Born and raised among the metropolitan streets of Venice, Italy, Giulia Monego’s path to ski mountaineer seems an unlikely one. However, thanks to piste-loving parents and a last-minute decision to take a ski instructing job in Verbier, it’s one that has led her from weekend warrior to big mountain aficionado, and paired her with the legends of ski mountaineering. The many worlds of Giulia Monego.

Words Brigid Mander

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Twelve years ago, Giulia Monego packed her bags after university in Milan, Italy to spend a year or so ski instructing abroad, teaching technique to tourists on the groomed pistes of Verbier, Switzerland

It was meant to be a temporary move before pursuing a career with her tourism degree, but Monego is still there. Nowadays, the lithe, fit Italian can most often be found as far from the pistes as possible, up some steep hidden couloir, or perched on one of the area’s massive, iconic mountains.

The Venetian skier is just in her early 30s, but she has been known and respected among the “who’s-who” in European ski mountaineering for some time, working on projects with greats like snowboarder Xavier de la Rue and counting the late “American Dave” Rosenbarger as ski partners…

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