Marcel Rémy (6 February 1923 – 10 July 2022) was a Swiss amateur mountaineer and

rock climber Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically an ...

. He was well known for his achievements in rock climbing.

Biography

The son of François and Bertha Rémy, Marcel was born in the Gruyère District on 6 February 1923. His father was a farmer and a

lumberjack Lumberjacks are mostly North American workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to loggers in the era (before 1945 in the Unite ...

before he became a railway worker. He began working as a farmer at a young age. At the age of eight, he discovered mountaineering from contact with tourists. He taught a number of courses in the

Vaud Alps , topo_map= Swiss Federal Office of Topography swisstopo , photo=Diablerets.jpg , photo_caption=View from the Sommet des Diablerets to the northeast to the Oldenhorn. , country= Switzerland , subdivision1_type= Cantons , subdivision1= , p ...

and the , as well as the iconic

Matterhorn The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...

Grand Combin The Grand Combin is a mountain massif in the western Pennine Alps in the canton of Valais. At a height of the summit of ''Combin de Grafeneire'' is one of the highest peaks in the Alps and the second most prominent of the Pennine Alps. The Gran ...

, and

Mont Blanc Mont Blanc (french: Mont Blanc ; it, Monte Bianco , both meaning "white mountain") is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, rising above sea level. It is the second-most prominent mountain in Europe, after Mount Elbrus, and i ...

. Passionate about mountaineering, he introduced many people to the practice, such as his sons, Claude and Yves, who themselves became high-level sport climbers. In 2017, at the age of 94, Rémy climbed the ''Miroir d'Argentine'', a 450-meter cliff in the

, accompanied by his two sons. Despite medical operations and two prosthetic hips, he continued to train daily. In 2019, he climbed ''La guêpe''. In 2022, at the age of 99, he lead-climbed a 4c route on a 16-meter indoor rock wall. Marcel Rémy died in his sleep at home on 10 July 2022 at the age of 99.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rémy, Marcel 1923 births 2022 deaths Swiss mountain climbers People from Gruyère District 20th-century Swiss people 21st-century Swiss people