Born in the Pacific Northwest and raised amid the Cascade Mountain peaks of Oregon, I began my formal mountaineering education in 1999 when I joined the Mazamas, a mountaineering group founded on the summit of Oregon’s Mt Hood in 1895, and based in Portland.

Since then, I have participated in virtually every training course offered by the Mazamas. My climbing resume includes over 75 summits in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest, the 14’ers of Colorado, the Sierra Nevada of California, the Alps of Europe, the Himalaya of Nepal and Bhutan, and the Andes of South America.

I have led or assisted in the leadership of expeditions to Kilimanjaro in East Africa; Everest Base Camp and Annapurna Basecamp in Nepal; Bhutan; Chile; Argentina; Ecuador; and The Middle East. Notable summits above 14,000’ include Mt. Shasta (14,180’), Long’s Peak (14,259), Mt. Rainier (14,411), Mt. Whitney (14,505’), Kilimanjaro (19,341’), Cotopaxi (19,348’), and Imja Tse (20,305’).

Throughout my life in the mountains, I’ve learned the value of preparation, patience and determination in achieving goals. In mountaineering, as in life, I have come to appreciate the wisdom in the phrase “it doesn’t have to be fun, to be fun.”