- Born
- Died
- Jean-Christophe Lafaille was a French mountaineer. He got an impressive record of achievements in the fields of rock climbing and mountaineering. Among his notable ascents, in 1987, he completed the free solo ascent of "Rêve de Gosse", a route graded 8a+ at La Roche des Arnauds (France). At the time, it was the hardest free solo ascent ever achieved. In 1989, he free-soloed "Le Privilège du Serpent", a route graded 7c+ at Céüse (France). In 1990, he made the first free solo ascent of "Divine Providence" on the Grand Pilier d'Angle, a route then considered the hardest in the Mont Blanc massif. He sought to become the first Frenchman to summit all fourteen peaks exceeding 8,000 meters in altitude, but he disappeared on the normal route of Makalu (8,485 meters) between his last bivouac at 7,600 meters and the summit, while attempting a solo winter ascent. There has been no word from him since January 26, the day he was reported missing. His track record includes eleven 8,000-meter summits reached without supplemental oxygen, most of them achieved solo. He still needed to climb Everest (8,849 meters) and Kangchenjunga (8,586 meters) to become the first Frenchman to summit all fourteen peaks over 8,000 meters in altitude.
- IMDb mini biography by: VTNBLK
- SpouseKatia Lafaille(? - January 27, 2006) (his death, 2 children)
- On his first visit to the Himalayas in 1992 he made an extraordinary solo escape from the ferocious South Face of Annapurna. His climbing partner Pierre Beghin fell to his death during this climb.
- On January 31, 2006 when Lafaille had been missing for a week, his base camp support team concluded that he must have perished in his attempt to make the first solo winter climb of the 27,765 foot Himalayan peak Makalu. His wife flew over the mountain by helicopter and confirmed that there was no longer any hope that he would be found alive. His official date of death was determined to be January 27, 2006.
- One of the world's leading climbers, he had continually undertaken risky mountaineering challenges.
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