He then went to Milwaukee, where he was employed as assistant attorney for the Wisconsin Central Railroad (1871–99), of which his father, Edwin Hale Abbot, was president.
Philip S. Abbot was considered an experienced mountain climber, in the United States; one who had made expeditions to the Alps and ascended the Matterhorn and Weisshorn; with Swiss guide Peter Sarbach.
[citation needed] On August 3, 1896, Philip Stanley Abbot slipped from the rock precipice while free climbing Mount Lefroy in the Bow Range near Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.
[citation needed] The recovery party was led by outfitter Thomas Edmonds Wilson and included George Little, Willoughby Astley, and Professor Charles Ernest Fay.
[citation needed] In memory of the first mountaineering fatality in North America, the Pass, which took the life of Philip S. Abbot was named in his honor.