Patrick Cordier (alpinist)

Patrick Cordier (29 December 1946 – 5 June 1996) was a French alpinist. He was killed on 5 June 1996 in a motoring accident riding his motorcycle whilst travelling on the Marseille to Aix-en-Provence motorway.^[1]

Born in 1946,^[2] Cordier learned to climb at Fontainebleau near his home in Paris.^[2] He moved on quickly to the Alps, where he became one of the most recognizable climber of his generation. In 1967 he was a member of the French team that made the first ascent of the French Direct on Norway's Troll Wall.^[2] Through the 1970s he climbed many new routes in the Vercors and the Chamonix Aiguilles, the Cordier Pillars on the Grands Charmoz^[2][3] and the Aiguille de Roc^[2] bear his name. He climbed, solo, the Nose on El Capitan in America's Yosemite Valley in 1972.^[1]

His new route on the East Ridge of the Lepiney was accomplished using new climbing ideas brought back from the US.^[2] Cordier climbed further a field making the first ascent of Bubulimoting Spire above the Hunza Valley in the Karakoram.^[4] In 1976, Cordier accomplished a solo ascent of the American Direct on the South face of the Fou in the Chamonix Aiguilles.^[2] His ascent took three days to accomplish. In 1977, he became a founding member of the Independent Company of Mont Blanc Guides. Now Doctor Cordier, from 1977, he worked as an instructor for the Ecole National de Ski et Alpinisme at Chamonix.^[1]