Published on June 25, 2026 08:15 am
Acclaimed ski mountaineer and IFMGA mountain guide Guillaume “G” Pierrell died at the age of 42 while attempting to climb and ski K6 in Pakistan. He was climbing to an altitude of about 5,000 meters (16,400 ft) with Frenchman Boris Jules and Swiss Christina Maria on 24 June when an avalanche engulfed Pierrell. According to initial reporting by Pamir Times And Everest DailyThe accident occurred during climbing when a sudden avalanche of snow and rocks fell on the climber, killing him instantly.
Ishaq Ali, a tour operator who assisted in the recovery, said, “Both Christina and Boris are safe and they are also working to recover the body.” Outside Through email. Ali said the team was able to get Pierrell’s body up to Camp I, but a helicopter was unable to arrive due to high temperatures (the Baltoro Glacier will see temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit this week). The team hopes that the helicopter will be able to take off today.
Pierrel’s partner, Christina “Lusty” Lustenberger, posted on social media in June that she and Pierrel were traveling to Pakistan together, but sources close to Lustenberger say she is alive and was at the lower camp at the time of the avalanche. She is now making her way down the mountain.
great steep skier aymar navarro Took to Instagram today to praise his friend. “Goodbye sir, goodbye my friend,” Navarro wrote. “Still processing the sad news of your loss. It’s hard when the mountains give us their best and at the same time break us like this. Take care of us from wherever you are, my friend.”
G. Pierrel: Ski Mountaineering’s rising star
Pierrell was born in 1983 in the Vosges range between Alsace and Lorraine, France. A skier since the age of two, Pierrel climbed his first mountains in the Swiss Alps at the age of four. He progressed rapidly through his mountain guide course and quickly took up the stunning ski slopes in Chamonix.
G. Pierrel has made headlines over the years for daring skiing on some of the steepest and most technically demanding peaks on Earth, primarily while skiing with Lusty. In February 2025, two ski mountaineers climbed and skied the first ascent of The Great Couloir on the south face of 12,972-foot-high Mount Robson in British Columbia, Canada.
The nearly 10,000-foot-tall coupler is a mind-boggling test piece, requiring perfectly stable rock and ice to land safely. The team skied in sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures early in the season to give themselves the best safety margin against rockfall.
Just a few months earlier, Pierrel and Lustenberger had skied a new line on New Zealand’s highest peak, 12,218-foot Aoraki, also known as Mount Cook. An IFMGA guide, Pierrelle typically skis in impeccable alpine style – traveling light and fast and carrying only what he needs for fast descents.
Lustenbarger said Outside Robson’s skiing revealed that Pierrell’s abilities were integral to the team’s successes. “I’ve been looking at this line for ten years,” she said. “My partnership with G and the mountains really gave me the confidence to tackle it.”
“I was fortunate to have such a wonderful partner who pushed me when I needed it and was willing to push me in return,” Lustenberger said at the time.
As a solo skier, Pierrel climbed and skied Drew’s North Face On the Mont Blanc massif, a feat previously thought impossible, as snow almost never sticks to the vertical granite climbing route.
In 2021, he completed the first ski descent of the French Spur on the nearby Gasherbrum I, one of the world’s 14 peaks higher than 8,000 m (26,426 ft).
Where is K6 and how difficult is it to climb?
K6, also known as Baltistan Peak, is a 23,891-foot peak in the Masherbrum Range, a subrange of the Karakoram in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It is situated on the Tibetan Plateau, north of the main Himalayan range.
The Masherbrum Range lies just south of the Baltoro Glacier, famous for being home to 28,251-foot K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, and the Trango Towers, a renowned climbing and skiing area.
K6 has been summited only once, in 1970, via the southeast ridge Eduard Koblemüller and a team of members of the Austrian Alpine Club. Alpinist Wolfgang Axt described K6 as “probably the most difficult 7,000 m peak in the Karakoram”.
K6 shares a range with the 23,100-foot Link Saar, which, in 2021, renowned mountaineer Steve Swenson termed “last big mountain“In our sister publication climb.
This is a developing story, and Outside Will continue to provide updates as they become available.
Outside Condolences to Pierrell’s friends, family and the skiing community. Will miss him.
