Blueice

abigail pickett

basecamp: Chamonix

Abi’s story started somewhere in the south of Europe, with an English couple (her parents) climbing, skiing and exploring different mountainous areas from the northern alps to the rocks of the Mediterranean. Eventually the couple became a family of four and after a good review of the map of the alps, they chose to settle down in their favorite mountain destination: Chamonix, at the foot of Mont Blanc.

To the great happiness of the parents, Abi grew up showing both a surprising courage and a great talent for skiing. Soon enough she was seen on the podium of freestyle competitions and heading towards a life as professional skier. Then, after a hard and bad fall, Abi had to back away from skiing and abandon the plans of making a living from her greatest passion in life. However, they say something good always comes out of something bad, and in Abi's case the good was the discovery of climbing during her long recovery.

Today, after a few years in the south, Abi is back in Chamonix. Projects in the pipeline are: becoming a climbing instructor, work, travel, profit and add some more climbing to the 130 days per year that are already devoted to the rocks.

When we ask Abi to share a special memory or experience from climbing with us, she mentions her 6th time climbing granite: Marco Zaffiri and Daniele Geremia came to Cham and convinced me to come with them. They spoke about doing the Bonatti route on the Grand Capucin and said to me: don’t worry, we’ll pull you up if we have to! ...that’s exactly what they did in the end! When we were 2/3 up we got lost and ended up under huge roofs and completely smooth granite with no holds, as you can imagine, I was slightly uncomfy!