I have been lucky enough to attend a few of the Arc’teryx Academy events. In 2023 i went to the Alpine Academy in Chamonix.
The little group i was in for the week was guided by @freddegoulet and @benjaminribeyre .
As often on this kind of compressed learning experience one hangs off the shirt tails of immense experience and just tries to soak up every tip, tactic and titbit of advice.
Almost three years later i only really have one resounding memory of that trip. It was lunchtime on the Tuesday. I was sat on the moraine on the Mer de Glace chatting to Benji. In about fifteen minutes he went very very deep in to the ying and yang of being a Guide earning a living from people (like me) flying to the alps to gawp at the immense shrinkage of the glaciers and the collapse of the high alpine environment whilst literally being the causation. He gesticulated it blowing his brain. The irony deeply troubled him. Benji wondered what would be left of the high alpine when his young son Milo was his age.
That conversation has gnawed at me ever since.
Benji was killed on Tuesday in an accident whilst guiding a client in the Ecrins Massif.
‘Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous’ – Reinhold Messner
There is a GoFundMe appeal (for ‘Benjamin Ribeyre’) set up to support Benji’s wife Erin and their son Milo. Please support it if you have the means.
🙏.
Benji and Fred making the supremely difficult look like a walk in the park.