“I grew up in a not very big alpine village, where it is easy to get to know each other. I wanted to become a high mountain guide because it’s a job that I find beautiful and demanding. After my training, I returned to work in my commune. There was an office, established here for a long time, where older guides exercised.
When I arrived in 2001, Fabrice had already been there for three or four years. We were the same age, around 30, but he had more experience than me. He was originally from another area and had already worked elsewhere as a guide. He welcomed me warmly and, fairly quickly, this colleague became a friend. He trained me, taught me his way of seeing things, shared his knowledge with me. He has become a kind of big brother to me.
“We respected each other, we put our lives in each other’s hands without hesitation”
Mountain guide is an intense job, firstly because it’s a passion, and it requires a lot of energy. But also because relationships with customers are strong: they rely on us, trust us, in potentially dangerous situations. We too, the guides, must be able to trust each other, to rely on each other. Fabrice often repeated it to me: “You always have to take care of each other. » It’s quite counter-intuitive because you’re often alone in the mountains, and you quickly forget the rest of the world. But it is important. On each outing, he made sure that we stayed in touch; we communicated by radio. In bad weather, he always watched my back to make sure no storms or avalanches threatened us. We respected each other, we put our lives in each other’s hands without hesitation. We also shared our doubts when necessary.
At the same time, we invested in the office. There was everything to do, and we did it together: hire a secretary, manage the accounts, get involved in the association… It required a lot of work, but we were passionate. We have organized distant trips. With our touring skis, we embarked, with our customers, on a boat which explored the Norwegian fjords. As we were self-employed, we were the masters on board.
Doubt and resentment
I can’t say exactly when our relationship started to deteriorate. There were, I think, several events. First, I was a young father. In season, as a guide, it’s a really demanding job. After the outings, I went back to the office, where I still had to do the cash, prepare the next day… It was quickly 8 or 8:30 p.m., and that weighed on me a lot, a lot. I wanted to see my family. I went there less, my investment decreased. At first, I was a guide in the summer and a ski instructor in the winter. Then, little by little, I wanted to be a guide all year round. I built up a private clientele, outside the office, which also allowed me to organize myself differently. It worked pretty well.
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