Nanga Parbat 80, La revanche de futur (1980)

In 1980, mountaineers Yannick Seigneur and Patrick Berhault set themselves the goal of the southeast pillar of Nanga Parbat (8,125 m) which rises in a single jet of granite over a 4,300 m drop. "A diabolical route", affirmed a specialist in this Himalayan mountain, the Italian Reinhold Messner, who climbed this summit alone in August 1979, but via its northern slope. The two Frenchmen thought of opening a new route without placing fixed ropes, without setting up an altitude camp, without being helped by altitude carriers and without using oxygen. Unaccustomed to very high altitude, Berhault suffered a blockage of the kidneys at 7,000 m. Lord had to give up. The seven French mountaineers, including four guides professors at the National School of Skiing and Mountaineering in Chamonix, engaged since September 15 in the south-west pillar of Dhaulagiri, did not reach the summit of this mountain which culminates at 8,172 m. However, they were able to cross the 600 m rocky step which had stopped their progress in 1978 and which constitutes the most difficult part of the ascent. Forced by bad weather to fall back again without having reached the summit, the Chamonix team nevertheless traced in the south-west pillar of Dhaulagiri a path which will mark, despite this semi-failure, the history of the Himalayanism.