Steve serves in the role of CEO, coach, and official mascot of Uphill Athlete. He co-founded Uphill Athlete in 2016. He lives in a remote and mountainous corner of Austria with his two sons.

Steve’s biggest coaching challenge was coaching himself. Which seemed to have work as he was called “The greatest climber of his generation” by none other than Reinhold Messner. He was inspired to write down what he learned and originally recruited two other coaches to help him write Training for the New Alpinism (2015) while recovering from a near life-ending fall in 2010. He co-authored  Training for the Uphill Athlete (2018) to fulfill his personal mission to “Teach conventional endurance training theory and practice to unconventional athletes.” He retired from professional climbing at the end of 2020 to dedicate himself to family and work full-time on Uphill Athlete.

“I approached my climbing as a vehicle for understanding and working on bettering myself in every way I could. Training my body was but one dimension of that. Now I approach coaching similarly, except the focus is outward on the athletes. I pride myself on my work with athletes that need to shed limiting and false beliefs to fulfill their potential. I believe all of us are athletes and that you deserve our best efforts to innovate on your behalf as long as we stay true to our mission of teaching people how training works and offering a level of service that meets you where your are.” 

Steve’s most famous ascent is climbing the biggest mountain wall in the world, the 4,500-meter high Rupal Face. A face that culminates on the summit of the worlds ninth highest, and deadliest, mountain: Nanga Parbat. He and climbing partner Vince Anderson ascended their new route over six days carrying two 25 pound backpacks. He also structured his training around smaller expeditions in Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, the Alps, and the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Andes. Steve climbed professionally for 23 years and worked as an athlete-ambassador for Patagonia (23 years), Grivel (21 years), La Sportiva (21 years), GU Energy (15 years), Zeal Optics (10 years), and Coros Watches (2 years). 

Steve began his career as a professional mountain guide in 1992 and in 1999 he became the ninth American to achieve IFMGA certification. He has guided trips across the globe from Alaska to the Karakoram. He has a long list of first-guided ascents in Alaska: Ham and Eggs Couloir on the Moose’s Tooth, Peak 11,300 via the SW Ridge, the West Face Couloir of Mount Huntington, the Harvard Route of Mount Huntington, and the Moonflower Buttress of Mount Hunter. Steve was also the first non-European guide to lead ascents of the Eiger’s North Face (1938 Route) Grande Jorasses by the Croz Spur, Cima Grande’s North Face (Comici-Demai), Piz Badille’s North Face (Cassin Route), and Triglav’s North Face (Long German Route).