Pierre Bossus

Pierre Bossus attended the Latin section of the Collège de Genève, where he graduated in 1954, before studying at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Geneva.

Bossus joined the Swiss Alpine Club (CAS) section of Geneva and was a member of the board of directors in 1958. In July 1968 he led the Greenland Expedition, which made the first ascent on the Akuliaruseq Peninsula north of Umanak in West Greenland.

Bossus, as Executive Director of the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA), along with the UIAA President at the time, Jean Juge, travelled to the Pamirs in 1974 to visit the camp of the international expedition, accompanied by Vitaly Abalakov. Bossus was president of the UIAA from 1976-84. Concerns about the social and ecological effects of treks and expeditions in major mountain ranges led to the UIAA’s Kathmandu Declaration in 1982.

For many years Bossus wrote travel reports and produced club and climbing guides for the Franco-Swiss Alps.