Jacques Ramouillet

Jacques Ramouillet, born in Vannes (Morbihan) on April 20, 1941, and died on November 27, 2016, in Agde, was a French mountaineer, high-mountain guide, and teacher. A member of the Groupe de Haute Montagne (High Mountain Group), he made several first ascents in the French Alps as well as in North Africa, notably in the Hoggar Mountains in Algeria and in Canada's Logan Mountains. He co-directed *Voyage En Face Sud* (Journey to the South Face), a mountaineering film documenting the first solo ascent of the south face of the Aiguille du Fou. He was also a painter.

Jacques Ramouillet was born in Vannes on April 20, 1941, to a father who was a house painter and stained-glass artist. He grew up without his parents: his mother died in 1942, and his father was sent to a Stalag the same year for his clandestine activities. He studied at the Lycée Jules Simon, as did his cousin (their grandfathers were brothers) Yves Coppens. At 16, he passed the entrance exam for the École Normale Primaire (a teacher training college) and discovered mountaineering and rock climbing in the crags of Brittany and Fontainebleau, then in Les Deux Alpes during his first mountain training course.

Jacques Ramouillet fled the Algerian War as a left-wing pacifist, hiding with relatives. He was denounced but escaped the punishments for draft dodgers. He was forced to perform his military service, where, through acts of insubordination and refusal, he was eventually discharged. Living in Algeria for many years, during which he worked as a teacher in a cooperative program, he became very knowledgeable about the Algerian Sahara. He began teaching as a cooperative teacher in Algeria immediately after independence, in Teniet-el-Had, El Goléa, Ain Salah, and Tamanrasset, before being transferred to Sochaux in 1972. He thus became very familiar with the Algerian Sahara.