Alpinism Boivin was one of the leading alpinists of his era, making
solo ascents of some of the hardest routes in the Alps during the 1970s: the Albinoni-
Gabarrou goulotte on
Mont Blanc du Tacul in 1972, the Lagarde-Ségogne on the
Aiguille du Plan in 1976 and the
Bonatti-Zapelli on the
Grand Pilier d'Angle in 1978. In 1975, Boivin and Gabarrou made first ascents of the direct north faces of
Les Droites and the
Aiguille Verte, followed by the
Supercouloir on Mont Blanc du Tacul, and came to be seen as "the young new wave of the moment". On 31 July 1983 Boivin soloed the
north face of the
Eiger in 7 hours, finishing the climb via the
Harlin Direttissima. He is well known for being one of the leading practitioners of the concept of
enchaînement, in which several difficult climbs are undertaken in one outing (with descents often being made by hang glider, paraglider or ski). On 14 August 1981, together with Patrick Berhault, he climbed the south face of the Aiguille du Fou and the
American Direct on the
Aiguille du Dru, flying to the Dru from the summit of the
Aiguille de Blaitière by hang glider. On 20 February 1985 he made the first winter solo ascent of the Bettembourg-Thivierge on the Aiguille Verte, descending the
Whymper Couloir by ski. he linked up ascents of the north faces (
"les 4 Glorieuses") (from the Shoulder, after which he soloed the Schmid route on the north face in 4 hours 10 minutes) in 1988: highest paraglider flight, first paraglider descent and fastest descent of the mountain. Boivin made a number of films of his ski descents, stunning people who had never seen such extreme descents before. One person who saw footage of Boivin at the
Telluride Film Festival said:
Hang gliding and paragliding In 1979, Boivin set an altitude record for a hang glider, launching from Camp IV on
K2 at an altitude of after making an ascent of the peak. On 26 September 1988, having climbed the mountain via the south-east ridge, Boivin made the first paraglider descent of
Mount Everest, in the process creating the record for the fastest descent of the mountain and the highest paraglider flight. Boivin said: "I was tired when I reached the top because I had broken much of the trail, and to run at this altitude was quite hard." Boivin ran from below the summit on 40-degree slopes to launch his paraglider, reaching Camp II at in 12 minutes (some sources say 11 minutes). On 14 April 1988, he broke the record for distance travelled by paraglider, flying from Mont Maudit in the Mont Blanc massif, arriving at Orsière having flown over the Aiguille Verte, the
Aiguille du Tour and
Pointe d'Orny. , where Boivin died in 1990 == Death==