Grand old man of Swiss alpinism

Meet Marcel, father of the legendary Swiss climbers Claude and Yves Remy. Marcel may be 98 years old, but he’s still climbing.

Marcel Remy worked on the Swiss railways and spent all his free time in the mountains, taking his two sons with him. Claude told the news agency AFP that Marcel was a tough father. “With him it was do or die, whatever the conditions”.

In 2017, at the age of 94, Marcel conquered the Miroir de l’Argentine, a Swiss climbing classic with its 500 metres of limestone wall. You can see him in action here at the climbing centre in Villeneuve on the eastern shores of Lake Geneva.

Marcel says he enjoys the sport because “you have to think and push yourself”. He says the secret of successful climbing lies in establishing a rhythm. Claude and his brother Yves inherited Marcel’s determination and resilience. The Lausanne-born hard-rock lovers opened and outfitted thousands of new climbing routes across Europe, especially in Switzerland and Greece, and became trailblazers in the emergence of rock climbing as a popular sport.