Olivier PAULIN

Born in 1949 in Évian, at the foot of the Dent d’Oche (2,222 m), which he considers his sacred mountain, Olivier – son of a former mountaineer – joined the French Alpine Club (CAF) with friends shortly before completing his baccalaureate, and from that moment on became a mountaineer for life.

He took part in numerous expeditions, particularly in the Himalayas, which – as he wrote in his article Un Maître – revealed to him the deteriorating state of Europe’s mountains. As vice‑president of the Groupe de Haute Montagne, Olivier attended the inaugural assembly of Mountain Wilderness France and joined the movement from its earliest days. He also participated in the Free K2 expedition, organised by Mountain Wilderness to clean the base camp and normal route of K2. He was the last to descend the mountain, gathering the remaining fixed ropes along the way. He became president of Mountain Wilderness France in 2001 and remained active in the organisation for many years.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, young female climbers catalogued and archived the drawings, notebooks, and writings he had accumulated over fifty years of expeditions. They can be found here: The G.H.M. – Publications.