Simond | Director Losses His Life

An Alpinist was the victim of a rock fall at around 9 am Friday morning on the Dent du Géant, a spectacular needle that rises to more than 4,000 meters above sea level.

Chamonix is in mourning after it loses yet another loved and respected member of the community, Olivier Bonnet.  Director of the historic mountain equipment and climbing company Simond.

(Part of the Decathlon group based in Les Houches at the foot of Mont Blanc)

In the early 1820s in Chamonix the Simond family was made up of several brothers all blacksmiths & crystal hunters.  They knew how to work iron and wood with a forge on the edge of the Arve river.  Manufacturing agricultural tools, bells and equipment dedicated to their activity of crystal hunting.  The first adventurers that headed into the Chamonix mountains were all equipped with Simond crampons, ice axes etc.