{{Short description|French mountaineer}} {{Infobox climber|birth_date=27 July 1920|birth_place=Chelles, France|death_date=10 August 1997|death_place=Neuilly-sur-Seine, France|occupation=lawyer, author, and businessman|firstascents= Salcantay, Nun, Mount Damavand|typeofclimber=mountaineering}} '''Bernard Pierre''' (1920–1997) was a French mountaineer, notable as a climber and an expedition leader.
==Biography== Born in Chelles, Pierre was trained as a lawyer and ran his family's textile business, and was a mountaineer on the side.<ref name="Beckwith"/>
He made a number of notable ascents in the Alps, including of the north face of the Aiguille du Dru and the northwest face of La Civetta. With Gaston Rébuffat he made the second ascent of the Piz Badile's northeast face,<ref>{{cite book | title = Starlight and Storm. The Ascent of Six Great North Faces of the Alps | date=1956| first = Gaston| last = Rebuffat |publisher =J.M.Dent and Sons Ltd | access-date = 29 October 2025 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=HocmAAAAMAAJ | pages=29-50 }}</ref> and was a lead climber on the first ascents of a route on the Aiguille des Aigles and the face of the Aiguille de la Brenva. In 1951 he climbed in the Hoggar Mountains in southern Algeria, making a number of first ascents—he returned to the mountain range in 1961. In 1952, he led a French-American expedition including Claude Kogan to the Andes, and made the first ascent of Salcantay.<ref name="Beckwith">{{cite journal |last1=Bell|first1=George I. |first2= W.V. Graham |last2=Matthews |first3= David |last3=Harrah|title=Bernard Pierre 1920-1997 | journal = American Alpine Journal |url=https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12199946600/Bernard-Pierre-1920-1997|year=1999|publisher=The Mountaineers Books|isbn=9781933056463|page=466ff | access-date = 16 July 2025}}</ref>
Pierre also led the team which made the first ascent of Nun in India. He was part of the group which set out from a high camp towards the summit on 28 August 1953 but he could not continue to the top because he had not fully recovered from being caught in an avalanche a few days earlier.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Expeditions: Nun-Kun 1953 | journal =Alpine Journal| date=1954| first =Bernard | last = Pierre | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#59 | issue = 289 | pages= 341-342 | access-date = 15 September 2024 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1954_files/AJ59%201954%20341-342%20Expeditions.pdf }}</ref> Later that same day Claude Kogan and Pierre Vittoz reached the summit.<ref>{{cite book | title = A Mountain called Nun Kun | date=1955| first =Pierre| last = Bernard |publisher =Hodder & Stoughton | url =https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.3031/page/n29/mode/2up | access-date = 16 July 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19530909&id=culOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dAAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3989,3223520|title=Woman with Mountain Team That Reaches Himalayan Peak: Paris Dress Designer and Six Men Realize 'Dream Of Every Mountaineer'|date=9 September 1953|work=Toledo Blade|accessdate=27 April 2014}}</ref> He led a French-Iranian expedition to Mount Damavand for its first ascent in 1954, an expedition to the Rwenzori Mountains in 1955–1956, and to the Caucasus in 1958.<ref name="Beckwith"/>
Besides a climber, Pierre was an avid writer, writing a celebrated book on synthetic textiles, and a number of books on his own mountaineering expeditions and on the "great rivers of the world".<ref name="Beckwith"/>
He was a member of the elite French 'Groupe de Haute Montagne', and Past President (1991-1995) of the Société des explorateurs français, Honorary member of the Alpine Club, the American Alpine Club, and the Himalayan Club.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Bernard Pierre (1920-1997) | journal =Himalayan Journal| date= 1998| first =Bernard | last = Odier | volume =#54 | pages= | access-date = 16 July 2025 |url = https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/54/21/in-memoriam/#point2 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre, Bernard}} Category:1920 births Category:1997 deaths Category:French mountain climbers Category:20th-century French explorers Category:French male non-fiction writers Category:20th-century French male writers