Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll

Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll is a professional climber and mountaineer born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in February 1981, to an Irish mother and a Spanish father. A polyglot, he speaks English, Dutch, French, and Spanish, and has established himself as one of the most original figures in contemporary mountaineering thanks to a style that is committed, inventive, and remarkably free.

His reputation was built on major traverses and first ascents on big walls, notably in Patagonia, Greenland, and other extreme terrains. With the Favresse brothers, Ben Ditto and Bob Shepton, he participated in a Greenland expedition that earned him a Piolet d’Or, and he later received a second Piolet d’Or for his solo traverse of the seven needles of Fitz Roy, dubbed the “Moonwalk Traverse,” a feat hailed as a world first.

His journey is also marked by friendship and climbing partnerships, particularly with Nicolas and Olivier Favresse, with whom he has long shared the idea of ​​joyful, collaborative, and creative climbing. Accounts of him emphasize his humor, his simplicity, and his love of adventures undertaken with friends, to the point that he is often described as someone you'd want in your group.