Biography

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.