Category Archive

“Re-Creating Climbing and Self in East Africa.” Climbing Magazine Column. January 2011. Download PDF “Some dreams die hard. Take Ethiopian rock, for example: It shimmers with the promise of high quality. Ribbons of ruddy sandstone arc high and cleave into precise cracks, and convex buttresses offer singular summits. But I’ll be the first person to tell you that, despite its appearance, Ethiopian stone … Read More

“My Misguided Effort to Shortcut the Learning Curve.” Climbing Magazine Column. November 2010. Download PDF “I’m back on the sharp end. Kind of. After six months of healing, following two back surgeries and complications, it might be more accurate to say I am on the dull, blunted end. It’s not a place I have spent much time in my climbing career—not … Read More

“Injury, Drugs, and Other Dirty Secrets.” Climbing Magazine Column. July 2010. View Online  |  Download PDF “I’m on drugs. It’s best to get this out in the beginning. This is not by choice. I’d like to say that this would all be more fun if it were by choice — if I were having a Hunter S. Thompson moment in my … Read More

“The Self-Justification for Vertical Travel.” Climbing Magazine Column. March 2010. Download PDF “I was halfway over the atlantIc in November 2009 when I realized that my one-year plan — bracketing stays in a trifecta of North American mountain towns with three international journeys — made zero sense. I blame Steve, a fellow traveler whose meddlesome, questioning attitude tipped the scales. We hadn’t left … Read More

“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

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

“If You Step Into the Van, You’d Better Learn the Rules.” Climbing Magazine Column. July 2008. Download PDF “In my 31 years, I’ve learned only three types of partners really matter: climbing partners, love partners, and the oft-underrecognized road-trip partners. In a perfect world, you’d have one person to fulfill all three roles — less logistical hassle that way, and less stuff to load … Read More

“The Best Way to Explain Climbing to Your Family? Scare the Bejeezus Out of ’em. . .” Climbing Magazine Column. January 2008. Download PDF “No one in my family is a climber. In Minnesota we Burhardts stick to sports that suit our locale: in summer, we find new ways to exploit the 10,000 lakes, and in winter, we ski. So when I began … Read More

“Welcome to the Mad Pursuit of Night Climbing.” Climbing Magazine Column. February 2007. Download PDF “Four hundred feet up Eldorado Springs Canyon’s Yellow Spur, pigeon shit on my lips and headlamps around my ankles, I screamed at my belayer to stop pulling me off. It was well past 10 p.m., and what we were doing would easily qualify as an epic — except we’d chosen it … Read More

“Maximizing Your Climbing Space, Polish-Style.” Climbing Magazine Column. September 2006. Download PDF “The Poles, long known for making do in the face of social, political, and economic hardship, have also always applied the same perseverance to sport. Consider the recent introduction of the bicycle with hydraulic saddle-lifting mechanism, or the kayak-surfboard for those especially tricky waves, introduced in 1999 with some success. But by far the best example of Polish … Read More