Training for the New Anything with Steve House

12/15/23 • 54 min

Steve House began venturing into the high mountains as a teenager, and has since built a career on climbing, guiding and coaching. By the time he published his book Beyond the Mountain in 2009, Reinhold Messner said House was “at the top of mountaineering.”

House’s life in climbing has taken him all over the world. His most famous ascent may be the Central Pillar of Nanga Parbat’s Rupal Face, a climb he completed with Vince Anderson. But he has compiled an impressive list of first ascents and new routes in Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, the Alps and the Karakoram. Steve has been a professional mountain guide since 1992, and in 1999 he became the ninth American to achieve IFMGA certification.

But these days House lives in a small Austrian mountain town with his wife and two kids. In the mornings he spends time getting outside, while the later part of the day is dedicated to working with his company Uphill Athlete. He retired from professional climbing in 2020.

In this episode, we revisit passages from Steve’s book Beyond the Mountain, discuss fatherhood, and finding his way in his new home in Austria. We learn about the climb that drove him to focus more on training and preparation, and eventually led him to start his company, Uphill Athlete. And, we learn more about how he thinks about climbing and what it is to be human—to focus on the act of becoming rather than being.

Support for this episode of the Alpinist Podcast comes from Osprey.

Alpinist Magazine: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Host: Abbey Collins

Guest: Steve House

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Support for this episode of the Alpinist Podcast comes from Osprey.

Alpinist Magazine: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Host: Abbey Collins

Guest: Steve House

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Previous Episode

Unpacking Packing with Sarah Pickman

Sarah Pickman is an encyclopedia of expedition history, in particular the gear early explorers relied on. She recently earned a PhD in history from Yale University. She’s an independent scholar, editor, writer and content producer based just outside New York City.

Sarah is also a contributor to Alpinist. She’s written articles on expedition first aid kits and sun protection for the Tool Users section of the magazine. As it turns out, burnt cork is no substitute for sunscreen.

Through her research and writing, Sarah looks at the gear explorers carried with them on their travels—to the polar regions and high-altitude mountains, as well as to tropical and arid places—and how this gear shaped their experiences and the cultural worlds they were part of.

Sarah takes us on a fascinating journey to the ends of the earth and back again. We talk about the spirit of exploration and much more in this episode.

Support for this episode of the Alpinist Podcast comes from Osprey.

Alpinist Magazine: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Host: Abbey Collins

Guest: Sarah Pickman

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Next Episode

Climbing and Journalism with Lauren DeLaunay Miller

Lauren Delaunay Miller is an award-winning author, journalist and audio producer based in Bishop, California. Her first book, Valley of Giants: Stories from Women at the Heart of Yosemite Climbing, was published in the spring of 2022 by Mountaineers Books, and won the Banff Mountain Book Competition for Climbing Literature.

Growing up on the East Coast, Miller says she wasn’t initially an outdoorsy person. But she was inspired to start climbing while at college in North Carolina—after seeing a photo of Alex Honnold climbing Yosemite’s Half Dome on the cover of National Geographic. She recalls that, at the time, she didn’t even know how to pronounce “Yosemite.”

Since then, Miller has spent many days on Yosemite’s granite walls. In this episode, Miller talks about the power of using the mountains and climbing as a vehicle to tackle stories around larger issues in society. She speaks to her love of climbing, and how it allows her to connect with people and explore human stories, communities and relationships.

Support for this episode of the Alpinist Podcast comes from the American Alpine Club.

Alpinist Magazine: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Host: Abbey Collins

Guest: Lauren DeLaunay Miller

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn