Qui sommes-nous?

I am managing the company, organizing the trips and fixing everything for you, before, during and after action.

Born and raised in the Alps, I’ve been working ten years as a professional mountain guide in Chamonix. Since a few years I’m living and working between my home valley ( la Maurienne), Norway and basically all around the world. From the famous and huge Alps to the secret scandinavian mountains, it’s the quest for wilderness that keeps my motivation up and feeds my dreams of climbing, skiing and telemark.

Having the chance to share this with you and being able to help you to fulfill you own dreams is what is making me happy to be a guide, a wonderfull work based on communication and confidence. While guiding you, I’ll always do my best to share my experience with you and help you out to improve your skills. That way you’ll make the best of your time in the mountains, whatever your level is, with safety and good spirit.

At the other end of the world or just here there’s always a new adventure waiting for us. Why not going together?

​I remember how everything started back in the days when I was, like all the kids from my village in Maurienne, training with the local ski club. All the focus was on racing. But unlike all the others, my cousins and me were definitely more attracted by powder and playing in the forest, to the point that the trainers of the club had to create an off-piste group !

As years went by, my passion for mountains grew bigger, and I was finally selected to be in a team of young french climbers that were going to be trained to become top alpinists. After a wonderful time with those guys, I went into the guide education and got the diploma in 2006. During that prior I got also certified as a ski patroller, and that’s how I begun my career : guiding in the summer, and patrolling the pistes of La Norma and Orelle Val Thorens for about ten years. The best was of course the avalanche bombing !

Then I decided to work as a guide full time, and my two first winters were spent in Val d’Isère. Now I’m enjoying snow both in my home valley, the Maurienne, and in the wonderful mountains of northern Norway as much as possible.

See you there!

Born in Grenoble, in a climbers family, it was no surprise that at 5 years old I was already tied to a rope. Spending all my vacations (or when truanting…) in my grandmother’s chalet in the Haute-Maurienne, that’s where I discovered the joy of skiing.Thanks to my father, I started travelling, climbing a 6000m top in Nepal, and then it was the Elbrus on skis.

Since then I am living with the urge of moving and discovering new horizons. I became a mountain leader in 2010 and kept training to finally get the IFMGA mountain guide certification. Here in Maurienne, or far abroad I will guide you, with skis, climbing shoes, crampons, you name it!

Pure product of the Maurienne Valley, I stepped in my first pair of skis at age 3, and almost never took them off.

At a young age I started with alpine skiing competitions with La Norma, and became a certified ski instructor in 2011.
Later on, my passion for alpinism started to grow when my father introduced me to rock climbing.The first multi-pitch climbs and the discovery of my first frozen waterfalls locked me to that environnement and to the feeling of freedom. My will to climb and to ski only for bigger and bigger…
At 20 years old I've got seriously contaminated by the travelling virus, with a first steep skiing expedition in Alaska. I am always on the move, from North America to Peru, with maybe a stop “chez Mumu” in Bonneval-Sur-Arc before continuing toward the fjords of Northern Norway for a bit of ski touring.

As a guide, I love to share the simplicity, the enjoyment and the feeling of mindfulness given by the life up on the mountains. I am good at giving you some of my great energy, on skis or just with my sense of humor that you will learn to appreciate…

I am getting quickly sick when packed in a cable car or at the bottom of a crowded chairlift like sheep in the herd, so it’s far from the crowds that I will guide you…if you can keep up with me!

Traveling, climbing, skiing and mountaineering, have been my pretexts to see other horizons.
I have been packing for 10 years in Haute Maurienne, where I can practice all these activities, in a legendary preserved environment.
Engaged in local firemen, I integrated mountain rescue for 2 years. Graduated from the mountain guide academy since last autumn 2019, I will do my best to share with you my passion.

A "swedish style" mountain guide, looking for adventure far out of the beaten track...

I’ve skied before I could walk, and once I climbed out of my cradle I never stopped. Since then I gave priority to what really matters to me  family and mountains.

I’ve worked as a climbing teacher since 2004 and got certified as a mountain guide in 2013.

Living in Sweden, in Östersund, I spend a lot of time in the mountains of Jämtland, ski touring, rock or ice climbing, but I also work in the Alps (Maurienne) and in northern Sweden and Norway.

I like to work with a swedish attitude, looking for my own experiences in places far away from the crowds, where it’s still possible to enjoy the nature without any pressure. It was a natural step for me to start working with Upguides, as we share the same values, and the cultural exchanges between french and swedish guides is a huge benefit for all of us, guides and clients.

My best memories? It could be skiing alone from a 7500m peak, but also a whole week making new tracks in Maurienne with a group that couldn’t believe his eyes… Nowhere else in the Alps can you do that!

I love to spend my time skiing, climbing and exploring in all seasons, from the Maurienne to the remote mountains of the north of Norway.

No matter where we might ski or climb together, I’ll do my best to share that passion with you.

The junior of the Upguides Team!

I've been climbing for 15 years. Passionate about ice climbing and drytooling, I joined the national french team since 2012. I am in parallel training of high mountain guide since 2017.
In snowboarding, skiing, climbing, ice climbing and drytooling, my nickname is "passe partout"!
With me, the verticality will have no more secret for you...

Our real boss actually...

Born in the Maurienne valley, I started to ski at the same time that I started to walk. But as a handy man, I appreciate different tools: alpine ski, ski touring and cross-country ski!
Then I studied, worked and traveled in the logistics industry, through Germany, India, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic… before coming back home to embrace again nature, wildness and “my” mountains.

At Upguides, we understand how stressful and time consuming it can be deciding what to do, where to stay, how to get around and how to maximize the time you have. So, why not leave all of it to us and you just pack your bags and go!
I am someone genuinely friendly, open-minded, social and generous, attentive to the needs of others.
Basically, I am here to facilitate the organization of your trip and make sure that it suits your taste and preferences.

Let’s talk to each other soon!

... aka "Baleine", whale in French, I am the only one who look great with cross country skis!

Born in Haute-Maurienne in a family of forestry workers, I am living a childhood as close as possible to the nature. My parents taught me very early the love for effort and mountains.

Like all kids in the valley I was learning how to ski at the local ski club. However I was particularly good in cross-country competitions and became instructor and trainer.
I also kept up with the studies, and lived 3 years of my job as an hydraulic engineer.
But I quickly realize that behind anywhere near a computer will drive him nuts in no time and decides to quit everything to become a guided cross country teacher full time in 2011.

Staring at a map and dreaming, the simple effort, the joy of making turns on velvet snow, a good bottle at the bivy… are all the things I am burning for and like to share, and even more in the mountains of Haute-Maurienne for which I have a special love.

Eric is first a friend, and our rep in the USA! 

To make a long story short, Fred met him in France, way back, and got introduced to Eric’s friends from Finnmark. From the friendship came the ideas of a few trip that we’re proposing today, both in Northern Norway and in the US. Eric grew up skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and developed a love for high peaks and light powder snow. This evolved into a passion that has taken him around the globe skiing in South America, Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, Alaska and across the United States, always searching for the ultimate skiers experience. Eric is a guide with Powder Addiction Cat Skiing outside of Denver, Colorado and is AIARE Level 2 Avalanche certified. He is also a Denver firefighter and shares his passions for mountains and skiing with his wife Katie, their son Arne, their daughter Annika and their dog.