Yannick Seigneur

Yannick Seigneur (born May 24, 1941 in Paris , † November 28, 2001 ) was a French mountaineer. By 1978 he had made around 250 first ascents, around 100 of them in winter.

biography

Yannick Seigneur started mountaineering in 1962. In 1966, together with Lucien Bérardini and Georges Payot, he was the eleventh rope team to win the summit on Nevado Huascarán ( 6768  m ), the highest mountain in Peru . In February 1967 he succeeded in a first ascent of the north face of the Petit Dru ( 3733  m ) with Michel Feuillarade, Claude Jager and Jean Paul Paris.

In May 1971, Seigneur and Bernard Mellet made the first ascent of the western pillar on Makalu ( 8485  m ). It was also only the third successful ascent of the world's fifth highest mountain in the Himalayas . He achieved one of the most astonishing achievements up until then in December 1973 with Arturo Squinobal, Oreste Squinobal, Michel Feuillarade, Louis Audoubert and Marc Galy, when they managed to cross the Peuterey ridge on Mont Blanc for the first time, the longest combined ridge climb in the Alps.

In January 1974 the first ascent of the summit line of the north face of Pointe Whymper ( 4184  m ) followed on the Grandes Jorasses , on the left of the Bonatti-Vaucher route. He was accompanied by Michel Feuillarade, Louis Audoubert and Marc Galy. In April 1974 he also succeeded in the first ascent of Taboche ( 6501  m ) in the Himalayas over the southeast face in alpine style. With him at the summit stood Jean-Christian Michel , Jacques Brugirad, Louis Dubost and Paul Gendrez.

In June 1975 he succeeded Marc Batard the second ascent of Gasherbrum II ( 8034  m ) in Karakorum with the first ascent of the south ridge and residual ascent via the east ridge. In June 1978 he stood with Georges Bettembourg at the summit of Broad Peak ( 8051  m ) in the Karakoram. The ascent took place via the Austrian route.

From July to September 1979 he attempted the first ascent of K2 ( 8611  m ) over the south-south-west ridge, but had to break off this operation after approx. 8400  m due to bad weather. In 1980 and 1982 attempts to climb to Nanga Parbat ( 8125  m ) fail due to bad weather and accidents on the Rupal flank and on the south-east pillar.

After his active mountaineering career, he worked as a mountain guide, mountain guide trainer and canyoning guide. He died of cancer in 2001.

Web links

• Historical alpine archive