“When I think about it, I’m not happy because I got to the top of some point on the planet,” says Steve Swenson. “I’m happy because of all the things we had to do to get there.” In the summer of 2019, Steve and his climbing partners, Graham Zimmerman, Chris Wright, and Mark Richey, made a first ascent of Link Sar, a 7,041 meter peak in the Karakoram. Steve has been climbing for 50 years and has broken a different kind of trail that younger climbers like Graham can follow.
Read about Steve’s experiences in the Karakoram in his book, Karakoram: Climbing Through the Kashmir Conflict
Music: If Walls Could Talk by Jacob Bain & Nis Kotto • Blowback Blues by Canyon Kids • Run by Kai Engel • transcanada by Fog Lake • The Architect by Cleod9 • Tracks provided by Free Music Archive or with permission from the artists.
I loved this episode. Especially, since I climbed in the Cascades several times with Steve Swenson in the early to mid-70s. He and I also once got kicked off a climb up the side of a parking garage at the Mother Cabrini Hospital in Seattle. I can still here the German accent on an old nun saying, “This is not Mount Rainier.” Then the Seattle cop saying, “You need to take old nuns with a grain of salt.”
Steve is to be admired for all the things listed in this podcast. Thanks for the great story that took me back to Steve’s and my younger days.
Hear the German accent. Ugh, auto correct and fingers that don’t type like they once did.
Outstanding storytelling. Wonderful life themes discussed here. Nice work!