"One day at a luxury hotel near Frankfurt, he met wealthy industrialists. One of them wanted to know if he had never fear. He replied: Yes, all the time. "
"When I am no more anxious in the mountains, I will stop"
"I was walking front, I saw him miss me and fall, tumbling nearly a thousand meters of wall. During the hour-long my run towards him, I was afraid I knew that at this altitude, we could not do anything for him and hoped he would be dead. I called him, he said. I thought the sky was falling on my head. He had multiple compound fractures, was half conscious, but he was still alive...Only three days after we were able to return to his side.
Pierre-Alain was still alive, he suffered terribly. We tried to go down by sliding on the rugged glacier. There he died. "
Pierre-Alain Steiner, climbing partener, Cho Oyu south-west face, 1986
http://voyages.liberation.fr/montagne/deces-en-montagne-de-l-039-alpiniste-erhard-loretan"Brilliant career, tragic life
Erhard Loretan was a world-class mountaineer that life was not spared. On December 24, 2001, the man had lost the nerve to face the tears of his only son to death and had shaken the baby of seven months. He was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to four months imprisonment, suspended in 2003.
He had said before the ruling: "The pain you inflict is not really important compared to what I'll suffer until the end of my days. " Erhard Loretan had consented to have his name published to draw attention to the shaken baby syndrome."
http://www.tdg.ch/gruenhorn-deces-guide-montagne-erhard-loretan-2011-04-29
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:53 am
