Patrick Vallençant
Acting
Biography
Patrick Vallençant, born in Lyon on June 9, 1946 and died on March 28, 1989, was a French mountaineer, mountain guide, and ski instructor, a pioneer of extreme ski mountaineering. At fifteen, skiing became a major focus of his adolescent life, and three years later, he left school for the mountains. From the ages of 18 to 20, Patrick Vallençant enrolled in the High Mountain Military School... but was expelled! With his partner, Marie-Josée, they worked as ski instructors in resorts: in Switzerland, in Les Menuires, and in Val d'Isère. Patrick also began to explore off-piste skiing and a new discipline: ski touring. In 1969, he was in Val d'Isère and discovered climbing. In 1970-73, he enrolled at the ENSA (National School of High Mountains) to learn his long-cherished profession as a High Mountain Guide. It was in 1971 that Patrick Vallençant began to tackle what had previously been impossible: on May 10th, he skied down the north face of the Grande Casse, a first. Forty days later, he repeated the feat by first ascent of the north face of the Tour Ronde. Throughout the 1970s, he thus amassed an impressive collection of "extreme firsts" in the couloirs of the Alps and those of the Andes. The Coup de Sabre, the Gravelotte couloir, and the Whymter—all with gradients between 55 and 60 degrees—shine like so many technical gems stolen from slopes then considered inviolable. After the descent of the Couturier in 1973, the conferences and the "major media tour" began, introducing this extreme discipline to the general public. Patrick Vallençant founded "Les Stages Vallençant" in Chamonix, a leisure facility for learning to climb steep slopes. In 1983, he created the high-end Degré 7 ski clothing line, a reference to the highest climbing level at the time, featuring fun, trendy colors and high technical standards. In 1989, Patrick Vallençant tragically died in a rock climbing accident in the Cévennes.
Known For
Directed by Jean-Marc Boivin in 1977, Glace Extrême is a documentary about mountaineering and extreme skiing at the Aiguille Verte and the Grand Pilier D'angle in the Mont-Blanc massif chain in France, with the legends of mountaineering Jean-Marc Boivin, Patrick Gabarrou and ski champion Patrick Vallencant. It was broadcast in the Carnet de L'Aventure on France 2 in 1980.
Extreme Ice
No description available.
Chamonix - Mont Blanc, Une histoire de conquêtes
Ski Peru is the story of two skiers’ dream of descending the untamed slopes of Huascaran, although maybe 'Ski Peru and die' would be a more appropriate title given the tragic climax to Peter Chrzanowski’s Peruvian odyssey. Filmed long before today’s adrenaline charged ski videos on heavy 16mm movie cameras there is no heavy rock soundtrack, no helicopters, no roboskiers mainlining powder at Mach 5.0. It is a slow moving film that explores man’s relationship with the mountain and what it is to ski into the unknown.
Ski Peru!
In June 1978, Patrick Vallençant made the first ski descent of the southeast face of Artesonjaru in Peru, in the Cordillera Blanca, 6,000 meters above sea level and 60° of slope. He left Huaraz on horseback, a donkey carrying his equipment. While crossing Cajas, the last village on the trail to Lake Paron, he was greeted by Victor and Cesar, two Indians who accompanied him to the lake. The climb to the summit was tiring, requiring as much effort from his arms as from his legs. The beginning of the descent was hesitant, the slope extremely steep. He achieved his feat on June 9, his thirty-second birthday.
El Gringo Eskiador
In 1975, Patrick Vallençant skied in some very challenging couloirs in the Oisans region: the north couloir of the Col du Diable, the north couloir of the Coup de Sabre, the couloir of the Pic sans Nom, the Barre Noire couloir in the Écrins massif, and the Gravelotte couloir on the Meije. He was accompanied by Jean-Marc Boivin, P. Guillet, P. Perrier, Gérard Pétrignet, Jacques Ramouillet, Pierre Saloff-Coste, and Joseph Spagnolo. In the second part of the trip, Vallençant completed a circuit of the Meije in three mixed-mountain ascents and, above the avalanche debris, skied off-piste through the steep couloirs and glaciers of the Oisans. He then climbed the routes to the summit of the Meije alone, following the stages of a high-mountain itinerary from the Refuge de l'Aigle.
Oisans - Ski de sixième degré
Eleven-year-old Papik (nickname for Yannick Vallençant) dreams of climbing Mont Blanc with his father, Patrick Vallençant. After serious training, the adventure begins: they set off from the summit of the Aiguille du Midi, climb the ridge of the three Mont Blancs, bivouac at the Col de la Brenva, cross the Mur de la Côte and reach the summit of Mont Blanc. No child his age had ever before achieved this feat by this route.