Walter Cecchinel born in 1946 in Cison di Valmarino in Italy is a French mountaineer. Walter Cecchinel arrived in France in 1949 and lived mainly in Haute-Savoie.

After studying mechanics, he discovered the mountains at the age of twenty. He obtained his aspirant guide diploma in 1968 before obtaining that of high mountain guide in 1971. The following year, he became the youngest teacher at the National Ski and Mountaineering School in Chamonix and taught a new technique that he had developed, the ice axe-traction.