Jean-Christophe Lafaille (31 March 1965 – 27 January 2006 [presumed]) was a French climber noted for a number of difficult ascents in the Alps and Himalaya, and for what has been described as "perhaps the finest self-rescue ever performed in the Himalaya",[1] when he was forced to descend the mile-high south face of Annapurna alone with a broken arm, after his climbing partner had been killed in a fall.

He climbed eleven of the fourteen eight-thousanders, many of them alone or by previously unclimbed routes, but disappeared during a solo attempt to make the first winter ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.

On the strength of his climbs in the Alps, Lafaille was invited on an expedition to Annapurna by Pierre Béghin, one of the leading French climbers of the day.

Béghin had been carrying most of the pair's technical equipment, including all the ropes, and Lafaille was left alone on the face, a vertical mile above safety.

[4]With great difficulty, Lafaille managed to climb down the 75 degree face to the pair's last bivouac site, where he found 20 metres of thin rope, allowing him to make short abseils down some of the hardest parts.

With no technical equipment to use as anchors he was forced to entrust his weight to tent pegs or, on one occasion, a plastic bottle.

He initially tried to continue abseiling, but unable to control the rope with only one hand and his teeth he reverted to downclimbing one-handed, and was utterly exhausted when he reached the Slovenian team's base camp.

The first time he made a solo attempt on the British line on the South Face, which failed due to poor snow conditions.

This natural space creates demanding situations that can lead to suffering and death, but also generate a wild interior richness.

"[2]Over four weeks in December and January, he hauled loads up the mountain, entirely alone above his advance base camp at 5300m, but was forced to retreat from the col at Makalu La by strong winds, which destroyed his tent and twice blew him into the air.

Alone on the mountain in winter, with no climbers in the world sufficiently acclimatised to reach his high camp, there was no possibility of a rescue attempt.

[1] His base camp team gave up hope of him returning alive after he had been missing for a week, and a later helicopter flight over the mountain failed to find any sign of him.

An exploit labeled by himself as "the hardest thing he'd ever done in life",[citation needed] and by Viesturs "one of the most remarkable ascents of modern times."