The Mountaineers
The BeWild Speaker Series, presented by adidas outdoor, welcomed Mountaineers Books author, climber, and blogger Brendan Leonard on May 19, 2016. He shared personal stories of passion and adventure with us, inspiring the room of attendees to get out there and try something new.
Brendan is familiar with challenge. As a climber, writer, and recovering alcoholic, his life includes a reinvention of self that started when he was 23. Faced with the sobering reality of a second DUI, he enrolled in a substance abuse treatment program and sought new opportunities out of his comfort zone. While studying Journalism at the University of Montana, his brother gave him a secondhand climbing rope for Christmas. This became a sixty-meter lifeline he used to create a new life for himself in the outdoors. He learned to push past fear and gut it out during long, grueling days in the mountains.
He started a blog to chronicle his new life, which he deemed to be "semi-rad" where his blog's mission was to be a “website for those of us crushing….kind of”. He wrote funny, adventure-based irreverent blogs like “Dude, it’s okay to hug your bro”, “Obsessive Campfire Adjustment Syndrome”, and “Why backpacking is sexy”, and evolved to write more introspective blogs on big picture issues like “How Gratitude Makes You Happier” and the importance of “Loving what you do, even if you don’t do what you love.”
On his blog, Brendan writes,
“I think we all need to spend more time doing things we love, going to places that make us feel small, remembering to laugh at ourselves, and getting a little cold, tired, and scared every once in a while.”
He’s also stood up as a conservation advocate for our national parks, and uses his blog as a platform each week to remind people about the importance of our wild places.
Brendan is someone who has changed his life through the outdoors -he’s a game changer. At The Mountaineers, we love game changers. In 1907, we got 39 people to the summit of Mt. Baker in a single day, forever changing what people thought possible in climbing on a global scale. We pioneered outdoor climbing techniques and are continuing to get people outside today. And we’re grateful and honored to have collaborated with Brendan on the telling of Sixty Meters to Anywhere. We believe it’s a powerful and life changing book, and he’s the perfect person to share it.
If you missed his talk, our friends at the Dirtbag Diaries turned his recent presentation at 5Point into a podcast. Listen here.
Sixty Meters to Anywhere
Sixty Meters to Anywhere Trailer - Live from Brendan Leonard on Vimeo.
Sixty Meters to Anywhere is the painfully honest story of a life changed by climbing, and the sometimes nervous, sometimes nerve-wracking, and often awkward first years of recovery. In the mountains, Leonard ultimately finds a second chance.
