Jean Couzy (9 July 1923 – 2 November 1958) was a French mountaineer. He studied

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: Aeronautics, aeronautical engineering and Astronautics, astronautical engineering. A ...

at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

. At age 27, he was a member of Maurice Herzog's 1950 expedition to Annapurna. Prior to this, his usual climbing partner was Marcel Schatz, another member of the expedition. On the

1955 French Makalu expedition The 1955 French Makalu expedition was the first to successfully climb Makalu, the Himalayan mountain to the southeast of Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and Tibet. At Makalu is the fifth-highest mountain in the world and an eight-t ...

Couzy made the

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

Makalu Makalu ( ne, मकालु हिमाल, Makālu himāl; zh, t=馬卡魯峰, p=Mǎkǎlǔ fēng) is the fifth highest mountain in the world at . It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas southeast of Mount Everest, in Nepal. One of th ...

with

Lionel Terray Lionel Terray (25 July 1921 – 19 September 1965) was a French people, French climber who made many first ascents, including on the 1955 French Makalu expedition in the Himalaya (with Jean Couzy on 15 May 1955) and Fitz-Roy, Cerro Fitz Roy in t ...

on May 15, 1955. In the Alps, Jean Couzy was the first to ascend the following routes: * Aiguille de l'M near

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...

, a classical Severe (D) route named "la Couzy" * An Extremely Severe (ED) route on the north-west face of the

Olan Olan or OLAN may refer to: *Olan (mountain), a mountain in the Massif des Écrins in the French Alps (3564 m) *Olan (dish), a dish that is part of the Kerala cuisine of South India *Olan Mills Portrait Studios, Olan Studios (photographic) *Saint Ol ...

. * The Couzy route on the North Face of the Cima Ovest,

Dolomites The Dolomites ( it, Dolomiti ; Ladin: ''Dolomites''; german: Dolomiten ; vec, Dołomiti : fur, Dolomitis), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. They form par ...

. On November 2, 1958, he was hit on the head by a rock fall in the southern face of ''crête des Bergers'' (southern rim of the Bure plateau) in the

Dévoluy Mountains The Devoluy Mountains is a limestone massif located in Hautes-Alpes, France. It is part of the Dauphiné Prealps and is bordered by the Drac River to the north and the Buëch River to the south and west and is a popular destination for hiking, m ...

. He is buried in Montmaur cemetery, at the foot of the mountain where his accident occurred.

References

External links

*http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/141002/Jean-Couzy French mountain climbers People from Nérac 1932 births 1958 deaths Mountaineering deaths Sportspeople from Lot-et-Garonne Sport deaths in France École Polytechnique alumni 20th-century French people {{France-sport-bio-stub