The Road Less Traveled

July 6th, 2007 at 11:46pm Keith Hemstreet 8

Lots of people talk of about how great it would be to make a living doing what they love, but how many actually have the courage to do it? The simple answer; very few. Instead, we choose careers that we feel will offer the greatest financial payoff. Careers that will provide stability and long-term employment.

There are many risks involved in pursuing one’s passion. The risk of failure. The Risk of financial ruin. The risk of having to accept defeat and give up a dream in which you’ve invested heavily. It takes a person of exceptionally strong will to make a go of it and the truth is, most of us don’t have what it takes.

Adrian Ballinger is the exception. He has made a living doing what he loves; climbing mountains.

Adrian strolls into the coffee shop wearing a fleece, visor, and a daypack hanging from his shoulder. The founder of Alpenglow Expeditions, a mountain guiding service based in Aspen, Colorado, Adrian stands six foot, 145 pounds. He has the look of someone who has just spent a long time in some remote mountainous region. And he has. Adrian’s just returned from a summit attempt of Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America.

Adrian’s love of the wild began with simple backpacking trips in New England more than twenty years ago. Modest hikes through the undulating hills of the Adirondacks were soon replaced by more ambitious outings. In 1993, Adrian went big, taking his first high altitude trip to Ecuador. Despite battling severe altitude sickness, he made it to the top of 19,300 foot Cotopaxi.

“I swore I’d never do it again,” Adrian said. “I had terrible headaches and was vomiting the whole way up.”

He later learned that there are simple ways to avoid altitude sickness.
“When I guide trips today,” Adrian said, “I focus on acclimatization. We take it slow so that the body can adjust. When you try to hurry you are more likely to run into problems.”

Adrian caught the climbing bug while a student at Georgetown University. Graduating pre-med, Adrian was accepted to Georgetown Medical School, but deferred for a year to get climbing out of his system. He moved to Telluride and fell in love with the Rocky Mountains. After a year, he contacted the admissions board at Georgetown and asked if he could defer for another year. His request was denied, leaving Adrian with a decision.

“I took off into the woods of West Virginia for three days,” he said. “I had people telling me what I should do, but I needed to sort things out for myself. Ultimately, I decided that this is what I should be doing. I wanted to travel, spend time in the mountains, share my experiences with others.”

This June was Adrian’s first trip to Mt. McKinley, or Denali as it is often referred. His expedition included an assistant and a private client whose five-year goal was to stand atop Denali’s 20,320 foot summit. After guiding his client on several smaller peaks, Adrian felt it was time to give it a shot.

“We planned a month for the trip,” Adrian said, “but due to good weather it only took fifteen days from the day we were dropped off on the mountain to the day we were picked up.”

What makes Denali unique is its remote location and extreme weather. A ski plane drops climbers on a glacier at 7,000 feet. “You climb 13,000 vertical feet from the initial camp to the summit,” Adrian explained. “That’s more than Everest.”

Perched just shy of the Artic Circle, temperatures on Denali drop well below zero degrees Fahrenheit throughout the summer. “It was as cold as 15 below at times with 40 mile an hour winds. The weather can be extreme. Some expeditions have to sit out storms for weeks.”

Which led to a question. What do you do to pass time on the mountain?

“We play a lot of cards, talk about wives or significant others, and read quite a bit,” Adrian said. Asked what he enjoys reading, Adrian laughed. “Anything but mountaineering books.” He also brings a fifth of Jack Daniels, which is “essential” for waiting out storms.

When Denali’s weather permits, climbers move slowly higher wearing extreme cold weather gear, boots and crampons, a 50-pound backpack and dragging a 50-pound sled. The gear consists mainly of food, a tent and sleeping bag, and additional protective clothing. “We eat mostly dehydrated food and Ramen noodles,” Adrian said. “Because of the cold, we brought a half stick of butter per person per day. The fat provides good energy and keeps you warm. We added it to our Ramen and hot chocolate, which doesn’t sound too appetizing, but is great when you’re on a cold mountain.”

As for whether or not you make the summit, Adrian said, “It’s not necessarily who trained the hardest, or who is in the best physical shape. A lot of it is a head game. Mountaineering tests the limits of human endurance both physically and mentally.”

The Alpenglow team chose to climb the “West Rib,” a less traveled, more technical route. “There are no established ropes,” Adrian said. “That’s why we chose it. There are also very few people. We only saw four people on our route, and they happened to be from Aspen.” The team they met on the West Rib included World Champion extreme skier Chris Davenport. “We watched him ski the Orient Express, a fifty plus degree couloir. It was like watching a ski film in person.”

Denali’s most popular route, the West Buttress, had as many as 120 people moving up fixed lines at one time, another example of the growing popularity of high altitude mountaineering.

On summit day, June 16, the weather was perfect. Under a clear cold sky, the Alpenglow team made it from high camp to the summit and back in a respectable 19 hours.

For Adrian, there’s no time for an extended celebration. This weekend Adrain flies to Tanzania to guide nine Stanford MBA students on Kilimanjaro. Again, Adrian is taking the road less traveled. “We’re climbing the Rongai route to avoid the crowds,” Adrian said. If successful, this will be Adrian’s fourth time standing atop the highest point in Africa.

In the Fall, Alpenglow Expeditions has its sights set on Cho Oyu. Known to the Tibetans as the “Turquoise Goddess,” Cho Oyu is the world’s sixth highest peak. “This will be the highest I’ve gone to date,” Adrian said. “It’s 26,906 feet. I’ve been to 24,000 and did great, so I’m excited about going higher.”

Though Adrian has considered guiding higher peaks, including Everest, he would like to focus on more technical mountains. “I’d like to climb Ama Dablam and Pumori. Pumori is right next to Everest. It means ‘big ones little sister.’ Pakistan also appeals to me. I want to climb Trango and Gasherbrum. They’re very technical. Lots of rock and ice. Pakistan is still such a wild place with so few climbers. I’m really interested in the culture and am somewhat intimidated by it. A focus of all our trips is the cultural experience.”

Entry Filed under: Aspen, Colorado, Travel, Business, Hiking, Outdoors, United Post, Climbing