Oliver Mariande (48)

On 7 April 2025, the mountain section of the CRS Pyrénées was called to the Piau-Engaly area (Hautes-Pyrénées), near Pic de Campbiel, where two hikers roped together were in serious difficulty on a cliff face at an altitude of over 3,000 metres. During the perilous helicopter rescue operation, 48-year-old Sergeant Olivier Mariande and the 65-year-old mountaineer he was attempting to rescue unfortunately fell to their deaths.

Born on 23 June 1976 in Vic-de-Bigorre (Hautes-Pyrénées), Olivier Mariande joined the National Police as a police officer on 5 January 1998 at the police training centre in Carcassonne (Aude). Assigned to the 5th Republican Security Company in Massy (Essonne), he quickly specialised in mountain rescue and joined the 29th Republican Security Company in Lannemezan (Hautes-Pyrénées) on 1 September 2002. With his infectious enthusiasm, Olivier Mariande was a rigorous technician who left his mark on several generations of mountain rescue professionals. A high-mountain guide and trainer in working at height, as well as an instructor in mountaineering and alpine skiing, he was described as a quiet force who knew how to reassure others and inspire them to move forward with kindness and great humility. Highly experienced, Olivier Mariande had already escaped death near Lake Oncet on 27 January 2009. His colleague Éric Fauvet, who was with him, was not so lucky. Olivier Mariande was also a third-degree black belt in judo and an honorary member of the Lannemezan judo club, where he had been practising the sport with passion for over thirty years. He was promoted successively to police sergeant on 1 July 2017, chief sergeant of normal class on 1 August 2023, then chief sergeant of higher class on 1 January 2024. He was posthumously promoted to police captain; cited in the Order of the Nation; appointed Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour; awarded the National Police Medal of Honour; and the Internal Security Medal.