Benjamin Guigonnet Was One of the Most Versatile Climbers of His Generation

Every January, we share a tribute to members of our community who we lost last year. Some were legends, others were pillars of their community, all were climbers. Read the full tribute to Climbers We Lost in 2025 here.

Benjamin Guigonnet, 37, September 18

Piolet d’Or-winning alpinist Benjamin Guigonnet was among the most versatile, hard-charging climbers of his generation. He didn’t just pioneer long alpine routes. He also climbed technical WI7 ice, bouldered V11, redpointed 5.14d sport, and onsighted 5.13b trad and M10 mixed. Even off the wall, “he was an incredible jack-of-all-trades,” said friend Stéphane Benoist, noting Guigonnet’s skill in fields ranging from masonry, mechanics and carpentry to sculpture.

Benoist, the head of France’s Le Groupe Excellence Alpinisme National, met Guigonnet in 2005 at the Nice crag L’Erbossiéra. “At 17, Benjamin was already climbing extremely well and happily romping around 8a (5.13b) climbs with … fluidity and ease,” Benoist said, in a written tribute he shared with Climbing.

The following year, Benoist began mentoring Guigonnet on the Fédération Française des Clubs Alpins et de Montagne (French Federation of Alpine & Mountain Clubs/FFCAM) team. By 2011, Guigonnet had become an alpine guide for the Ecole Nationale de Ski et d’Alpinisme (ENSA) in Chamonix, a role he still held at the time of his death. “Dozens of clients cherish fabulous memories of climbs with Benjamin,” Benoist said.

Over the past 15 years, Guigonnet put up hard climbs around the world, often with partners Frédéric Degoulet and Hélias Millerioux. Collectively, the three dubbed themselves “Le Gang des Moustaches” (The Moustache Gang). The Moustache Gang first made waves in the international scene in May 2014, firing a bold alpine line up the west face of Peru’s Siula Chico (6,265m/20,554ft), Looking for the Void (WI6 M7 R; 3,000ft), with Robin Revest.

Degoulet said that his late partner and friend was “physically, not very impressive”—standing 5’6” and weighing just 135 pounds—but was a dominant force on the wall. “He always chose our objectives,” Degoulet said. He recalled Guigonnet as being “very, very ambitious,” but also possessed of the technical forte and fitness to back that ambition up. “He was very relaxed,” Degoulet added. “Not someone who wanted to be in front of a crowd, he was just focused on his objectives.”

Benoist wrote that Guigonnet had “an extraordinary ability to commit to a face while relying on a very strong team spirit,” adding that this made him a natural companion for Degoulet. “These two embodied what every climbing team worthy of the name dreams of: one plus one equals more than two,” Benoist wrote. “Together, they formed a whole greater than either of them individually.”

Degoulet said that one of his favorite memories with Guigonnet was a 48-hour round-trip, free ascent of the North Buttress (5.8 WI6 M7; 6,000ft) on Alaska’s Begguya/Mount Hunter (14,573ft/4,442m) in 2011. The pair also roped up for ambitious, rarely repeated routes on classic peaks closer to home, like the Gabarrou-Silvy (6b WI6 A1; 3,300ft) on the Aiguille Verte (4,122m/13,524ft) and the Bonatti-Vaucher (5c M5/6 A2+; 3,600ft) on the Grandes Jorasses (4,208m/13,806ft).

The Moustache Gang’s most famous exploit was an alpine first ascent of the coveted South Face of Nuptse II (7,742m/25,400ft), in 2017. It was his third attempt on the line in as many years. At the time, it was among the hardest, highest routes ever completed in the Himalaya: 7,000 feet of climbing, breaching difficulties of WI6 and M5+, with more than a dozen pitches that were WI5 and harder.

The Moustache Gang won the prestigious Piolet d’Or in 2018 for their Nuptse mission, which the honoring committee said “may be destined to gain iconic status in the realm of modern technical Himalayan climbing.” The expedition was also chronicled in the documentary Nuptse: L’Inaccessible (Nuptse: Touching the Intangible). More footage from their ascent is available on Vimeo.

Writing about the climb for the American Alpine Journal, Degoulet admitted that he and his companions had rolled the dice a bit more than he was comfortable with. “Undertaking a number of projects with this level of commitment considerably decreases your life expectancy,” he said. “Yes, there is an element of chance, but we do make our own luck, or at least part of it.”

For most alpinists, an effort of this magnitude would lead to a prolonged period of rest and hibernation, but just a few months after he returned from Nuptse, Guigonnet was clipping the chains on 5.14d in the Verdon Gorge. Benoist said his late friend “radiated immense kindness,” and an “infectious joie de vivre.” He admitted that his death was a shock, because the alpinist always appeared composed, regardless of the situation. “I absolutely did not see this coming,” he admitted. “You exuded such serenity.”

Benjamin Guigonnet died in a car accident in the Verdon on September 18, along with guide Quentin Lombard, a passenger in his car. He leaves behind a wife, Melody—whom he married just a month before he died—and their two young children, Nino and Zoé, who Benoist said were clearly his late friend’s “most precious possessions.” A fundraising campaign has been organized to support Guigonnet’s family in the wake of his passing.

Read the full tribute to Climbers We Lost in 2025 here.

The post Benjamin Guigonnet Was One of the Most Versatile Climbers of His Generation appeared first on Climbing.