“How I Beat My Biggest Climbing Nemesis: Myself.” Climbing Magazine Column. March 2009. Download PDF “I’d lived In Colorado 10 years before I climbed in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the only place I’ve seen that pulsates beauty and fear at equal frequencies. Tight, 2,000 feet deep, dark-green water surging over house-sized boulders through its inky depths, the Black fills … Read More
Climbing Magazine | Profile
"International Trad Technician." 2009. “ 'Trad climbing is the perfect merger of brain, body, and heart,' says Majka Burhardt, 32, of Colorado. Her love of that trifecta has lead Burhardt to develop new routes in Ethiopia, South Africa, and Colorado. But the first cliff at which Burhardt climbed was Taylor’s Falls, Minnesota, during her summer camp’s Adventure Day when she ... Read More
Manufactured Desire | Climbing Magazine
“Manufactured Desire: How Much is too Much?” Climbing Magazine, January 2009. Download PDF “When hunting FAs, most seek splitter cracks, edgy arêtes, or overhanging waves. Not Jeff Mottershead, 29, a Vancouverite and physics doctoral student. The obscure object of Mottershead’s desire was a tree-choked, dirt-filled gully on the rainy Squamish Chief. Today, after 1.5 years of Herculean toil and $14,000 … Read More
Country Style | Climbing Magazine
“Country Style: Going Trad in South Africa.” Climbing Magazine. December 2008. Download PDF “How badly can you want it? I’m in the bed of a “bakkie” (South African for pickup truck), with snail shells raining on my head. They’re the former inhabitants of a topper covering four people, climbing gear, and three days of food in a two-seater Nissan Hardbody bouncing north out of Cape Town toward Tafelberg. It … Read More
First-Timers | Climbing Magazine
“8 Tips for Your First Day Out With a Newbie.” Climbing Magazine. December 2008. Download PDF “Marla is your best friend – you go way back. She runs marathons and could dust you on foot, but you’re a climber, and thus Marla is one of your “other” friends. That is, until she expresses an interest in climbing. However, before you bestow your vertical … Read More
Classic Climbs: Yellow Brick Road | Climbing Magazine
“Everything Wild and Granitic, in One 300-Foot Rock Climb.” Climbing Magazine. October 2008. View Online | Download PDF “Every story you’ve heard about the Needles (California) is true: the place does feel haunted, and the climbing is that good. Towering cones of granite claim the horizon of this wonderland, perched at 8,000 feet in the Sierras near the edge of the Kern River … Read More
Polish Invasion | Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Straight Line Column. September 2008. View Online | Download PDF “Dad, to me on the first chair of the day: ‘Are you feeling it? Do you think today is the day?’ Me: ‘I don’t know.’ Dad: ‘Come on now, pretend you’re 12 again.’ This is a typical exchange between my 66-year old father and me before we … Read More
Adventure And Understanding in the Horn of Africa | OR Dailies
OR Dailies Guest Column. August 2008. Download PDF “I didn’t go to Ethiopia to climb; I went to search for coffee. In October 2006, I traveled deep into the cradle of humanity to hunt for a rare coffee bean that garners over $150/lb—and found climbing instead. I understood that Ethiopia was a place of war and terror, but it never factored into my … Read More
The High Side of the Horn of Africa | The Explorers Journal
“The High Side of the Horn of Africa. The Explorers Journal. Summer 2008. Download PDF “I scissor my hand up and down in the crack, clearing loose grains of sand from the inside edge. The purchase gets better and I commit to the hold and begin cleaning the inside of the next. Midway through my next excavation, the edge of the crack outside my foot fractures. The horizontal runnel I’d … Read More
The California Needles | Gripped Magazine
“The California Needles: Perfect, Multi-Pich Granite.” Gripped Magazine. July 2008. Download PDF “How many times in life does a place exceed expectations? It’s 3 p.m. on a late September afternoon and I’m hiking into the Needles in southern California. For more than a decade I’ve been trying to get to this exact spot – 2,400 m above sea level in Kern River Valley in the High Sierra. … Read More