Acting

Patrick Berhault

Patrick Berhault, born July 19, 1957 in Thiers (Puy-de-Dôme), grew up by the sea between Nice and Monaco. He joined the Club Alpin Monégasque at the age of 13 and started climbing with friends at La Turbie. He left school after the second, and devoted himself to his passion for the mountains and opened these first routes in the Mercantour massif. In 1978, Patrick Berhault had his first accident in the mountains with his friend Pierre Brizzi, following the break of a ledge, they descended an 814 meter corridor at the three Dents du Pelvoux. and should only salute them to a rope of mountaineers bivouacking near the place of their fall. At the end of the 1970s, together with Patrick Edlinger, he took part in the free climbing revolution in France. In 1980, he "released" the first 7c+ in France. He also practices full soloing in a confidential manner, always in a style based on fluidity and the search for gestural aesthetics. He will share three years of climbing and mountaineering with his brother in arms Patrick Edlinger, and will live from day to day solely for their passion between climbing and intensive training. In 1980, with Jean-Marc Boivin, they took the incredible gamble of connecting the summits of Les Drus and Le Fou during the day by hang-gliding after having climbed the south face for Le Fou and the direct American for Les Drus. He will achieve in record time, and most often solo, the toughest routes in the Alps. The “Berhault style” was born, calling into question many uses hitherto based on slowness, and imposing technology. In particular, he does major routes in the Verdon, and "liberates" climbing routes marked as the first 8c in France. From 1985, while his colleagues were pushing for competition, Berhault refused competition by signing the Manifesto of 192. An admirer of Rudolf Nureyev, he developed a new discipline: “Dance-Climbing”; he has developed choreographies and gives shows, notably at the Châteauvallon festival.