Jean-Marc Boivin  Jean-Marc Boivin (6 April 1951 – 17 February 1990) was a French mountaineer, extreme skier, hang glider and paraglider pilot, speleologist, BASE jumper, award-winning film maker, and author. The holder of several altitude records for hang gliding and paragliding, the creator of numerous first ascents and first ski descents in the Alps, a member of the team that broke the record for a sub-glacial dive and the first person to paraglide from the summit of Mount Everest, Boivin was a pioneer of extreme sports. He died from injuries incurred after BASE jumping off Angel Falls in Venezuela, the highest waterfall in the world. Boivin was born in Dijon in 1951. He went to secondary school in Dijon, Belfort and Tournus, and gained his "Baccalauréat de technicien" in 1971. Between 1972 and 1973 he studied mechanical manufacturing in Sens. It was while working at the Peugeot factory in Dijon that he decided to live "in" and "for" the mountains. Coming to both climbing and skiing quite late in his childhood at the age of 14, he climbed on the cliffs of Cormot, in the cirque du Bout du Monde near Nolay, as well as in Brochon, Fixin and Saffres, and skied in the Jura mountains. By 1972 he was sufficiently proficient at skiing to come fourth in the "Série Nationale". He gained his aspirant guide diploma from "l'Ecole Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinisme de Chamonix" in 1973, the same year that he completed his military service with the 159th Regiment of Alpine Infantry in Briançon, section "Eclaireurs en Montagne". From this point, Boivin dedicated himself to being what he called "an all-round professional adventurer". 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".