CAPTURED MOMENTS. PRESERVED. SOME OF THE SUBJECTS HAVE MOVED ON SO THESE IMAGES AND THE MEMORIES THEY TRIGGER ARE ALL THAT REMAIN. HERE IS JOY. SUFFERING. OVERCOMING. AND SIMPLY BEING.
1998: Andrew Bielecki below Quandary Peak, Colorado after a wonderful spring ski tour. “Just a quick nip after ski touring to make the Sunday evening drive down I-70 a little easier to handle ... and it'll help me recover, right?”
February 1987: Jean-Michel Asselin (left) and Gian-Carlo Grassi discussing the day at the Premieres Journees de Glace in Gavarnie in the Pyrenees. It was the first ice climbing festival, and quite a success. A lot of heavy hitters turned up: Grassi, Renault, Noel-Roche, Bohigas and Lucas (who gave a slideshow about their new route on the south face of Annapurna), etc. Amazing. And a long drive from Chamonix.
1990: Thomas Bubendorfer at the Moskvina Glacier base camp below Peak Communism. He was on his way out when we arrived that summer. Thomas set a speed record on the north face Eiger in 1983 that was not bettered for 20 years: 4hrs 50min. A week prior he and Peter Rohrmoser climbed the face in 10 hours, belaying only 12 pitches while soloing the rest. Day-climbing on the Eiger, without a pack was unheard of in 1983 ...
May 1994: Scott Backes and Steve Mascioli in a snowcave on the Kahiltna Glacier. We were waiting out the weather. Storm after storm kept us off the North Buttress of Mount Hunter. All of us waiting: Joe Josephson, Michael Kennedy, Greg Child, Ken Wiley ... a strong group of suitors for some of the finest lines on the planet. Steve was killed by a falling snow mushroom on the North Buttress 6/6/97.
June 2000: Scott Backes in the ranger's Weatherport at 14k on Denali. We walked into camp after 63 hours on the go, having made the 3rd ascent of the Slovak Direct in a single push. In moments that paper plate will be covered with a giant, toasted Spam and cheese sandwich.
October 1988: Barry Blanchard in the “parking” camp on the north side of Everest where one may drive a truck to 15,800’. This was between attempts and the night before in the Wyoming Cowboys base camp featured beer (they were sponsored by Coors) and electric clippers.
February 1987: Bernard Domenech and Dominique Julien during the Premieres Journees de Glace at Gavarnie in the Pyrenees. Bernard was a supporter and friend who kept records of ascents all over the world for the Groupe de la Haute Montagne. Dominique organized the first ice festival and climbed the hardest routes of the era in Gavarnie (“Thanatos” and “Overdose”), both grade 6.
August 1992: Thierry Donard, myself, Francois Lamotte, and Joachim Hellenger on the way to Las Lenas. We were shooting segments of “Pushing the Limits” in Bolivia when skydiving cameraman Francois Rickard was killed. Fights ensued, the lead actor was fired, the producers insisted we continue, and despite the loss we did. The picture was shot in the Buenos Aires airport the day we left Bolivia. Francois’s body had not yet been recovered and none of us were sure of what we were doing. I barely remember the next three weeks.
September 2006: Mark Carter in the Tetons. I considered him one of my best military students: he understood and lived the "Light Is Right" ideal. He was killed in Iraq 12/11/07.
September 2006: Bean Bowers, who was helping Rolo Garibotti and I with a military job in the Tetons. I always loved Bean’s enthusiasm and his sense of indestructability. He had come through some epic adventures. Sadly, and to our loss, he wasn’t invincible. Bean died after a short battle with a rapidly metastasizing cancer on July 11th, 2011.
September 2006: Mark Carter and Bean Bowers in the Tetons. This block of training was outstanding, much of the cold weather improvisation and “light is right” teaching was later put to good use overseas. Sadly, Mark was killed a little over a year later, and Bean died four years after that.
April 1997: Christophe Beaudoin in Chamonix. We did some good climbs together in the early-90s. We accidentally discovered “Beyond Good and Evil” before Andy Parkin and I tried it. We did the lower part of the Gabarrou-Silvy finishing via the ice route Francois Marsigny climbed after Philippe Mohr fell to his death, which was when I discovered “There Goes the Neighborhood.” He was a good partner.
Late 90s: Andrew Bielecki in Frisco, CO after a day on Quandary Peak. For a period of two years I earned my living shooting pictures. The work was published in magazines and for advertising. Andrew was one of my favorite subjects. He could do any sport, hammed it up for the lens, and had his own wild projects, like an annual snowshoe race in Great Sand Dune National Monument (until the NPS shut it down).
Summer 1985: Jonny Blitz on the tracks below the Index Lower Town Wall, where most of us either learned to climb or became climbers. Blitz was part of a crew that included Jon Nelson and Russell Erickson who left a mark on the area. They loved punk rock and rock climbing, and epic rope swings were popular with Russell in particular.
1987: During this period I worked at Wild Things in North Conway, New Hampshire. John Bouchard mentored me through some tough times and decisions, introduced me to paragliding and got me motivated to go back to the Himalayas. His eye for design was sharp, and his design genius unparalleled. I wanted to actually test the Altitude Suit in the meat locker – it being summer and all – but the butchers wouldn’t let us so we snapped a few pics and went on our way.
After midnight 1/1/99: Brian Enos outside his old place in Apache Junction during the annual trophy burning ceremony. Brian isn’t attached to the things that represent experience. The experience itself and the memory of it are all that matter. Each year he cleansed himself by burning the year’s awards; plaques, trophies, certificates were all torched freeing him to begin the New Year fresh.
January 1999: Brian Enos on Superstition Mountain. Our friend Bjorn was also along for the hike. The ankle-breaking terrain shocked me. I didn’t think the desert was so rugged, or that plants could be so sharp and hard, hearty. I could see how the desert might get into a man, deep enough to change him.
September 1990: Carol Davidson in Tuolumne. I crashed her honeymoon since she married my friend Jonathan, and I rarely saw either of them during that era. When I first met her I hadn’t yet found my path or voice. Carol has been constant at every step of my life.
November 2013: George after a good run on the first shooting station of the day.
January 2015: Steve House relaxed. Not up against it. Not burnt out from having been awake and climbing for days. Not pushing any limits. Relax and breathe.
March 2015: The train passes Brian’s house. If they are up and partying they always step out to greet the conductor. Petey and Garn soft-focused.
June 2015: Michael Joseph Gross, relentless interviewer, tireless wordsmith, and dear friend in Buckhead, GA.
June 1995: Ed Pope on Condoriri in Bolivia. Ed approached me as a client and turned into a good friend. We climbed a few small routes in Chamonix to get to know each other then climbed a new route “Money is Not Our God” on the west face of Peak 5886 in Nepal. Ed topped the 19,300’ peak ten days after leaving Milwaukee in an awe-inspiring expression of determination. Sadly, Ed passed away in 2024.
July 2015: On the Missionary Ridge trail. Durango seemed like a good place at the time, if unaffordable.
Summer 1993: Fiona Gelin with a trained Golden Eagle above Chamonix. The eagle symbolized freedom in “Pushing the Limits” and in this scene it was set free by Fiona, who was more or less the muse of the story. The eagle was amazing, trained to the glove like a hawk, its owner (if one could accurately call him such) could call the eagle to his wrist using a lure though the eagle was flying over a mile away.
June 1988: is when the photo was shot during the Giro d’Italia. Andy Hampsten is riding into cycling legend. He was prepared. His team was prepared and although he didn't win the stage he took over the race lead and held onto it to win the Giro. La Gazzetta dello Sport called the stage "The Day the Big Men Cried." And the hard men prevailed.
Steve House flipping pancakes at our camp on the Ruth Glacier in March 1998. The thermometer broke early on the trip but it was just as well since the nightly readings were registering near -30 and we were cowering beneath two sleeping bags each.
August 2013: Ben Saunders in the Stonor Valley near Henley. He agreed to a big ride even though it would cost some of the calories he was trying to pack on prior to skiing unsupported to the South Pole (with Tarka L'Herpiniere).
August 2010: with Scott Backes and Steve House ten years after our ascent of the Slovak Direct.
October 2013: With Guglielmo Rossi on the Amalfi Coast. I was in Italy on a movie job and Andy Hampsten linked me up with Guglielmo as a local guide. We did some great rides, and the experience reminded me of how small the world is, and how united by sporting passion.
2009: flying in to Kahiltna base camp
2009: Marko Prezelj at Kahiltna base camp
2009: Rolo waiting out the storm at 14k n the West Buttress of Denali. It cleared enough to flee toward base camp the following day.
2008: He described it as, "the hardest day of my life" so I reminded him he was only halfway through it. Rob Reeves looking at the summit of Denali. He was killed in 2011 when the Extortion 17 helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.
2008: Heath Robinson pushing through weather and pain on the "Football Field" below the summit of Denali. He was killed in 2011 when the Extortion 17 helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.
November 2013: with Bertrand Delapierre (on the camera), Michel Paccalet (boom), and Francois Damilano during the making of a short documentary about “Beyond Good And Evil”, a new route I climbed with Andy Parkin in 1992. Damilano and Francois Marsigny made the second ascent three years later, and the route has become a test-piece for all aspiring alpinists.
October 2010: Ben Saunders, who has twice skied to the North Pole on the namesake road in Kent. I had one day off after teaching a seminar and knew Ben via the Internet. He linked us up with Yanto Barker, Darren Moore and Mark Lloyd for a nice ride (on a rented bike) into the English countryside for coffee and cakes.
2008: Somewhere on the West Buttress of Denali
June 2012: with Lieutenant Colonel Scott Pierce who was the CO of the Marine Combat Training Battalion at Camp Pendleton at the time. He invited me to give the keynote speech at the Dining In. I flew from Paris, gave my presentation, turned and burned back to the continent, landing in Bulgaria for the “300: Rise of an Empire” movie project.
September 2013: Speaking at a fund-raiser for the Little Warriors Foundation at the NY Distilling Co. in Brooklyn, NY. This is a fine, “nonprofit organization dedicated to providing outdoor adventure to the children of Fallen Navy SEALs and Naval Special Warfare Personnel.” I am happy to be a part of it.
September 2013: Speaking at the NY Distilling Co. in Brooklyn, NY while distracted by barrels of bourbon.
September 1988: Snack break during the drive from Chengdu to Everest base camp. Looks like hard boiled eggs, dry bread, and cottonmouth.
September 1988: Below the north side of Everest. Escoffier model Julbo sunglasses and the original “Never Quit” ball cap, which I believe I made using a Sharpie in Nanga Parbat base camp earlier that season.
July 1996: Scott Backes taking a personal hygiene day at our camp below Pico del Norte, Bolivia.
June 1996: Scott Backes, tent-bound, Bolivia.
July 1996: Scott Backes enjoying the centennial celebrations in La Paz 48 hours after topping out on Pico del Norte. The city is at high altitude, and so were we.
1987: John Bouchard (in the driver’s seat), Jimmy Surette, Scott Franklin, myself and Randy Rackcliff, aka the Wild Things Climbing Team. I have no idea how the grappling hook got in the picture.
Scott Backes above Lake Powell. He and I and Jay Smith were in charge of “mountain safety” on a Mitsubishi commercial being shot by Zack Snyder. We drilled some bolts, hung a porta-ledge, broke it, introduced an actor to exposure and how to ascend fixed ropes, and did some incredible trundling.
Late-90s: Scottie Ewing getting a little tune-up in Crested Butte, CO.
June or July 1994: Chris Grover (cropped), Brian Mecham, myself, Geoff Weigand, Bill Belcourt and David Feinberg at Maria Cranor’s house in Salt Lake City. Shortly thereafter, Maria stood up as my “Best Person” when I married Cathy Beloeil. Later a few of these guys made a bet on how long it would last and Grover’s prediction proved most accurate.
July 1995: Somewhere in Bolivia, weeks out from my last shower.
July 1996: On an acclimatization hike in Bolivia. We climbed over a saddle to check out Ancohuma for new route potential but didn't like how dry the face was. A huge storm changed that but we ran out of time and settled for a shorter, steeper line on Pico del Norte.
October 1988: At Everest base camp in Tibet. It was the morning after an incredible party thrown by the “Cowboys on Everest” team. Too drunk to know better, someone broke out the electric clippers and a variety of haircuts were volunteered for and given.
Late-90s: I believe this is at the Provo Gun Club and my first experience shooting a fully-tuned .38 Super race gun. I settled on shooting stock guns instead, with an STI .40 hi-cap that Brian Enos helped me build. I down-sized the tech again since I wanted to shoot what I carried and only shot single stack .45s for a while. My last year of competition I shot Minor power factor with a 9x23 single stack 1911 well enough to win the Utah State Championship in my class.
July 1990: At the Moskvina Glacier base camp below Peak Communism (so-named at the time). When this appeared in Mountain Magazine a friend quipped, “Damn, you look like you just came down from the trees.”
June 1994: Scott Backes and I had been moving for 39 hours straight when Michael Kennedy, Greg Child, Joe Josephson and Ken Wiley met us below the west ridge of Mount Hunter. They recovered our skis from below the north buttress so we didn’t have to walk the miles back to Kahiltna base camp, post-holing in the deep snow.
September 1988: Tibet. More prayer flags than I had ever seen.
July 1988: Kevin Doyle in our base camp below Nanga Parbat. From “I Hurt Therefore I Am”: Some people chase pain harder than others, consciously or subconsciously. Some use it to inflate their sense of self-importance. Others test their will by working through it. Each of us has a threshold someplace short of serious harm. Kevin's different. His definition of pain is more highly evolved than ours. He's willing to hurt himself permanently to get what he wants. In a conversation about calories he told me that there is always something left to burn, “even if it's brain matter.” Kevin is, without question, the best I've ever seen.
February 1987: I stopped in Chamonix on the way back from a winter attempt on the south pillar of Nuptse. The staff at Vertical Magazine suggested I attend the first ever ice climbing festival, the “Premieres Journées de Glaces” in the Cirque de Gavarnie. It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. I rode with Jean-Noel Roche, his son Zebulon, Xavier Murillo in a full-size Toyota Land Cruiser. The event was crazy, wet, too warm for ice climbing but our energy was too high to be denied. When the Press asked me if soloing was too risky (I’d run up a WI5 and down-climbed a WI4) I replied as usual … “Not for me.”
1991: during the filming of one of the pilots for Pushing The Limits, I believe we are on the Glacier de Trient. Left-to-right: Michel Fauquet (safety), Dominique GLeizes (who had just base jumped from the Clocher du Portalet), Bruno de Champris (editor and first A.D.), two pilots from Air Glaciers in Sion, Switzerland, Bjorn Anderson (production assistant and muscle), and myself with an enormous video camera I was using to shoot a documentary about the making of such action films.
October 1988: We picked up Susan in Everest base camp and gave her a ride back to Chengdu. On the way one of the truck drivers stuffed our ride into the ditch. There ensued quite the comedy to retrieve it. During our wait Susan showed the locals the tool we use to capture someone’s soul.
Brian Enos below Superstition Mountain east of Phoenix. It was surprisingly rugged terrain, and a remarkable view from the top.
1994, or maybe 1995 based on the Nikon F3 with a fixed 24mm lens, probably in southern Utah.
June 1998: Scott Backes makes the morning brew in Vedauwoo, Wyoming. I’d always heard of the place, and feared its reputation for sharp crystals and wide cracks. The terrain lived up to the hype, and we got what we needed there.
June 2000: at the 14,000’ camp on the west buttress of Denali where a Nova video crew pounced on us and acted as if we should be excited to answer questions about footwear.
May 1994: Steve Mascioli (in the tent), Joe Josephson and Scott Backes scoping the north buttress of Mount Hunter.
June 2000: Steve House and Scott Backes on the first icefield of the Slovak Direct. We’d been climbing for about eight hours when we found a tent platform chopped by Kevin Mahoney and Ben Gilmore. It was free real estate so we stopped to brew up while the sun kept us warm.
July 1990: at the Moskvina Glacier base camp in the Pamirs with the lower slopes of Pic Communism in the background. We were out of time – and I was well-done – so flying out to Jirgital and driving to Dushanbe before leaving the area.
September 1984: Jon Krakauer considers our retreat from the north face of the Eiger, an epic he skillfully described for Outside Magazine. We sat out three weeks of the wettest September since 1864 hoping the weather would improve. Eventually, we got on the route but snow conditions convinced us to descend from the base of the Second Icefield.
December 1997: My wife Lisa with Karl Honhold and our Akita Zuma before the start of the US Cyclocross Championships, which were held in Colorado that year.
Late-90s: When Zuma was just a pup one of Lisa’s friends taught her how to High-5 and it always gave me the biggest smile when she did it.
Summer 1989: Marile Walch and Anne Smith at the old Albert Premiere refuge above Le Tour. The next day we ran up the Eperon Migot on the north face of the Aiguille du Chardonnet.
June 1991: ABC television sent a crew to Chamonix to film me soloing the Frendo Spur on the Aiguille du Midi. It was a modern production at the time. I wore a lipstick camera on my helmet and a microwave transmitter in my pack, David Breashears had one on an extendable baton, and the images were beamed down to recorders at the Plan de l’Aiguille. Peter Pilifian shot the wide and more detailed images with a full-size video camera. The show eventually aired under the title, “The Extreme Edge” and it was fairly entertaining.
June 1991: During filming for ABC’s short-lived show, “The Extreme Edge.” The show’s director – whose name escapes me – is at the left and in front of him the man who captured the microwave transmissions transmitted from the multiple cameras used during to cover the climb. Marie Hiroz who recorded audio is next to me, and cameraman Peter Pilafian next to her.
August 1985: Alan Bradley and I hiked up to the Leschaux Hut and tried to climb The Shroud. We started up too early, before it froze so we cowered under a sheltering rock for a while to see if temperatures improved. They didn’t and we scurried away. A few days later Alan soloed the north face of the Requin, saw God, and headed for home.
Summer 1992: In the Condoriri massif in Bolivia when we were shooting the feature version of “Pushing The Limits”. Francois Rickard had drowned. The lead actor had been fired and sent home. The director did some camera tests with me and producers in France approved so I was drafted to act … it was quite a trip.
July 1996: In base camp below Pico del Norte. I started the trip to Bolivia fit and lean, ran/walked a marathon chasing thieves who stole from our base camp, did some acclimatization routes, then got stomach sick for a week in La Paz, and finally hiked for a couple of days back into the mountains. I was down to around 3% body fat and still recovering well, which taught me what was possible regarding power-to-weight ratio and that served me well a couple of years later.
April 1992: Andy Parkin on a little bivvy ledge atop the 8th pitch during the first ascent of “Beyond Good and Evil” on the north face of the Aiguille des Pelerins, Chamonix.
July 1989: Philippe Mohr cracking a beer at the Argentiere Hut. The next day we climbed the north face of the Col de la Verte to check out potential mixed lines on the northwest face of Les Droites and rehearse the descent route. I put this reconnaissance to good use a year later when Barry Blanchard and I made the first ascent of the “Richard Cranium Memorial” and had to descend in the dark.
May 2000: Rolando Garibotti near Washington Pass in the North Cascades. We were working on a Chevy commercial with Zack Snyder (who later directed “300”). The crew helicoptered an 80-foot crane up to film us climbing and falling. Later the pilot held one skid of his Long Ranger against the summit of South Early Winter Spire long enough for us to get out (and back in) to get the summit shot.
July 1996: Scott Backes in La Paz. We descended from “Fuck ‘Em, They’re All Posers Anyway”, hiked out, drove from Sorata, showered, changed our outlook and joined a celebration commemorating the founding of the city. We attended a fashion show that night then I hopped a plane to Utah where I was taken from the airport to a Buzzcocks reunion concert, and shot an IPSC match the next day. A fulfilling week.
May 1995: Scott Backes, Colin Grissom and Alex Lowe in the Park Service Weatherport at 14,000’ on the west buttress of Denali. Scott, Colin, and I were volunteering, to help rescue climbers if need be. Alex had just joined us for a dash up the Upper West Rib. I recall the roundtrip taking about ten hours, and it was cold. A week later Scott, Alex and I were flown to 19,500’ in a Chinook and descended to 19,300’ on the Rib to rescue a pair of Spaniards who had been trapped for several days.
March 1996: Scott Backes below the Eiger during one of the biggest cluster-fucks of my career. Kevin Cooney and I wanted to climb the north faces of the Eiger, Matterhorn and Jorasses in winter using bikes and skis to travel between them. Short on cash, we accepted that a film crew tag along. Conditions were bad, flexibility limited, and relationship with the production company terrible. The only bright lights for us were Scott (hired as the climbing cameraman), and Tad Linn.
April 1985: John Stoddard below the 8th pitch of the Ham and Eggs couloir on the Moose’s Tooth in the Ruth Gorge. He’d just been hit in the face with a rock. We couldn’t tell how bad it was but decided to bail in case something was broken. We spent five days near the Mountain House before deeming the injury healed enough to attempt the Colton-Leach route on the Rooster Comb. There, we climbed 16 pitches, bivouacked, then John broke his ankle in an fall from the 17th (A2) pitch. The retreat was epic.
June 2000: Scott Backes and Steve House napping on the deck at Talkeetna Air Taxi after we flew out of the Alaska Range. We were all pretty wasted from having dug so deep on the Slovak Direct and we became opportunistic nappers.
February 1985: John Stoddard at the top of Polar Circus in the Canadian Rockies. We climbed it with Monte Westlund in seven hours, despite the thermometer at the Rampart Creek Hostel reading –42 degrees C when we got in the car (which actually started) to drive to the route. It was an incredible day, and my first big ice route in the area.
September 1993: Earlier in the month I tried to solo the Gabarrou-Silvy on the Aiguille Sans Nom, climbed the pillar but then retreated when I realized how much back-roping I would need to do on the upper part of the route. I came back with Christophe Beaudoin (seen here at our bivouac) but got skunked again by thin conditions so he and I finished on the Marsigny-Mohr variation of the Brown-Patey route. Up there we stood for a while where Philippe had fallen, and then marveled at the steepness of the exit Francois soloed afterward before he was evacuated by a helicopter.
Vince Anderson filling the tank at Lily’s Family Restaurant in Anchorage prior to making a six-day strike on the Moose’s Tooth where he and a client made rapid work of the Ham and Eggs couloir, then Shaken, Not Stirred, and visited three of the peak’s four summits.
July 1988: Ward Robinson in Karimabad during an acclimatization trip prior to our attempt on Nanga Parbat. We hiked into the Ultar Valley to look at the Boblimotin, aka Lady Finger with no intention of climbing it, and hoped to glimpse the scary-looking Ultar peaks.
Vince Anderson, Marko Prezelj, Mark Twight. After climbing Denali with some Navy personnel in 2009 we were at the Kahiltna airstrip when we heard that Marko was in base camp with a friend. We only had moments before our air taxi arrived so Vince and I ran up the hill, found him, shared some of his father's splendid honey liquor and then sped back to the waiting plane. Serendipitous and ... well, perfect.
February 1997: Mark Wilford in the Iceberg Cemetery, Antarctica. Crampons don’t exactly go with an inflatable boat but neither does ice climbing come to mind when looking at floating icebergs.
February 1997: The camera and safety crew running in a storm off the shore of the Antarctic Peninsula. We were down there to shoot a commercial and had remarkably good weather for most of the three week-long visit but when this storm showed its teeth conditions got downright scary. Dry-suit or not, if you go over you are done.
Late-90s: Typical of Scott Backes: if there is a fence he stands outside of it. Zack Snyder at left, and Kurt Johnstad (on porta-ledge) somewhere in the AZ/UT desert shooting close-ups on a car commercial.
April 1994: Scott Backes watching the sun come over the horizon after climbing through the night during the first ascent of “Deprivation” on the north buttress of Mount Hunter. We stopped for a couple of hours, ate the dinner from the night before, drank and filled out bottles, then continued finally returning to base camp after 43 hours on the go.
Barry Blanchard on Bravo Peak in the Waddington Range. Bubba and I have history. We climbed together. Nearly died together. I saved his life on Everest. He saved mine when we met. He helped me learn to write and vice-versa. He taught me the value of unconditional love, of atonement, and showed me the Way of the Mountains.
June 2000: Steve House and I about 55 hours into our 60-hour ascent of the Slovak Direct on Denali with Scott Backes. We’ve joined the Cassin Ridge and all that’s between us and the top is about 2000 feet of moderate climbing, and of course, the few barriers remaining in our own heads. We have been transformed.
June 2000: Steve House waiting for the sun to warm him into action about 48 hours into our 60-hour ascent of the Slovak Direct on Denali with Scott Backes. We took cover from the wind behind this large rock because it was too cold to climb in its teeth. Once the sun rose our jackets were warm enough again and we began moving. Steve said the other day as I gave a slideshow about this, “Those mittens were good.”
July 1985: Alan Bradley and I trying to pack all of our gear into Eric Perlman’s rented Deux Chevaux at 468 Chemin des Cristalliers in Chamonix. I stayed in the house on this street first in 1984. Alan and I helped put a new roof on it in 1985 and visited again in 1986 and 1987. I met some good people. Relationships began and ended there. I returned to its comfort after shattering myself on the mountains above.
October 1988: Hank Van Weelden and I in the “parking” camp on the north side of Everest where one may drive a truck to 15,800’. A party the night before in the Wyoming Cowboys base camp featured beer and electric clippers. I had a new mohawk and Hank had the old Grivel logo (a “G” with teeth) shaved into the side of his head. Others faired worse.
Spring 1989: Leaving the snowed-in bivouac hut at the Col de la Fourche with Mike Powers belaying. Ace Kvale came over from Verbier to shoot pictures for a couple of days. At the time none of the French climbing superstars wore helmets. Not wanting to be seen as a beginner, I did the same, and owned a variety of headbands. This hut was destroyed when part of the ridge collapsed in 2022.
March 2007: With David Wenham at a party following the premiere of “300” in Los Angeles.
November 2005: Rolando Garibotti suffering near the summit of Cerro Torre during the first ascent of "El Arca de los Vientos". Rolo has been a friend and inspiration since Lisa and I lived in Boulder. He was on the safety crew when I climbed icebergs for the camera in Antarctica, which actually made me feel safer. And he has helped me prepare a lot of soldiers to move around the mountains efficiently.
March 1996: Tad Linn scouting terrain between the Matterhorn and the Eiger during the preparation to link the three great north faces using bikes and skis. Getting from one face to the next wasn’t obvious so we had to rehearse. On this day we began in Blatten, skied up to the Kanderfirn, through a pass separating the Gspaltenhorn from the Breithorn and down into Stechelberg at the head of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. It was so cold and windy Tad suggested it was, “good conditions for drying meat.”
Febraury 2007: Vince Anderson swilling something “effective” in Chamonix. After the Piolet d’Or ceremony (where Marko refused to accept the award for his new route on Chomolhari) he, Vince and Steve House made a winter ascent of the Walker Spur. The subsequent celebration left an alarm unheard, a plane uncaught, a deadline missed ... this drink may well have been the culprit.
May 2006: Zoe hart and Sue Nott at Kahiltna base camp. Sue disappeared on Mount Foraker later in the month. Her energy was so good I felt recharged every time I saw her. The highlight of any trade show was a big hug from Sue. I knew her drive too well because I survived my own so I was nervous when she went away on big trips. But she always came back ...
April 1986: Day two during the first ascent of the Northwest Face of Kangtega. From left-to-right: Alison Hargreaves, Jeff Lowe (leading) and Tom Frost who had participated in the first ascent of Kangtega, in June 1963.
August 2007: Vince Anderson carefully composed (by Marko) at base camp in the Charakusa Valley in Pakistan.
August 2007: Vince Anderson, Marko Prezelj, and Steve House on the summit of Naser Brakk in the Charakusa Valley in Pakistan.
April 2004: Known Satanist Vince Anderson with a custom ice tool. Click here to see one of Vince’s favorite books: http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web07-08w/wfeature-inspiration-anderson-twight
April 1986: Alison Hargreaves on the summit of Lobuche East after we followed Jeff Lowe and Henry Kendall up the new route they climbed the previous day. This was a fine acclimatization peak for our alpine style ascent of Kangtega, which we began a few days later.
May 1986: Nima Tenzing and Alison Hargreaves at Kangtega base camp after our ten-day alpine style ascent of the northwest ridge. She had frostbitten her toes on the summit day and despite rewarming them on my stomach in the snow cave after we and got back down to the plateau, she did lose some tissue. Here, she and Nima had warmed some water to soak them.
July 1986: Jeff Lowe on the Ice Cliff glacier below the northeast face of Mount Stuart in the Cascades. We climbed a new route on that face, which, if memory serves, I wanted to call, "Drunk and Stupid" in reference to a local climber with whom I had a mutually contentious relationship. After descending the Cascadian Couloir we decided—actually Jeff decided—to walk 15 miles down the Ingalls Creek drainage to Blewett Pass instead of hiking back over the shorter but steeper Stuart Pass that would take us back to our vehicle. It was awful. I was wearing rock shoes as my boot liners to save some weight ... yeah, it was the 80s and I was trying to figure things out.
July 1985: The hot pink skunk stripe was fading out of my hair but the natty scarf (oh so Euro) and sleeveless Think Pink tank top kept me on the front of the fashion train ... I'd been calling my thing, whatever that thing was, Equipe Solitaire, aka "the team of one" for a year or so and wrote it on a lot of clothes with a Sharpie. Later it was stitched onto my one-piece motorcycle leathers, which was pretty cool.
November 1981: Perfect high pressure in the Cascades. Andrew Nock and I climbed the northeast couloir on Colchuck Peak, not yet having learned the confidence to try the north face of Dragontail. We eventually did it though, in real winter, skiing up the road and trail, and climbing the face wearing Asolo Summit telemark boots made rigid by clamping a set of Foot Fangs to them ... very cutting edge for the time.
July 1981: On the summit of Symmetry Spire in the Tetons. An 11mm rope, socks in my rock shoes, Carhartts, a Rugby shirt ... of course I was a climber.
Summer 1981: Kirt Cozzens checking the "guidebook" (such as it was at the time) for Devils Tower while climbing on Devils Tower. Kirt and I spent a lot of time together that summer and later, in the winter of 1982-83 when his family hosted me in Cody while I tried to find a job that would keep me there (having seen the enormous climbing potential). The job never happened and I split but not before we did the first ice climb up the South Fork in what would later become a paradise of frozen waterfalls.
1986: Jeff Lowe, MFT, Tom Frost, Bruce Rogar, Alison Hargreaves ready to leave Kangtega base camp to attempt the northwest ridge. Bruce got altitude sick on the first night so descended on his own. We made the first ascent of the route in alpine style over ten days, with Tom and Jeff climbing the northwest summit, while Alison and I reached the main summit (22,251') at 4:30pm on May 1st. The sun set two hours later and we spent the next seven hours with fading headlamps and failing energy rappelling and down-climbing back to our snow cave. Alison frostbit her toes. I chopped my first bollard after we ran out of ice screws. The next day it took 40 more rappels and a long walk to get back to base camp.