René Desmaison

René Desmaison, born April 14, 1930 in Bourdeilles (Dordogne) and died September 28, 2007 in Marseille, was a French mountaineer. A high-level mountain guide and climber, René Desmaison, from the mid-1950s and for over 30 years, completed numerous first ascents of great difficulty in the Alps, the Himalayas, and the Andes. A highly publicized mountaineer, he was involved in several controversies. Upon the death of his mother, the young René Desmaison, who was not yet 14, left Marsac near Périgueux and followed his godfather Paul Roze to Antony in the Paris region, where he joined the scout movement. There, he met Pierre Kohlmann, with whom he practiced Sunday climbing in the Fontainebleau forest, along with other young Antony residents, including future mountaineers Bernard Lagesse and André Bertrand. René Desmaison completed his military service in Briançon in a ski scout section. He was a sergeant and participated in the military ski championship. Back in Paris, he married and had two daughters and a son, Pascal. After working as a salesman in a sports store, he became a visiting retailer of household appliances. He spent long weekends in the mountains or went climbing in Fontainebleau and the Saussois rocks, where he met mountaineer Jean Couzy in 1954. This encounter with Jean Couzy was decisive: together, they completed many major ascents, as well as first ascents, until Jean Couzy's death in the mountains four years later. In the early 1960s, he separated from his wif…