Adrien Dagory

Biography

Adrien Dagory, born January 7, 1922 in Vanves (France) and died December 31, 2006 in Narbonne (France), was a French mountaineer, cameraman, and filmmaker. In 1952, he successfully climbed the west face of Les Drus, which many thought impossible with extensive use of aid climbing, with the Bleausards team of which he was a member: Guido Magnone, Lucien Bérardini, Adrien Dagory, and Marcel Lainé. In 1954, he was part of a French expedition to the south face of Aconcagua, a 6,962-meter peak in Argentina. This expedition, led by René Ferlet, also included Lucien Bérardini, Guy Poulet, Robert Paragot, Pierre Lesueur, and Edmond Denis. There were no high-altitude Sherpas here, no one to share the hard work of the successive and grueling portages. They had to set up everything themselves: tents, bivouac equipment, fixed ropes. The progress was slow and nerve-racking, and they suffered from the cold and thirst, but their morale was high. In fact, they ultimately abandoned the Himalayan climb using fixed ropes placed along the route. It was too long, and the wall was too steep. They reached the summit in one go, using the alpine technique. This undertaking was a success, but the harsh conditions of the ascent and the bad weather caused some climbers to suffer severe frostbite on their hands and feet, requiring amputations. At 5:00 p.m. on February 25, 1954, exhausted, they reached the summit. The return, despite the victory, was a real ordeal due to the severe frostbite suffered by all, with the exception of Robert Paragot. He later became a motorcycle cameraman for France 2, but an accident in 1983 left him without the use of his right arm. Laid off, he faced financial difficulties, and skier Léo Lacroix, a friend from Savoy, commissioned a film about his Lacroix Sports ski factory to help him get back on his feet. Adrien Dagory, who died on December 31, 2006, in Narbonne, is regularly cited as a member of the generation of mountaineers who, after the Second World War, marked a kind of golden age of French mountaineering, contributing to the development of modern techniques for climbing steep walls and at high altitudes.