François Guillot

François Guillot, born in 1943 in Uzès, Gard, is a French climber and mountaineer. A free climbing specialist and brilliant mountaineer, he is one of the leading figures of the new generation of Marseille climbers of the 1960s. He particularly distinguished himself in the Verdon Gorges but also participated in numerous alpine expeditions around the world. Born in 1943 in Uzès, Gard, François Guillot spent his childhood and adolescence in Marseille, where his father worked as an ophthalmologist at the Timone Hospital. His father, who was involved in the world of high-level skiing, passed on his passion for this discipline to him. François Guillot spent two years of his adolescence in Chamonix, where he skied intensively and discovered climbing at the Rochers des Gaillands. Back in Marseille, he enrolled in the CAF (French Alpine Club) and climbed in the Calanques, where he repeated the most difficult routes. From 1964 onwards, François Guillot became a leading young climber: he blazed new trails in the Calanques, repeated major routes in the Western Alps (Walker Spur in the Grandes Jorasses, the south face of the Pavé in Oisans), and participated in the high-difficulty course organized by Georges Livanos in the Dolomites. A free climbing specialist, François Guillot was a fast climber, breaking the speed records of the time, and became the leader of the young generation of climbers from Marseille. In 1965, François Guillot participated in an expedition to the Caucasus and t…