International Mountain Leader
Julien Defois
Julien is an Alps-based mountain leader who lives in Seyne near the Mercantour National Park in south-east France.
He has travelled and hiked through the most beautiful mountain ranges of the world, and has (almost) been everywhere – Alaska, Patagonia, Nepal, India, China, Peru, Colombia, Japan, Bolivia, Albany, Kosovo, Bosnia and many more.
Julien has twice completed the Via Alpina, a route stretching from the Adriatic Sea all the way to the Mediterranean through the mountains. He is an ambassador this beautiful trail.
Julien loves long-distance hiking and believes it is the key to a sustainable and ecological way of life. Through hiking, he says you learn to love what surrounds you – mountains, wildflowers, streams, wildlife. He says that hiking helps us to realise the beauty of nature and therefore urges us to protect it and take care of it.
Before guiding groups in the mountains, Julien was a social worker with a non-profit organisation helping teenagers with physical disabilities to deal with their daily life. He has been guiding groups as a volunteer mountain and ski touring leader for the French Alpine Club since 2005. He lived nearby in the Pyrénées for a long time so he’s both a specialist of this range and the Alps.
Fun fact: despite being French, he speaks English!