Mtnmeister

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2016 will be in Salt Lake City from January 7-10. MtnMeister is there to create our semi-annual gear giveaway episode, where we give thousands of dollars of free gear to our listeners. To gain a competitive advantage, you can purchase the exact date and time of the episode's release here - http://mtnmeister.com/gear-giveaway-at-winter-or-outdoor-retailer/ #MyOutdoorStory from OIA: "Each of us has a story—unique in its particulars but ubiquitous in its theme—about how we fell in love with the outdoors. The first time you went camping, your first job at a local outdoor retail shop, the piece of gear that saved or changed your life, the ‘aha’ moment when you realized that you were an outdoorist." In this episode we hear from four industry professionals about their outdoorist beginnings.

Happy New Year! In our annual goals episode, we look back at what we accomplished in the previous year and look forward to 2016. You'll hear from MtnMeister listeners who reveal their 2016 goals and some familiar Meisters who provide tips on how to achieve them. The special format encourages making goals of varying difficulty: Goal 1: Your pretty safe goal. You’re fairly sure that you can do it, although it’s still not a sure thing and you’re going to need to work at it. Goal 2: You’re 50/50 whether you can do this. It’s a reach — something that you either have never done before or you haven’t done in a very, very long time, possibly in a previous life. Goal 3: A BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) in the purest sense. You’ve never done it, and maybe nobody else has ever done it. You’re sincerely not even sure if you’re capable of it. All the stars will need to align to make it happen. Some luck might be involved. This is the goal that, as you write it down, you feel butterflies and nerves over even making it pub

Kelly Cordes is climber, writer, and margarita specialist. For climbing, he’s established first ascents in Alaska, Pakistan, and Peru. At one point in his life he was nicknamed "Sketchy Kelly" for his risky and perhaps reckless style of climbing. For writing, he’s been published many times in Alpinist and is the author of The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre. For margaritas, well, listen to find out. For more info on submitting your 2016 goals - http://mtnmeister.com/2016-goals-get-featured-on-mtnmeister/ For more info on our Outdoor Retailer Gear Giveaway - http://mtnmeister.com/gear-giveaway-at-winter-or-outdoor-retailer/

Roman Dial is a legendary Alaskan adventurer, although he won't tell you he is. He has traversed the entire Brooks Range in Alaska by ski, packraft, and kayak. He has also done it on a bicycle. When he is not on an adventure, Roman is a professor at Alaska Pacific University. To submit your 2016 goals and hear your voice on MtnMeister, http://mtnmeister.com/2016-goals-get-featured-on-mtnmeister/ To purchase the extra information related to the date and time of our Outdoor Retailer Gear Giveaway, http://mtnmeister.com/gear-giveaway-at-winter-or-outdoor-retailer/

Jack Tackle is a renowned alpinist most known for his climbing in Alaska over the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s . He’s done over 35 major expeditions to Alaska and 17 first ascents. In 2001, Jack was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre, a rare condition in which the immune system attacks the nerves. In this episode, Jack talks about dealing with the syndrome, what he looks for in climbing partners, and mentorship. Jack is the former director of the American Alpine Club and a guide for Exum Mountain Guides in Jackson WY.

Luis Benitez is a renowned mountain guide who has taken the lessons he's learned from climbing and applied them to business. He has summited the seven summits 32 times, with Everest being six of them. He was recently named the first director of the new Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, which is a $14B industry.

Peter Metcalf is the CEO of Black Diamond Equipment and a board member of the Outdoor Industry Association. He wasn’t always all business though. He has climbed audacious routes in Alaska, one of which is a first alpine ascent of the Central Rib on Mt. Hunter’s south face. Black Diamond was started when Chouinard Equipment filed for bankruptcy and Peter and some other passionate climbers scrounged up enough money to buy out the assets.

For his daring free solo ascents, Alex Honnold has received worldwide recognition both within and beyond the climbing community. Yet, the free solo tick list is only a fraction of his accomplishments. In his new book Alone on the Wall, Honnold recounts some of his more memorable climbs, and co-author David Roberts fills in with the meaning of those ascents. We sat down with Alex in NYC to talk about the book, free soloing, the media, and more. In the second half of the discussion, we take questions from the audience. This was supposed to be a live-streamed discussion, but unfortunately there was an issue. Apologies to those who tuned in and didn't see it!

Barry Blanchard is a Canadian alpinist who in the 80's and 90's established highly technical routes in the Canadian Rockies and the Himalaya. Throughout his childhood, he faced challenges of poverty and growing up "a dark-skinned, brown-eyed, half-breed kid" in a predominantly white, affluent area. His transformation from a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks to one of the most respected alpinists in the world is chronicled in his most recent book The Calling: A Life Rocked by the Mountains.

Mary Brent Galyean is an expedition chef. She cooks some of the tastiest dishes you’ll ever eat in places that very few people have ever been. MB does it all without electricity and running water, and I had the wonderful opportunity to taste this five star cuisine on the Gauley River in West Virginia. Courses included but were not limited to lamb sliders, salmon and acorn squash poached in spiced honey, and the crowd favorite sweet potato and red apple au gratin.

On September 24th, 2015 Heather “Anish” Anderson broke the self-supported speed record of the Appalachian Trail. Without any assistance, she made her way nearly 2,200 miles starting in the north from Mt. Katadhin and finishing in the south on Mt. Springer. 54 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes. 

Gavin McClurg is an adventurer of many disciplines. After briefly racing for the US Ski Team in the early 90s, he moved on to kayaking. A near death experience on a waterfall in Mexico caused him to trade the rivers for the sea, where he lived for 13 years and sailed around the world twice. Most recently paragliding is the activity of choice. He holds the North American record for longest foot launch, where he flew 240 miles in one go.

Mike Libecki is climber, explorer, athlete, and father. He has completed over 60 major expeditions and 40 first ascents, many of them solo, in some of the most remote locations in the world. He has received a long list of grants and awards for both his climbing and also his fathering - he's even won Father of the Year at his daughter's school! Mike is based near Salt Lake City, Utah where he lives with his daughter, dogs, cats, parrot, pot-belly pigs, chickens, and rabbits.

Stacy Bare is the director of Sierra Club Outdoors and co-founder of Veterans Expeditions, a nonprofit which empowers veterans to overcome challenges associated with military service through outdoor training and leadership. These challenges are not foreign to Stacy. After serving in Baghdad for the US Army, he faced post-traumatic stress and adjustment disorders. If it wasn’t for climbing and other experiences in the outdoors, he may not be here to talk to us about it.

Jeremy Jones is a professional snowboarder, founder of Jones Snowboards, and founder of Protect our Winters. With hundreds of first descents on some of the biggest, steepest terrain on planet earth, he is widely regarded as one of the best big mountain freeriders in the world  He accesses this terrain in a human powered approach, which allows him to reach peaks that helicopters can’t.

Alexander Barber is a high altitude mountaineer whose tick list is characterized by solo ascents, without sherpa support, and without supplemental oxygen. These include Cho Oyu, Manaslu, and most recently an attempt on Annapurna which was cut short by the Nepal Earthquake. Alex is member of the American Mountain Guides Association and formally a guide for Rainier Mountaineering.

Billi Bierling is a mountaineer, journalist, and assistant for Miss Elizabeth Hawley, the legendary chronicler of Himalayan expeditions. Billi is the first German woman to reach the tops of Lohtse and Manaslu, the latter of which she summited without oxygen in 2011.

  What is the furthest you have gone under the water with a single breath? 15 feet? 20 feet? 30 feet? For our guest today, Herbert Nitsch, the answer is 830 feet. Herbert Nitsche is the current free diving world record holder and “the deepest man on earth". He holds 33 world records in different free diving disciplines, which range from using weights and floatation to assist to no assistance at all. 

Summit for Someone runs charity climbs that benefit Big City Mountaineers, an organization whose mission is to transform the lives of under-resourced urban youth through wilderness mentoring expeditions. In this three part series, we talk about what it means to climb for a cause on the southernmost 14,000 foot peak in California. In part three in our three part series, we descend from the summit and ready you for your own Summit for Someone climb.

From July 24th to 26th, we moved the MtnMeister studio to southern California and climbed Mt. Langley with Summit for Someone. Summit for Someone runs charity climbs that benefit Big City Mountaineers, an organization whose mission is to transform the lives of under-resourced urban youth through wilderness mentoring expeditions. We were guided by Sierra Mountaineering International (SMI), and we were joined by team Kiss The Sky who raises money for diabetes research. In this three part series, we talk about what it means to climb for a cause on the southernmost 14,000 foot peak in California.