Patrick Edlinger has died

The linked article is in French. No hablo French!

Try google translate ...

Not much info there, though.

FrankPS wrote:The linked article is in French. No hablo French!

Mais, non! The article and the Wiki link do not give details about his death other than to say he was 52. He was awesome and ahead of his time in many ways as far as living the life and climbing hard.

Cause unknown according to French newspapers.
I was just reading about his 1995 accident where he broke a hold on a warmup after skipping a bunch of clips. He decked from 50' and according to witnesses he "bounced back to half that height". His heart stopped, he was revived and walked out of the hospital that night with a pulled muscle in his mid-section. He was climbing again 2 weeks later.

Damn.

The French:

Nous avons appris ce vendredi soir le décès aujourd'hui de Patrick Edlinger à l'âge de 52 ans. Il y a trente ans, son film "La vie au bout des doigts" avait fait rentrer l’escalade, et notamment son solo intégral dans les gorges du Verdon, dans l’histoire de la Montagne. Il devait participer aux rencontres du cinéma de Grenoble jeudi prochain. Les causes de son décès ne sont pas encore connues.

Le « Blond » nous avait confié cette semaine sa passion pour la grimpe qu’il pratiquait chaque jour. « Je suis un homme libre » nous disait-il lundi, « je ne regrette rien de mon parcours ».

My rough translation:

We have just learned this Friday evening of the death today of Patrick Edlinger at the age of 52. Thirty years ago, his film La vie au bout des doigts (Fingertip Life) re-established rock climbing, and notably his complete solos in the Gorges de Verdun, in mountaineering history. He was to participate in the Grenoble Movie Festival next Thursday. The cause of his death is not yet known.

"The Blond One" had told us this week about his passion for climbing, which he did each day. "I'm a free man," he said on Monday, "I have no regrets about the path I've taken."

RIP Patrick.

Wow, this comes as a shock - only 52 years old. For me, learning to climb in the early 80's - he was a huge inspiration. RIP Patrick.

An enigmatic figure and early sport climbing hero of mine, I met him during a visit to Yosemite Valley in the late 80's - early 90's as well as watched him crush the best climbers in the world during the first Snowbird comp. RIP Patrick.

my first post here. I was googling Patrick Edlinger and found your site. Very sad indeed. I am from France, live in California now and I am an avid climber-well avid but not a badass :O- Ptrick opened my eyes to rockclimbing when I was a teen, I started to climb at 12-13 and he was a role model for me...52 is very young. I wonder what happened. I know he has alcoolism issue on and off :C I say him climbing once and just looking at him was giving me vertigo (told you I was not a badass. I need a rope, or I don't climb :P ) RIP Patrick, you'll be missed by your fellow climber :/

If you didn't see it firsthand, you might not understand.
But I would submit that his flash of that route at Snowbird may have been Sport Climbing's single most important moment.

Here are a couple of stories in English:

rockandice.com/news/2356-pa…

planetmountain.com/english/…

Bummer. This guy was the real deal.

For my Inspirational friend Patrick E., Your Spirit Lives On!

the snowbird comp-

youtube.com/watch?v=RaBuNFl…

Bob, I remember that day, a week before Snowbird; you and John B and Chip were taking Patrick around Skunk Canyon. I was thrashing and dangling on the Guardian. You (politely) asked me to get the hell outta the way so Patrick could do it. I was glad to have an excuse to bail. You hung the draws, while he scrupulously averted his eyes. He proceeded to crush it gracefully, without so much as a grunt. But, he didn't have anything to clip the anchors, so, he downclimbed, just as gracefully, and cleaned the draws.
Long live the King

it seems as if he fell down the stairs in his house.....

unbelievable!

Pitty wrote:it seems as if he fell down the stairs in his house..... unbelievable!

It's in Italian and they don't name any sources:

qn.quotidiano.net/cronaca/2…-
triste-destino-re-climber-arrampicata.shtml

"È caduto da una ripida scala di casa, battendo la testa e procurandosi una fatale emorragia" (Google translation: He fell from a steep staircase of the house, hitting his head and by getting a fatal hemorrhage).

Gorge du Verdon