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© 2008 SCARPA North America
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There is nothing ordinary about someone who hucks himself off a windswept cornice, braves high altitudes and freezing conditions or climbs to dizzying heights on a sheer wall of granite.
And there is absolutely nothing ordinary about the boots that help take you to those far away places. SCARPA. A worldwide leader in outdoor footwear, SCARPA uses advanced research and technology to help you take the next step. From telemark skiing, alpine touring, mountaineering, backpacking, hiking, alpine cross, climbing and approach shoes, you’ll find a SCARPA boot with precision fit for your adventure. FOR LIVES LESS ORDINARY.
Coming from Minnesota, climbing wasn't exactly the most obvious choice for me. As a child I followed the usual path of the Minnesotan, of playing hockey, eight years of it. I loved to play. I spent all of my time playing and going to practice. Eventually though, I realized that I did not like the people I was playing with and that I had to quit. Climbing was something that I had been interested in for a ling time, but had never tried. Very soon after quitting hockey I went after climbing and immediately was hooked. Ever since then I have put all of my athletic energy climbing and training.
Right out of high school I have exclusively climbed. Supporting myself entirely by working, and on my own dime I have traveled all over the US, Europe, and South Africa.
My most memorable climbing trip is the one where I went to the Rocklands of South Africa. My Trip was just over ten weeks long and we were there to film the climbing movie “Specimen”. Fellow Scarpa Athlete Chuck Freyberger was the main man when it came to everything for the movie and without him the trip wouldn't have happened. The best part of the experience was coming there with the unique opportunity of having vast amounts of unclimbed boulders just waiting for new problems to be put up all over them. I was able to establish over 60 new boulder problems that trip and in my eyes they were all great.
At first with my climbing I would allocate about half my year to bouldering and half to route climbing. Now I spend most of my time on a rope, repeating and bolting new sport climbs. Even more so than just going around and repeating other peoples climbs I really just love hiking around attempting to find new crags, and bolting new routes. Any day that I am hanging from a fixed rope drilling holes, pounding bolts, and working hard making a new route is a great day. This year I have so far been able to bolt and establish two new 5.14b's and was close to a new 5.14c/d. they took a lot of work and were worth the effort.
I hope to continue to travel and develop myself and the sport for the future along with the help of Scarpa.
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