“Sur le fil des 4000”

Alpine Documentation (), Gilles Chappaz (Frankreich/France) 52 min

82 summits, all over 4,000 m, and a pair of mountaineers: it looked like a recipe for excitement and performance. Patrick Berhault and Philippe Magnin dreamed of a great tour, scaling all the alpine peaks culminating at more than 4,000 m, hiking and skiing the distance between them. Patrick and Philippe set out from Saint Christophe en Oisans, near Grenoble on 1st March 2004, planning to reach the Bernina massiv by the end of May. Their tour of the alpine wilderness went perfectly until April 28th, when after 59 days, their adventure came to a sudden and tragic end. On a narrow ridge leading up to the Dom (4,545m), the highest point in Switzerland, Patrick’s lifelong ally, failed him. A cornice collapsed and he fell into his abyss.