Eric Escoffier

© Collection Escoffier

Eric was a climbing phenom in the 80s, mainly practicing his craft in the French Alps but also climbed three 8000m peaks in Pakistan in less than three weeks. During the same period he was active in the Karakoram Eric also flashed hard sport routes (up to 8a/5.13), soloed the Croz Spur and Walker Spur on the Grandes Jorasses in a day with Christophe Vaillant flying him from the summit back to the base under a two-person hang glider, and made the first winter ascent of the Slovene Route on the Jorasses with Daniel Lacroix.

He was an early adopter of paragliding as a means of descent from alpine summits and drove his car hard, not just informally — he was copilot in the Monte Carlo Rally 1986, driving a Lancia Y10 Turbo. Bad luck in the latter (he smashed into a boulder that had fallen onto the road in the Gorges d'Arly), followed by a miscalculation in the former left him injured and hobbled but did not kill his desire for the high mountain experience. He disappeared while headed for the summit of Broad Peak in the Karakoram in July 1998, one month shy of his 38th birthday.

Biography (in French)

Documentary 2019

Escoffier on the Croz Spur, © Collection Escoffier