Mtnmeister

Garrett Madison is a high altitude mountain guide and owner of Madison Mountaineering. He has personally lead 37 climbers to the summit of Everest over the last 7 years, more than any other American. In 2011 and 2013, Garrett was successful in guiding climbers to a combo-summit of Everest and Lhotse: reaching the summit of two 8000 meter peaks in less than 24 hours and becoming the first ever to do so. More recently, this past summer, he led the first ever successfully ‘guided’ ascent of K2.

Major Rob Marshall is a Reserve C-17 pilot in the Seattle area, co-founder of the USAF 7 Summits Challenge, and the director of the USAF 50 summits challenge.  In the 7 Summits Challenge, Rob led the climb of Mt. Everest among other mountains in the process of fundraising for the families of fallen soldiers. On the summit of each mountain, Rob does pushups to honor his fellow veterans.

Brian Warren is a year-round professional mountain guide based out of Jackson, WY. He guides in various parts of the world including Jackson Hole, the Pacific Northwest, and the European Alps. He has also climbed and guided in Alaska, Canada, South America and the Himalaya. Brian presently holds IFMGA and AMGA Aspirant status and an Avalanche level III certification.

Aaron Scheidies has traveled around the globe competing in over 200 triathlons. Before all of this, at nine years old, Aaron was having trouble seeing the chalkboard. This eventually led to him being diagnosed with a condition called Stargardt’s disease, which is a common form of inherited juvenile macular degeneration. Aaron now has 10% of the vision of a fully sighted person, but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming an eight-time World Champ, an eight time-national champ, and a guest on the MTNmeister podcast.

Kalen Thorien is a professional skier, adventurer, writer, and photographer based out of Salt Lake City, UT. She has been placed on the covers of Ski Magazine and Powder Magazine among many other publications. Until recently, to support her skiing, Kalen held jobs in construction, as a dock hand, and as a firefighter. Contrary to what some might think, Kalen didn't start seriously skiing until 16.

Jason Thompson is a professional adventure photographer with industry leading media clients and brands including Patagonia, North Face, Alpinist, National Geographic, and NPR.  Jason was also a mountain guide; from 2005-2013, he collected 100 + summits of Mount Rainier, four Denali expeditions, and more as a senior guide at Rainier Mountaineering and Pacific Alpine Guides.

  Hadley Hammer is a pro skier on the Freeride World Tour with a very appropriate last name. Growing up in Jackson, WY, Hadley was brought up in the mountains, spending all her time chasing her brothers around the Tetons. While a pro skiing career consumes much of her time, Hadley is also a sommelier and gourmet chef. She attended quite possibly the best school in this nation, University of New Hampshire (Ben's alma mater, hence the bias), and received a B.A. in hospitality and a minor in economics.

Jamie O’Donnell has worked as an educator in numerous capacities since the early 90's: as an outdoor educator, a high school biology teacher, and university biology lab-instructor. He currently instructs field courses for NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). He has a M.S. in Environmental Education and an M.A. in teaching. His passion for teaching, the outdoors, and wilderness medicine fuels his enthusiasm as a WMI instructor.

The 2015 Annual Benefit Dinner is the American Alpine Club's biggest and most anticipated event of the year. In this presentation, Sasha DiGiulian talks about the development of her climbing career. She also comments on her recent experience with ice climbing and the transition from indoor to outdoor climbing, 

The 2015 Annual Benefit Dinner is the American Alpine Club's biggest and most anticipated event of the year. Notable mountain guides and Sherpas discuss the current state of Mount Everest and how to solve some of issues seen of late. Panelists include Melissa Arnot, Garrett Madison, Dave Hahn, Greg Vernovage, Phunuru Sherpa, and Ngima Sherpa. The discussion is moderated by Alan Arnette.

The 2015 Annual Benefit Dinner is the American Alpine Club's biggest and most anticipated event of the year. In this recorded interview, adventure journalist Jim Clash interviews mountaineering legends Sir Chris Bonington and Ueli Steck. Near the end, Reinhold Messner asks Ueli Steck about the reason that the fight broke out on Mt. Everest in 2013. 

Casey Greene is based in the mountains of western Montana and is a long time cartographer of Adventure Cycling Association. He has been labeled a pioneer by Sierra magazine for his numerous bikepacking trips and by BIKE magazine for his numerous packbiking trips. Casey's MAPS have also been featured in many publications including the New York Times. During his time at Adventure Cycling Association, he has spearheaded a diverse array of projects including the research, design, and mapping of the Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route.

From January 20th to 23rd, Ben was at the 2015 Outdoor Retailer trade show, where gear manufacturers show off their latest and greatest products, retailers will buy those products for the stores, and podcast hosts and other media cover everything else. With over 1000 companies at the trade show, it can get a little overwhelming. For this episode of MTNmeister, we focus on smaller companies who are doing something different or more innovative than the rest of the market. Perhaps more important, they had to be willing to give the meister fans free stuff. In this one-hour episode, we feature twelve different companies, and every single one is giving away gear. The combined value of all of the items being given away is over $2,000. 

Howie Sanborn served in the U.S. Army for 13 years as an Airborne Ranger. Two of those years were spent in Iraq helping with Operation Iraqi Freedom and five years as a Parachute Demonstrator on the U.S Army Parachute Team "The Golden Knights". On September 9th, 2012 he was hit by a distracted driver while cycling and training for a triathlon. This accident left him paralyzed from the waist down, but in typical Meister fashion, he is now still competing in triathlons and is training for the 2016 Paralympics. Check out Howie's Meister Profile page!

Tyler Fish is a wilderness expedition leader and Associate program director for Voyager Outward Bound. Perhaps his most notable expedition was the one to the North pole in 2009, where he and John Huston, a fellow MTNmeister, were the first Americans to reach the North Pole unsupported. Check out Tyler's Meister profile page!

Kit DesLauriers is the first person to climb and ski from the tops of the highest mountains on every continent. Her project took two years and she’s written a book about the entire thing called Higher Love: Skiing the Seven Summits. She was named a 2015 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and perhaps more impressive, the 100th episode MTNmeister.  Check out Kit's Meister Profile page!

Alan Arnette is an alpinist, speaker, and Alzheimer's advocate. In 2011, he summited Mount Everest on his way to completing the 7 summits in less than 11 months to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimers research. Alan is also the oldest American to summit K2 which he did on his 58th birthday.  Outside Magazine cited Alan as the "most respected voice on Everest", which is almost as impressive as being selected as a MTNmeister. Click here to view Alan's Meister Profile

Research proves that writing down your goals and making them public significantly increases your chances of achieving them. In this episode of MTNmeister, we give some Meisters (Garett Graubins, Adrian Ballinger, Emily Harrington, and Trevor Thomas) the opportunity to share their goals with the world. Now it’s your turn. Share your goals with the Meister community and help others stay accountable to their goals - http://mtnmeister.com/2015-goals/

Darcy Piceu is one of the best female ultrarunners in the world. She has placed first three times in a row at the Hardrock 100, a 100 mile race through the Colorado San Juan mountains. It covers the vertical climb of more than the elevation of Mount Everest – over 33k feet. In addition to competing, Darcy coaches other runners and is a mother. Free audiobook! 

Joel Gratz is the founder of Opensnow.com: the future of weather, brought to you with added flair. Most weather information is sensationalistic and overwhelming, but not here. In a fun and witty style so often lacking in weather reporting, OpenSnow helps snow lovers smile and find their perfect mountain experience. Their industry-leading features include handcrafted and personable forecasts, LiveSnow reports direct from the hill, custom snow alerts, and the first “Ask a Weatherman” service available to the public. Plus authenticity is baked in, as the site is run by skiing meteorologists who keep track of their accuracy.