From the 1980s through the 1990s, Thierry Renault was one of France’s finest alpinists. He was also, quite simply, one of its best climbers: third at Bardonecchia in 1985, Renault freed major granite routes in the Mont Blanc massif, climbed 7c and even 8a at 4,000 metres, then helped push ice climbing into a new grade — Grade 7 — on the ephemeral waterfalls of the Fer-à-Cheval, with La Lyre. From the Drus to the first free ascent of Divine Providence with Alain Ghersen, this is the story of an alpinist devoted to style and elegance in movement, whose death on September 6, 2026, brings back into the light a career as remarkable as it was discreet.
He climbed some of the great lines of the Mont Blanc massif. But Thierry Renault was not born beneath Mont Blanc. He came from Brittany, spent several years in Paris and learned