Maurice Barrard

Maurice Barrard, born January 18, 1942 in Paris and died June 24, 1986 on K2, was a French mountaineer, Himalayan and specialized educator. Maurice Barrard discovers mountaineering in an initiation camp. He cut his teeth in the Alps before taking part in campaigns in Greenland and South America in particular. Later, he will be elected president of the Himalayan Committee of French expeditions. In 1973, he met his future wife Liliane while organizing an expedition to Peru. Maurice and Liliane will see each other again and their common passion for extreme climbs brings them closer together. They get married and settle in Francourville in 1977. In 1979, Maurice Barrard was part of the French national expedition to K2, a team supervised by Bernard Mellet and composed of Pierre Beghin, Dominique Chaix (doctor), Patrick Cordier, Jean Coudray, Xavier Fargeas, Marc Galy, Ivano Ghirardini, Thierry Leroy , Daniel Monacci, Jean-Claude Mosca and Yannick Seigneur. In 1980, in the company of Georges Narbaud, he made the first ascent of Hidden Peak South (7,069 m) by a fairly steep route on the south-west face, then from there the first traverse of about five kilometers to Hidden Peak (8068 m), mainly with cross-country skis. 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 couple persisted before giving up after 19 days, undermined by bad weather. A year later, in 1…