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Liliane and Maurice BarrardFrench climbers
Country:
 France |
Content:
- Biography of Liliane and Maurice Barrard
- Meeting and Early Expeditions
- Tragic Ascent and Disappearance
- Tragic End
- Legacy
Biography of Liliane and Maurice Barrard
Liliane Barrard (1948 – 24.06.1986) and Maurice Barrard (1941 - 24.06.1986) were a French couple of mountaineers whose lives tragically ended on June 24, 1986, after successfully climbing the Himalayan peak K2.
Meeting and Early Expeditions
Liliane and Maurice met in the mountains of South America. Together, they conquered Gasherbrum II in 1982 and Nanga Parbat in 1984, with Liliane becoming the first woman to summit the latter. They planned their next expedition to climb the challenging Himalayan peak K2 in 1986.
Tragic Ascent and Disappearance
The team consisted of Liliane, Maurice, Polish mountaineer Wanda Rutkiewicz, and French mountaineer Michel Parmentier. However, from the start, things did not go as planned. The entire expedition's budget, including air tickets and passports, was forgotten in the back seat of a taxi.
The climb itself was slow and challenging, with the team stopping for overnight stays at various altitudes. Despite the difficulties, they eventually reached the summit. Wanda Rutkiewicz surpassed Liliane by half an hour, becoming the first woman to conquer K2. All four climbers descended to the camp they had set up the night before. Unfortunately, the weather worsened, and they ran out of fuel for heating.
Tragic End
They decided to descend to a nearby camp of Basque mountaineers. In the stormy conditions, Parmentier went ahead to get fuel, followed by Rutkiewicz. Liliane and Maurice also started their descent but lost sight of their companions due to the worsening weather conditions and poor visibility. Parmentier got lost in the fog and snow for a long time before finding his way back to the camp.
When Parmentier and Rutkiewicz reached their camp, Liliane and Maurice were nowhere to be found. It is likely that they were swept away by an avalanche. A month later, a Korean mountaineering team discovered Liliane's body at a height of approximately 5,300 meters, nearly 3,000 meters below where she was last seen alive. Maurice's body was not found until 1998 on a glacier slightly above the base camp. They were buried near the Gilkey Memorial at the foot of K2.
Legacy
Liliane and Maurice had plans to climb Mount Everest (8,848 meters) after conquering K2. The summer of their tragic accident and the deaths of 13 other climbers on K2 became known as the "Black Summer." Despite the tragedies, K2 has been successfully summited 27 times.
