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Majka Burhardt | 3223 Iron Forge Place #107 | Boulder, CO 80301 | 970-290-7822 | www.majkaburhardt.com

Downloadable Press Release Here

Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa.

By Majka Burhardt, Photography by Gabe Rogel
Publisher: Shama Publishing
Publication Date: February 20th, 2008
Price: $37.99
13X15 hardcover, coffee table book
ISBN: 978-99944-0-032-4
www.verticalethiopia.com

November 2008: Finalist, Mountain Literature category, Banff Book Award

“Majka Burhardt and Gabe Rogel know adventure, and through my years of working with them I’ve come to relish their eyes for story and for exploration. Vertical Ethiopia harnesses those talents in the rarest way, marrying the stark beauty of northern Ethiopia’s spires and extraordinary people with the pair’s vast, empathetic vision.”
--Matt Samet, Editor, Climbing Magazine

Unlike its neighbor Kenya, Ethiopia has been relatively untouched by adventure tourism. Most people have never heard of the adventure potential there and few are aware of its geological, botanical, and zoological wonders.

With the publication of VERTICAL ETHIOPIA (Shama Books/February 2008/$37.99) modern-day explorers and armchair travelers alike can glimpse what this once war-torn and now Democratic nation offers the modern-day adventurer.

In March 2007, Majka Burhardt, a writer, climber and AMGA Certified Rock Guide since 1998, from Boulder, Colorado, set out with three other women on a climbing expedition to the Gheralta, a remote and unexplored sandstone mountain chain that runs east-west across Tigray, Ethiopia’s northernmost province. Once the cradle of Ethiopian civilization, Tigray’s mountains and valleys are dotted with the remains of Auxmite and pre-Auxmite settlements dating back to the third millennium B.C. and its monolithic sandstone towers stretch up to 180 meters high.

Told through a series of vignettes and stunning full color photographs VERTICAL ETHIOPIA, examines the intersections between adventure and culture, history and opportunity and reveals what it means to climb, to travel, and to explore.

“It never occurred to me when I first began climbing in 1992, that I would one day find beauty, challenge, and adventure in Ethiopia. I had no idea that rock dominates the skyline in the very part of the world otherwise legendary for the Red Terror, drought, and famine,” writes Burhardt. “Fourteen years later I visited Ethiopia for the first time. I was on assignment to write about the country’s coffee heritage. But even in the midst of stunning and colorful forests with bright-red cherries dripping from wild coffee trees, I could not take my eyes off the backdrop of spotted rock faces.”

Tantalized by photos of towers and walls whose full heights were never touched and never explored, Burhardt and her fellow climbers set out be among the first to “pick a route” up the uncharted expanse at the roof of Africa.

As they moved deeper and deeper into the Gheralta, the team of climbers were greeted and welcomed by the locals: venders on market day selling spices, fabric, cutlery, livestock and leather saddles; families who invited them into their rock-hewn dwellings for a meal of shiro and injera; happy and curious school children who offered to carry their backpacks and help them find their way to the spires; and a priest who brings them to the sacred site of Abuna Yemata (cir. AD 800) where they view frescoes dating to the 14th century and sit among the skeletal remains of hermits who chose to die there.

As their time in Ethiopia comes to an end the group headed south and settled in at the
Bishangari Eco Resort in the heart of the Rift Valley. There they see hippos strolling nearby, play on basalt rocks under a waterfall, do yoga around a 700-year-old tree under the watchful gaze of monkeys and baboons, and watch the sunset over the brilliantly colored and silky waters of Lake Langano.

Using climbing as a magnifying glass, Burhardt comes to understand a land brimming with striking geological and cultural beauty. Gabe Rogel captures this process, and contextualizes it, through his photographs. Burhardt’s narrative reveals the challenges of climbing and of Ethiopia, and her and her team’s exploration become your own, as the red sandstone opens onto the endless African horizon.

With its blend of travel writing and photography, VERTICAL ETHIOPIA, is the first book to capture the adventure potential of this beautiful and continuously evolving country.



Majka Burhardt is a writer, climber, and guide living in Boulder, Colorado. Her non-fiction work has appeared in various magazines, including Men’s Health, Climbing, Women’s Adventure, and Patagonia. She has a BA in anthropology from Princeton University and a MFA in creative writing from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, and is currently completing her first novel. Learn more at: www.majkaburhardt.com.

Gabe Rogel is a professional photographer living in Driggs, Idaho. His work has appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Skiing, and Climbing. He often shoots for Marmot Mountain Ltd. and Patagonia Inc. See more of Gabe’s work at: www.rogelphoto.com.