Gaston Rébuffat

Born

1921-05-07

Died

1985-05-31

Birthplace

Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Biography

Gaston Rébuffat, born May 7, 1921, in Marseille and died May 31, 1985, in Bobigny, was a French mountaineer, notably a member of the 1950 French expedition to Annapurna, a high-mountain guide, writer, and filmmaker. Gaston Rébuffat discovered climbing in the Calanques of Marseille. At sixteen, he joined the French Alpine Club (Haute-Provence section), where he discovered high-altitude mountaineering and met Henri Moulin, whom he considered his "big brother in mountaineering." He then explored the Alps and the Mont Blanc massif, which became his playground. In 1940, he joined Jeunesse et Montagne (Youth and Mountain), where he met Lionel Terray, who became his friend. It was at the "School, Youth, and Mountain" center in Valgaudemar that his passion for the mountains took deep root. He then moved to Chamonix, where he worked on his friend Lionel Terray's farm while waiting to be co-opted into the Chamonix Guides Company. In 1942, Gaston Rébuffat earned his high-mountain guide certification despite his young age (21, while the required age was 23). He continued working as an instructor with the youth organization "Jeunesse et Montagne" (Youth and Mountain), and in 1944 became an instructor at the National School of Mountaineering (École Nationale d'Alpinisme) and the Military High Mountain School (École Militaire de Haute Montagne). In June 1945, he joined the prestigious Chamonix Guides Company under the tutelage of Alfred Couttet. He thus became the third "outsider" in the Company, after Roger Frison-Roche and Édouard Frendo, whereas traditionally, one had to be born in the valley to be admitted. A modest skier, he worked as a guide in the summer, but instead of being a ski instructor in the winter, he tried his hand at writing. He participated in the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950 with, among others, Jean Couzy, Lionel Terray, Maurice Herzog, Louis Lachenal, Marcel Ichac, Marcel Schatz, Jacques Oudot, and Francis de Noyelle. This feat would remain a difficult chapter in his life. He did not reach the summit, but, along with Terray, he rescued Lachenal and Herzog, who were in distress. Like Lachenal, and unlike Herzog, he felt no patriotic or mystical mission in climbing this peak. Since the Himalayan Committee had contractually forbidden members of the expedition from writing accounts of their experience, only Maurice Herzog's "Annapurna Premier 8000" was authorized and declared the official account. In 1958, he directed the film dedicated to the mountains for Walt Disney Pictures' "Third Man on the Mountain" (1959), filmed in Zermatt, Switzerland, at the foot of the Matterhorn. Primarily a resident of Chamonix, he was also a frequent visitor to Sainte-Maxime, the hometown of his wife, daughter of the architect René Darde. Author of numerous books on the mountains, some with an educational purpose, he worked to popularize mountaineering techniques and knowledge of the mountain environment among young people. Also a lecturer, Gaston Rébuffat introduced the world of high altitudes to regions throughout France through screenings as part of the "Connaissance du Monde" (Knowledge of the World) lecture series. In 1984, he was made an Officer of the Legion of Honour, a year before his death from cancer on May 31, 1985. He is buried in the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc cemetery.