Nicolas Jaeger

Nicolas Jaeger, born in 1946 in Boulogne-Billancourt and died in 1980 in Lhotse, is a French doctor and mountaineer. He is the author of more than a hundred solo ascents in the Mont-Blanc massif and in the Andes, including many “first solos”. On October 15, 1978, he was one of the first French people to reach the summit of Everest, with Pierre Mazeaud and Jean Afanassieff accompanied by the Austrian Kurt Diemberger, altitude cameraman. Son of photographer Janine Niépce and film producer Claude Jaeger, Nicolas Jaeger was born on October 20, 1946 in Boulogne-Billancourt. He was very close to his grandfather Niepce, one of the pioneers of aviation, co-founder of the Construction of flying machines and spare parts company, with whom he learned whole passages from the Adventures of Tintin albums by heart, developing according to his mother his vocation as an adventurer. He studied medicine and practiced mountaineering: he became a doctor and in 1975 graduated from his promotion as a mountain guide.