The Calling: A Life Rocked by Mountains
In 2006, Barry Blanchard wrote “The Calling” for Issue 15. In writing his new memoir, The Calling: A Life Rocked by Mountains, Blanchard used the Alpinist feature story as a springboard to continue exploring the climbs and partnerships that developed from his childhood musings growing up in Calgary.
The Calling
Growing up poor in Calgary didn’t just encourage dreaming; for one young boy, it necessitated it. Canada’s storied alpinist recounts the climbs and partnerships that sprung from his childhood fantasies.
Barbara Washburn: Accidentally Adventurous, Deliberately Brave
As a mother, wife, climber, cartographer and self-described “accidental adventurer,” Barbara Washburn was the antitheses of a ’40s housewife. “Sometimes [my] home would be in an igloo, at 12,000 feet, sharing Tang-flavored fig pudding with my husband; or as the lightest climber going first to test the cornices on a narrow exposed ridge; or staring out at summit views that no one else had seen.”
The Patagonia Climbing Season is Coming
As the austral summer approaches, videographer and climber Tad McCrea reminisces about climbing seasons past and offers a bit of advice to climbers everywhere: “[S]cour the interwebs for cheap airfare, unearth your passports, patch your gear and pack your bags.”