[Jsims6752]

How do you all find good, compatible partners, especially for big alpine routes? I have been rock climbing for a few years now, and am trying to advance more in the alpine realm, but my partners and crew I associate don’t have much ambition in this direction. I have been able to bigger alpine routes here and there, but mostly because I dragged my friends along with me, rather than having a partner that is really excited to climb and train with. As of right now, I am trying to pull together a trip to go to the Ruth Gorge in Alaska this spring, but if I haven’t been able to find anyone who is interested in going.

Anyway, I would love to hear if anyone has any tips or tricks or recommendations on where to find partners.

Topic

[sambedell]

sambedell on November 26, 2017 at 1:31 pm #6834

Jsims-

This is definitely a challenge for me too. Where are you located? You could try the Alpine Mentors Unofficial Facebook page but that seems like slim pickings for most locations. Several of my good alpine partners don’t live near me but we can meet and climb together when our schedules align. I have partners in Leavenworth, Bellingham, Driggs, Sacramento, Portland, etc.. I met them when we happened to be at the same climbing area or through internet forums.

I live in Bend, OR. I can’t make the Ruth this spring but I have the last week of March free and no committed partners yet. Plan A is Canadian Rockies. If that’s a possibility for you shoot me an email samuelj(period)bedell at gmail dot com

[guythomasburton]

guythomasburton on January 12, 2018 at 5:31 am #7553

Based in the UK so things may be slightly different, but I’m a member of the Alpine Club, the British Mountaineering Council, and the Austrian Alpine Club and all have regular meets either at weekends or longer things where you can meet and climb with other people in the local mountains or further afield in the alps. You have to accept that you are not going to achieve a hard objective on day 1 at these events with new partners but put the time in to forging relationships and laying the foundations for the future. Do you have any clubs in your area that you could join? Is the American Alpine Club good in this way?

I’ve also had mixed success with meeting people through an online forum- it can go well, can go badly. It doesn’t make sense to plan a big trip with strangers that you have no experience with, so start small.