Jean-Pierre Bouvier

Biography

Jean-Pierre Bouvier, born May 6, 1957 in Taverny, is a French climber and pioneer of free climbing. Nicknamed "The Fly" due to his small size (1.62 m / 48 kg), he is one of those who launched free and sport climbing in France, often offering routes that were simply exceptional, beautiful, and even enjoyable to climb. He is also one of the very first climbing instructors. In Bleau and on cliffs, he has completed numerous extreme routes around the world, of which only a handful have been repeated. JPB began climbing in Mortain at the age of 14, practiced mountaineering for a few years, and then participated in the development of free climbing. He then spent several trips to England practicing Trad' (rock climbing using nuts) and became famous in 1981 when he opened Chimpanzodrome, the first 7c+ crag in the north of Saussois (in the south, Patrick Berhault had opened the first French line at this grade with La Haine in November 1981 at La Loubière, La Turbie, Monaco). In the early 1990s, Mouche opened new routes in Saussois, such as Marchand De Cailloux, Issoumission (8c), and Festin De Pierre (8c+/9a), before freeing a superb line on the rock above the inn: Le Tigre Bleu. This route alone is quite a story, as it was Lucien Bérardini, another Bleausard, who had spotted this passage in the 1960s. He then made a somewhat crazy bet and promised a 2,000 franc bonus to whoever could free this improbable line. The route was originally proposed at 8c+/9a, but a few broken holds and thefts seem to have affected the grade. In Bleau, since the 1980s, Jean-Pierre Bouvier has been the master of traverses! With his partner Christophe Laumône, he opened numerous horizontal routes, particularly in Buthiers, which they transformed into a veritable laboratory of technique (not hesitating to carve or glue), some of which are pure marvels. And as the years go by, Jean-Pierre Bouvier's traverses become more difficult.