Bernard Gorgeon

Bernard Gorgeon, born in 1953 in Marseille, is a French climber, mountain guide, and author. He is one of the leading figures in French climbing, whose biography is intrinsically intertwined with the history and culture of climbing in the South of France. Introduced to climbing at just ten years old in the calanques of Marseille, it was there that he forged his first memories as a climber, accompanied by his father, a passionate self-taught climber, passionate about mountaineering and the classics of Rébuffat. His childhood was divided between school, rocks, and precious moments spent exploring the region's cliffs, his fingers using hemp ropes, symbols of an era marked by freedom and resourcefulness. In the 1970s, Gorgeon was part of a nonconformist youth movement that revolutionized climbing, seeking to break away from traditional practices and invent a new way of life. Along with Patrick Edlinger and other companions, he contributed to the emergence and democratization of free climbing, which became a true philosophy and way of life. He was one of the pioneers of fixed equipment, of the club that invested in opening and securing routes, and of the mountain guide who didn't limit his practice to mountaineering. Bernard Gorgeon is primarily recognized for having "invented" the first routes in Buoux, an emblematic site in the Luberon, which he describes as a magical valley where the rock is "round, soft, perforated like St. John's wort, gray, yellow, red, green, fresh, secr…