Obituary of Petr Bednarik

With utmost sorrow we announce the passing of Petr Bednarik, a kind and selfless man. Petr passed away on Sunday, April 2nd, embraced by his wife and surrounded by several close friends. Despite his hard-fought struggle to live, his life was cut short at 68. Petr grew up in the Czech town of Vyskov. His grandfather owned successful car-repair shop in town and he taught Petr and Petr's brother how to fix engines. But he really taught his grandsons how to strive for excellence, in all their endeavors. Petr was a gifted athlete, excelling in many sports, including skiing, cycling, running, and windsurfing. Petr's home town of Vyskov sits near an area with an extensive network of cliffs, canyons, caverns and underground waterways carved into ancient deposits of Devon limestone. As a teenager, Petr took up rock-climbing in this climbing paradise. His climbing career took a serious turn after taking a year off from school to work as a porter at Terry Hut in the High Tatra mountains of Slovakia. After work he would climb many routes on the peaks surrounding the hut. After this year in the High Tatra mountains and two years of compulsory military service, Petr returned to his home in the Moravian Karst to study education in nearby Brno. He specialized in geography and physical education, and his thesis work was titled "A History of Climbing in the Moravian Karst". This was, without a doubt, one of the finest periods of his climbing life. Petr explored the region, followed obscure oral leads to forgotten lines, drew maps and sketches, and filled in several dozen of his own first-ascents among existing climbs. For several generations of climbers, Petr's thesis was the guidebook of the local crags. His finest lines are still the treasured test-pieces combining hard climbing and aesthetic beauty. During this time, Petr was included in the group of top climbers in Czechoslovakia who were given the time and opportunity to travel into foreign mountain ranges. Petr produced significant ascents and pioneered new lines in Soviet Russia, Italy, France, Switzerland, and in Hindu Kush, on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Probably the most widely regarded of Petr's climbing successes came in 1976 when he led the first summer ascent (and third ascent overall) of the notorious Harlin Direttissima of the North Face of Eiger in Switzerland. Petr's finest high-altitude accomplishments came in 1978, during an expedition by Brno climbers into Hindu Kush. During the expedition, Petr summited several mountains over 20,000 feet and pioneered bold big-wall lines. These lines include the first-ascent solo of the Northeast face of Kohe Shakhau and his climb of the Northeast face of Shakhaur and Udren Zom (23,396 ft) with his climbing partner. In 1982, Petr and his wife emigrated from Czechoslovakia and settled in the Monterey area. He repeated some of the grand classic lines in Yosemite on El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks and, of these, he most valued his ascent of the Nose route on El Capitan. Despite of Petr's success in high-altitude, his whole soul was that of a rock-climber. Petr taught at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey for many years. A skilled craftsman (a quality known as Golden Czech hands), Petr later left teaching and obtained a contractor's license. He devoted the next twenty years to building or remodeling houses, from Pacific Grove to Big Sur. He also applied his construction skills to his family life. He built a series of Sierra cabins so that the family would always have a place in the mountains for summer trips and winter skiing. When his young son expressed a desire to learn tennis, Petr built a tennis-court in their back yard. In later years, he and his son ran the construction business together. The last several houses that Petr built stand in Carmel Valley, including his own 'retirement' house, which, sadly, he enjoyed for only a short time. Petr's last great project in life had been to spend all his available time with his beautiful and very special granddaughter, Linda. Petr took every opportunity between medical treatments to do so: To teach her how to ride a bicycle, how to swim, sing, enjoy books, and share laughs together. She inherited her grandfather's sense of humor and blue eyes. He always worked very hard and was ready to help everyone. He also continued his sport passion as long as he was able. He took up golf shortly just two years before his passing. He quickly learned the basic principal of that impossible sport. At 65 he hiked Mount Whitney without training for this demanding hike. He put in many miles as a long-distance motorcyclist, organized tennis tournaments, called friends to come out for coffee, made regular visits to convalescing friends and taught many people basics of do-it-yourself projects. He was an avid reader and always had a book in his hands. Petr's extraordinary energy and friendliness were contagious. No matter the activity, people flocked to hisside to enjoy his company, his sense of humor and his warmth. Being with Petr, one always believed that the world was a good place to live. Petr's passing leaves a wide-open gap among those who knew him. He was loved and will never be forgotten. Celebration of Petr's accomplished and exemplary life will be held on April 19th from 4PM-6PM at Casa Morgadinho, 35 Paso Hondo, Carmel Valley. Please park at the Dampierre Park behind the house. Condolences may be written to the family at www.bermudezfamilyfunerals.com Service Information