The Alpinist Podcast

The Alpinist podcast extends our conversations with climbers and community members into a new medium: from fresh interviews to untold stories, and from humorous adventure tales to in-depth discussions of significant issues in the climbing world today.

LATEST EPISODES

Racing Fear with Justin Bowen

Justin Bowen’s first time scaling walls and new routes was in a climbing gym during a friend’s birthday party. It wasn’t until high school, driven by persistent memories of that experience, that Bowen started climbing on a more consistent basis.

Eventually, while attending college in Arizona, Bowen planned his first trip to Yosemite, where he jumped right onto the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral. He quickly realized just how much he still had to learn about building anchors and placing gear. A few years ago, Bowen met friend and mentor Mark Jenkins, who he says shared a wealth of knowledge based on his decades of climbing around the world. Bowen still climbs with and learns from Jenkins on a regular basis.

In this episode, Bowen reflects on how he manages fear—both in the mountains, and in his day-to-day life. He talks about being a PhD student, and the terrifying prospect of only having two-to-three weeks off a year to pursue climbing objectives after finishing school. And he speaks to the striking similarities between the Tetons and Mt. Kenya. Tales from Bowen and Jenkins’ Mt. Kenya expedition are featured in Alpinist 83.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of The American Alpine Club.

Aiming for the Bushes with Alan Rousseau

For Alan Rousseau, the allure of mountaineering is in the unknown. When he looks up at a mountain and contemplates whether it can be climbed, he sees a mystery to be solved.

Rousseau is an IFMGA guide who divides his time between pursuing his own goals in the mountains, and helping others do the same. His achievements in the Alaska Range, to which he has ventured more than twenty times, include first ascents of Ruth Gorge Grinder and Aim for the Bushes. In 2020, his first ascent of the west face of Tengi Ragi Tau with Tino Villanueva was recognized as one of the year’s greatest climbing achievements and the pair won a Piolet d’Or. Villanueva wrote about the climb in Alpinist 81.

In this episode, Alan reflects on more than ten years of climbing in the Alaska Range, and exploratory climbs like Aim For the Bushes that he and his partners established earlier this year. He talks about the difference between planning trips to Alaska and the Himalaya, and the mountains that act as his compass.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of The American Alpine Club.

Climbing for Change: Caroline Gleich

Caroline Gleich lives on the ridgeline between adventure and activism. Her trips around the globe often transcend summit goals as she merges mountain missions with driving awareness around diversity, equality and inclusion, and environmental justice.

In 2019, Caroline summited the tallest mountain in the world—with a fully torn ACL in her knee. Two years earlier, she was the first woman to ski the entirety of Utah’s Chuting Gallery. But before she became a professional skier, Gleich thought she wanted to be a pro climber, after getting her start on old school sandbagged trad routes. While she ultimately pursued skiing, Gleich uses her rock and ice climbing skills to further her ski mountaineering goals.

On the advocacy side, she organizes marches, protests and rallies to further the causes she believes in, and has traveled to Washington DC to lobby for Protect Our Winters.

In this episode of the Alpinist Podcast, Caroline recounts her Everest expedition, challenges stereotypes around body image, and dives into the dark side of her personality and how she plans for a future full of unknowns.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of The American Alpine Club.

Talking Schist with Andrea Charest

For Andrea Charest, climbing is entwined with community. She and her husband Steve own Petra Cliffs, a climbing gym and mountaineering school in Burlington, Vermont, where they also work as guides. She’s volunteered much of her time over the years to Crag Vermont, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving, protecting and advocating for climbing access in the Green Mountain State.

She empowers her fellow climbers to take the lead, and has a knack for enabling others to move past their perceived limitations.

Earlier this year, Charest became an AMGA-certified ice climbing instructor, a hard-earned goal years in the making.

In this conversation, we talk about her journey through the ice instructor exam, and how she balances business, play and parenthood. Charest shares her love for the global climbing community, her excitement around the continued growth of Petra Cliffs, and the importance of helping climbers make the transition from the gym to the crag.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of Rab | The Mountain People.

Connected to Place: Sarah Audsley

Poet Sarah Audsley has an elevated point of view, even when her feet are on the ground. While the Vermont-based writer and climber believes she was indeed born to write poetry, she didn’t start pursuing it professionally until age 29.

Before that, she traveled the world, from Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro to Turkey’s Mt. Ararat to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, before making her way back to Vermont, the state where she grew up.

Audsley’s work has been widely published, including her debut collection titled Landlock X. Her poetry and writing has also graced the pages of Alpinist, with poems published in issues 65 and 74, as well as an interview with Ed Roberson in Alpinist 71.

In this conversation, Audsley reads two select works, reflects on the idea of elective suffering, and relishes the elevated perspective climbing provides.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of Rab | The Mountain People.

Beyond Success and Failure: Young Hoon Oh

Korean rock and ice climber Young Hoon Oh is a student of the mountains and the culture borne from them. While pursuing a PhD in anthropology, he spent two years living among Sherpa communities in Nepal and studying the outsized impact Sherpas have on Himalayan mountaineering.

Today, Young Hoon represents Korea as a member of the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA), and is a lecturer in anthropology at Seoul National University. A father of two young children, he doesn’t get to climb rock and ice as often as he used to, but he’s found new ways to explore and experience South Korea’s wild places with them in tow. Young Hoon also served as the editor of Alpinist – Korea, before returning to his love of research, teaching and climbing advocacy.

Young Hoon urges his fellow climbers to explore the unknown and pursue adventure, and to look past stories of western heroes, first ascents and summits conquered. He looks beyond the physical and mental wellness aspects of climbing, and reflects on what we can learn from facing danger and even confronting the possibility of death in the mountains.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of Rab | The Mountain People.

The Art of Playing: Babsi Vigl

Babsi Vigl’s pursuits in the mountains transcend summit aspirations and self-indulgence.

The Austrian alpinist, guide and writer embarked on her first expedition at age 20. Since that time she has experienced many highs and lows, from climbing Cerro Chalten as part of an all-women ascent of the Supercanaleta, to surviving a sudden, life-threatening illness while on a trip in the Alps.

The mountains had always been her safe haven—a place where she says she was never afraid. During a long rehabilitation from her illness, she realized that reaching the summit is just one step of the journey, and what’s most important to her is making it home to the people she loves.

She needed to rediscover balance in her life, and make peace with the mountains, as she wrote about in Alpinist 79. In this conversation, we found Babsi at home in Austria, where she also shared her thoughts on being part of all-female climbing teams and finding parallels between alpinism and playing piano.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of Rab | The Mountain People.

Heart of the Sierra: Doug Robinson

When Doug Robinson speaks of a life spent climbing in the Sierra Range, his stories emanate joy rather than ego. He points to experiences and relationships, instead of his many contributions to climbing’s legacy and lore.

Robinson worked alongside Yvon Chouinard before Patagonia existed, forging some of the first pitons at Chouinard Equipment, and forming lifelong friendships.

Robinson considers climbing a form of active meditation, and is most at home on rock. He was one of the leaders of the clean climbing revolution that took hold in the 1970s, and five decades later he remains a fierce advocate for wild places like his beloved Palisades, which he calls “the alpine heart of the Sierra.”

He’s an accomplished and award-winning writer, and has published influential works on clean climbing, mentorship, and his home range. His Mountain Profile on the Palisades was published in Alpinist 48.

In this conversation, Robinson reflects on the importance of mentorship during a time of explosive growth in climbing, and the pure joy he experiences on even the mellowest of climbs.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of Rab | The Mountain People.

Creativity and Climbing: Nikki Smith

With a geologist father, Nikki Smith’s love for rock and the outdoors came naturally. Born in Portland, Oregon, Smith moved with her family to Utah at a young age. She spent her youth wandering the state’s vast outdoor spaces, hunting for minerals and fossils.

Smith was 16 when she had her first climbing experience at a crag in Ogden. She recalls: “I don’t know how we’re still alive, but just as soon as I touched that rock, everything went silent and it was just this amazing experience.”

Smith started taking photos–and winning awards for them–at a young age. But it took a climbing injury to set her on the path to being a professional. Her style is distinct; her portraiture brims with intimacy and emotion that Smith says is sourced from a deep sense of connection with her subjects.

In addition to her work as a photographer, Smith is a professional climber, guide and writer. Nikki is also an advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, and speaks to the challenges and opportunities facing brands–and climbing media like Alpinist–as they strive to be more inclusive.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is possible thanks to the support of Rab | The Mountain People.

Of Peaks and Parenting: Majka Burhardt

Majka Burhardt went climbing for the first time while attending a sleepaway camp for kids in Minnesota. Since then, she’s built a career ascending ice and rock all over the world. As climbing brought her to frozen pitches and high peaks, it also led Burhardt to Legado, an international nonprofit she founded with inspiration from a mountain in Mozambique.

After deciding to add “mom” to her resume, Burhardt was still trying to figure out how to balance parenting with a career in climbing and nonprofit leadership when she found out she was pregnant with twins.

In her new book, More: Life at the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood, Burhardt shares messages she wrote and recorded for her children while she was pregnant and in the early years of their lives. Throughout the memoir, Burhardt reflects on motherhood, marriage and her own childhood–and what it means to try to do it all.

We discuss her new book, whether she thinks her kids will be climbers, and how becoming a mother changed how she evaluates risk and reward in ways you might not expect.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is brought to you by The North Face.

Braving New Worlds: Steph Davis

Steph Davis has been a professional climber since 1991. But simply calling the Moab, Utah local a climber seems inadequate.

From three years old, Davis was trained in the Suzuki Method on the piano. She practiced everyday, sometimes for hours a day, until she discovered a passion for climbing. The piano fell silent as climbing became her primary focus.

In 2004, Davis became only the second woman to free climb El Capitan in one day. The following year she freed the formation’s Salathe Wall–the first woman ever to do so. She’s logged climbing achievements all over the world, and has confronted fear while free soloing walls such as the Diamond on Longs Peak.

For Davis, climbing is about when to hold on, and when to let go. We talk about her evolution as an athlete–how she went from focusing exclusively on climbing to adding base jumping and wingsuit flying to her repertoire. She describes the sense of euphoria gained from free soloing, and why it can’t be replicated.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is brought to you by The North Face.

Honoring Mountains and Mentors: Clint Helander

Clint Helander’s narrative is driven by stories of persistence. Persistence in the face of nearly insurmountable odds, in far-flung places like Alaska’s Revelation Mountains. Persistence in honor of friends lost, and partners with whom he’s made the push to the top.

Helander is a regular Alpinist contributor and longtime reader. He says Alpinist 9, which includes a Mountain Profile on Mt. Hunter, is his favorite edition of all time. Most recently, Helander’s storytelling is featured in Alpinist 79. The story documents Helander and Andres Marin’s 2022 first ascent of the east face of Golgotha in the Revelations–a route they named Shaft of the Abyss.

Now, Helander is preparing for the next leg of his journey–attending nursing school–while running a snow removal business in Anchorage, Alaska. We caught up with Clint in between storms to learn more about his experiences in the mountains, and the inner conflict formed by a life of climbing close to the edge.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is brought to you by The North Face.

Dreaming of Imaginary Peaks: Katie Ives

For those who’ve contributed to or read Alpinist over the last 18 years, Katie Ives needs little introduction. Ives started at the magazine in 2004. After reading the Chicago Manual of Style cover to cover, she took on the roles of overqualified intern and copyeditor. She became editor in chief in 2012, a position she held until 2022. Ives is regarded as a tireless researcher, and as a mentor to the many writers she collaborated with during her nearly two decades at Alpinist.

Katie has earned renown for her command of written language. Her book Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams was published by The Mountaineers in 2021. It received a Special Jury Mention at the 2022 Banff Mountain Book Competition. Katie recently moved to Colorado to be closer to the American Alpine Club Library while she works on her next book.

In this episode, Katie takes us on a journey through her 18-year Alpinist tenure. She brings us to some of the imaginary peaks she explores in her book, and the Flatirons looming outside her office window today. She laments all the books she left behind during her recent move West, and reminds us that not all answers can be found on the Internet.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is brought to you by The North Face.

A Life of Adventure and Positive Impact: Timmy O’Neill

Timmy O’Neill’s climbing career spans more than 30 years. He’s traveled the world, gaining climbing accolades and wisdom about life, and once spent 60 days living in a cave in Joshua Tree National Park, sharing his food cache with mice who also called it home. His résumé of first ascents includes routes in Patagonia, Namibia and Madagascar. He’s spent much of his climbing life in and around Yosemite, where he once held the speed record on the nose of El Capitan after climbing the route with Dean Potter in 3 hours, 24 minutes, in 2001. O’Neill is co-founder of Paradox Sports, an organization that creates opportunities in adaptive climbing.

Today, O’Neill is executive director of the Yosemite Climbing Association. In this episode, Timmy shares his excitement for the expansion of the YCA’s Facelift program and his desire to leave the planet in better shape than he found it. He reflects on 30 years of climbing, and why he values experiences far more than things.

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

This episode is brought to you by The North Face.

The Self Motivator: Chantel Astorga

In June 2020, Chantel Astorga soloed Denali’s Cassin Ridge in less than 15 hours, setting a women’s record and making the first known ski descent of the Seattle Ramp during the approach. She recalls one particular moment after skiing through a dangerous icefall and spotting an eagle: “I’ve never seen a large bird in the Alaska Range up that high, and it was thermaling above me, and I had this wonderful sense of peace and calmness… I’d gotten through this thing I was most terrified of, and I did it in as good a style as I could, and as safely as one can do something like that alone.” Today, Astorga makes a living as an avalanche forecaster in Idaho. She received an honorable mention by the Piolets d’Or awards in 2018 for a new route that she completed on Nilkanth (6596m) in India’s Garhwal Range with Anne Gilbert Chase and Jason Thompson. In this episode, she talks with Derek Franz about her early days as a climber when she was rope soloing ice climbs and skiing Denali in oversized, second-hand gear, and the path that led to her recent success on the Cassin Ridge.