The guides
Our guides
The four of us are good friends who live in the Queyras. Climbing, mountaineering, and skiing have been passions of ours since we were little kids. It was only natural that we became high mountain guides to enjoy and share our passion day-in and day-out.
My name is Seb.
I was lucky enough to grow up in the Queyras, a wonderful playground as a kid and still now as an adult.
When I was a kid, I threw all of my energy into cross-country skiing, racing for the local club and then at a national level as a high school student. Towards the end of my cross-country racing days, I started ski-mountaineering competitively as well as spending most of my time in the high mountains.
That is of course when I caught the travel bug. I spent several years experiencing adventure all across the globe, from Canada, to India, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, as well as all over the Andes in South America (where I scaled several 6000m peaks on my own) to name just a few places.
At one point I decided to return to my native Alps to train to become a high-mountain guide. The four-year program allowed me to travel even more and climb in such incredible locations as the USA, Jordan, Morocco, Sardinia, Corsica, and of course all over the French Alps.
Today I am lucky to work in a profession where I continue to travel. Every ascent, every outing is an adventure. Perhaps we can share the next one together? On skis? On a climb? On ice?
My name is Nicolas.
The mountains, climbing, and mountaineering have been an integral part of my life since I was twenty years old. I decided to turn this passion into a way of life by becoming a High-Mountain Guide. Today, I enjoy showing clients around my backyard, taking them to the area's best-kept secrets, as well as sharing incredible experiences and adventures in the vertical world!
The Queyras has become my home and base camp. Its wild mountains, picturesque valleys, and Mediterranean climate make it ideal for those who love the lost remote corners of the great outdoors. Here, the mountains offer something unique each of the four seasons.
The mountains are also a great reason to travel. On summits from one continent to another, experience the amazing diversity and beauty of our planet.
One could say that I started mountaineering by climbing the olive trees and going to pick genepi in Ubaye!
It was in 2006 that I landed in Queyras. Before that, I was busy with cross-country skiing competitions and training for nordic ski qualification. Once settled in Aiguilles, I enjoyed to practise ski touring through the secret valleys of Queyras in winter and to climb on the rocky ridges in summer. And so was born the desire to focus on the formation of high mountain guide.
But it was during adolescence, after having started climbing and mountaineering in the next range of Ecrins, when I go with my friends "up there", that I understand the meaning of the mountain guide job. Accompany rather than guide. Build a confidence, to share a language that other passionate people have given me. Have your eyes everywhere, in front of and behind your head. Organize an ascent as a trip.
After 20 years of practice, each day in mountain is a pleasure. I like the mix of fear and wonder that the mountain arouses. I enjoy disconnecting myself, increasing elevation to gain in humility, being faced at the same time with the severity of the mountain, and the comfort of a ray of sunshine.
I spent my childhood walking the paths and the Corsican peaks, before going to "the continent" to learn the profession of carpenter, which I practiced for 10 years. By traveling thanks to this profession, especially in New Zealand, I discovered the high mountains. After several years of amateur practice, I wanted to make a living from my passion all year round and I started training as a high mountain guide, as well as an alpine ski instructor. I practiced these trades in different resorts in the Alps, and it is quite logical that I decided to settle in the most beautiful of the massifs, the Queyras ;-) Today, I take pleasure in sharing up there in the moutains my passion and also my knowledge, in order to allow my clients to progress in their practice.