Career
The climbing technique, to gaston, was named after him. He was a recipient of France"s prestigious Chevalier de la Légion d"Honneur in 1984. Rébuffat began climbing in the Calanques becoming a mountain guide in 1942.
He rose to international prominence in 1950 as one of the four principals of a French expedition during the first ascent of Annapurna, the highest peak then summitted.
His most famous mountaineering feat was to be the first man to climb all six of the great north faces of the Alps--the Grandes Jorasses, the Piz Badile, the Petit Dru, the Matterhorn, the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, and the Eiger. He put up more than 40 new routes in the Alps.
A photo of him climbing in the French Alps is one of 116 pictures included as part of the Golden Record on the Voyager Spacecraft.