, Parmentier, worried, resumed the ascent, braved hell to meet his friends who had probably been forced to bivouac. The snow has covered all human traces. In radio contact with Benoît Chamoux, from an Italian expedition, the latter finally convinced him, not without difficulty, to come back down on June 26, two days later. On July 30, an expedition finds the body of Liliane Barrard, she was 38 years old. Maurice Barrard's body was not found until July 1998, at the foot of K2, in a crevasse, he was 45 years old.
Kurt Diemberger, born March 16, 1932 in Villach (Carinthia), is an Austrian mountaineer, photographer, film director and writer. He is one of only two mountaineers, with Hermann Buhl, to have made a first ascent on two peaks over eight thousand meters.
In 1978, he accompanied the first French expedition that succeeded in climbing Everest in the company of the French Jean Afanassieff, Pierre Mazeaud and Nicolas Jaeger. In 1957, Kurt Diemberger participated in the first ascent of Broad Peak (8,047 meters), in an Austro-German team led by Marcus Schmuck and including Hermann Buhl. The same year, still with Hermann Buhl, he attempted the ascent of Chogolisa (7,665 meters). They could not reach the summit, stopped by the storm at 7,300 meters above sea level. Kurt Diemberger was the last person to see his teammate, who fell to his death on the descent when a cornice gave way beneath him at 7,200 metres. In 1960, Kurt Diemberger made the first ascent of Dhaulagiri as part of a Swiss expedition of which he was the only Austrian member.
26 years later, during the expedition of seven Austrian and British climbers led by Alan Rouse on K2, he was one of only two survivors of the expedition, during the snowstorm that wiped out the group on 10 August 1986, six days after reaching the summit of the mountain. Kurt Diemberger then continued to be active in the world of mountaineering, for example preparing various high-altitude expeditions from the Chinese province of Xinjiang and working on film projects on the mountain, together with his daughter.
In 2013, Kurt Diemberger received the Piolet d’or career, Walter Bonatti Prize.
Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness, is the 14th Dalai Lama, the former head of state and spiritual leader of the people of Tibet. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.