Neil is a familiar and friendly face on the Chamonix climbing, skiing & guiding scene and has been since the the late 1970’s. Having discovered rock climbing at the age of 16 this quickly became the passion Neil’s life. From rock climbing he graduated to Alpine summits and frozen waterfalls.
Neil settled in the Chamonix valley in the late 1970s and worked as a ski-patroller at the Brévent ski area in Chamonix. At that time he was almost certainly the only Englishman to be working as a ski patroller in France. This work involved maintaining security on the marked pistes, evacuating the injured from the pistes and avalanche control. For several years, before deciding to become a guide he ran his own rope access business.
Since 1995 Neil has worked year round as a fully qualified U.I.A.G.M. guide. He is a member of the (A.I.G.M.B.) Association Internationale des Guides du Mont Blanc, based here in Chamonix.
Neil’s vast experience, local knowledge and good company make him a great companion for your Chamonix based Mountain Adventures….
We had a great day. My son is beside himself with the sense of accomplishment and is keen to do more. He had a brief moment of worry as we started up the last bit, but Neil did a great job laying out what he needed to do and how to do it. He’s tired, a bit sunburned, and very happy.
Jon Foster, Chamonix Off Piste Ski Guiding at Grands Montets & Le Tour, March 2020
Neil was a great guide he knew so much about the mountain and reassured my daughter about avalanche fears through his excellent knowledge of snow conditions and preparation. He was friendly and had some good conversations and skied until even my 20 year old daughter was tired which is great! Great couple of days skiing. Definitely doing it again
Campbell & Melissa, Chamonix off piste & Ski Vallée Blanche, March 2020
Neil was great today thanks Rob. Very patient with Melissa, we had an amazing day.
David Williams, Chamonix Intro Ski Touring Weekend, February 2019
Neil. It was great to see you again today and thank you for leading a fantastic day – Jennie and Ellie thoroughly enjoyed a proper day out with a summit and despite the heat are definitely hooked. Hope we ski again together in the not too distant future.
Nick and Claire Riding, Ski Vallee Blanche, April 2016
Just wanted to drop you a quick message to say thanks for providing a brilliant day for us on Sunday. We certainly got lucky with the weather, fresh snow, sunshine, spectacular scenery and great company – you can’t ask for anything more than that! Unfortunately that’s our ski season over but we’ll hopefully see you again next season.
Many thanks for organising. We had a fantastic couple of days with a good mix of terrain, plus were very lucky with the weather. We’ll definitely think about a Hut based trip one day when we get find enough time.
Rob, a great week with Neil. We did just what we wanted, no more, no less. In other words, Neil’s quiet guidance made us make good decisions…He’ll give you the details, no doubt, but it was a super trip with an interesting group of three.
Had a great day with Neil last Monday. Really learnt a lot, Neil passed on so much information. Apart from the amazing scenery which was all new to me, what I learnt on crevasse rescue, moving together across crevasses and mixed ground was invaluable. Neil was very patient with all my questions.
Ahmad Baasiri, Alpine Mountaineering Intro Training Course, August 2013
Neil was great. I had a great time. I was able to challenge myself technically which is what I was looking for. It was fun and I felt safe at the same time. Neil’s knowledge of the mountains and the climbs was impressive and he was able to find climbs suitable to my skills.
Ilia Lev, Climb Mont Blanc in Autumn, October 2012
We had a great time on the course with Neil. He is a really great guide and person, and we really enjoyed his company.
We had learned a ton about mountaineering, because we were total newbies, and now we have some experience 🙂
It was a very special adventure for us because we didn’t even know at the beginning what mountaineering meant.
Thanks, and I hope we will talk again in the future to arrange new adventures!