From Steep Ski Lines to Alpine First Ascents, Quentin Lombard, 34, Loved it All

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.

Quentin Lombard, 34, September 18

Quentin Lombard “didn’t know how to do things by halves,” said friend Benjamin Gerard Grosso. Whatever he hoped to achieve in his life, from ascents of long alpine routes to starting a family, Lombard was someone who devoted his full attention to the task at hand.

Born in Pralognan-la-Vanoise, a small village nestled in the heart of the French Alps, Lombard “fell into the pot” of climbing and mountain sports from birth, Grosso said. Lombard’s father and grandfather were both mountain guides, and he was “climbing on rock or sliding on skis by the time he took his first steps.”

Lombard spent the rest of his 34 years on Earth in the mountains, developing into an “exceptional skier, and a fast and gifted mountaineer,” said Grosso. He became a ski instructor in 2014 and started working as a mountain guide three years later. At the time of his death, he was an instructor for France’s National School of Skiing and Mountaineering (École Nationale de Ski et d’Alpinisme/ENSA), in Chamonix.

Grosso said that over his career, Lombard “was able to achieve a level of versatility that is rare in the mountain world.” He pursued a diverse spread of objectives, from Patagonia’s Fitz Roy (11,020ft) and the Nose (5.9 C2) on El Capitan to the north faces of the Grandes Jorasses (4,208m/13,806ft) and the Eiger (3,967m/13,015ft) to the steep-ski line Couturier Corridor (60°) on the Aiguille Verte (4,122m/13,524ft).

“Whatever the terrain, he was in his place up there,” said Grosso. Lombard was particularly fond of a line he established in 2020 on the south face of the Pointe de la Grande Glière (3,392m/11,129ft) with Luc Mongellaz. The two men, who had recently become parents, named the route Jeux d’Enfants/Child’s Play (6b+; 400m) in homage to their newborn children.

Over the last four years, Lombard and his wife, Anna, had begun raising two children, Noé and Billie, and Lombard had built his family a chalet, outfitted a van in anticipation of their future adventures, and kept up a rigorous workload as a guide and instructor at ENSA. Grosso said that above all else, his friend was someone who “every day tried to be better.”

Clients who climbed with Lombard always remarked on his “formidable efficiency and his sense of a job well done,” Grosso said. He added that “with this accident, we not only lost a super father and a loving and faithful husband, but also a great guide who loved long technical routes and the discovery of new areas.”

Lombard was riding in a car being driven by another ENSA guide, Benjamin Guigonnet, when they were involved in a fatal crash in the Verdon Gorge on September 18.

“I will never have enough words to explain the greatness of the man we lost,” Grosso said.

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

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