WHAT WE DO

Individual relationships and unique climbs have been the backbone of Skyward Mountaineering since 1996. We have organized hundreds of trips from our backyard in Colorado to the Himalaya, from safe, challenging days on the rock to once-in-a-lifetime summits. Our approach is to get to know you and to customize each experience to suit your individual goals and needs. Our extensive training coupled with decades of experience allow us to provide you with the climbing experience you are looking for at the highest professional standards available.
Beginning in the mid-1990’s Steve House and Vince Anderson were the first to start guiding great Alaskan hard-classics such as the now-popular Ham and Eggs Couloir on the Moose’s Tooth, West Face Couloir and Harvard routes on Mount Huntington, the Southwest Ridge of Peak 11,300, and we continue to complete ascents of these routes two-decades later. Other notable hard-classic routes that we have successfully guided include the Eiger North Face by the 1938 route, the North Face of the Grand Jorasses via the Croz Spur, the North Face of the Piz Badille by the Cassin, the North Face of Slovenia’s challenging Triglav, Les Courtes North Face, and the Moonflower Buttress on Mount Hunter.
At the core of our philosophy lies an emphasis on concurrently training skills, judgment, teamwork, fitness, and mental preparation. To achieve this we emphasize the practice of all aspects of alpinism from multi-pitch rock climbs to ski-mountaineering to climbing the great alpine faces of the world.

ALPINISM IS A DISCIPLINE OF VIRTUE

Skyward feels obligated to share with their clients a view toward climbing and skiing that counts ethics, courage, and aesthetics among its virtues. We aim to lead our clients through an apprenticeship of ascents and descents that ramp up in difficulty and commitment level. Skyward guides aim to find the sweet-spot of challenge where you can experience the true spirit of alpinism: adventure, challenge and partnership.
Skyward wants you to feel as if you have shared our rope as a real climbing partner.

WHAT WE’VE ACHIEVED

  • New route on the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat 26,660′, ninth highest mountain in the world

  • First ascent of K7 West in Pakistan

  • New route on the North Face of Mount Alberta in the Canadian Rockies

  • First guided ascents: 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 most recently the Moonflower Buttress of Mount Hunter.

“The value of mountaineering lies in practice, not achievement.”

While these famous, difficult climbs are emblematic of Skyward Mountaineering’s leadership, they are the result of many, many lesser-known but equally rewarding climbs. We firmly believe that the value of mountaineering’s lies in practice, not in the achievement. Our climbing, personally and professionally, has taught us to accept all aspects, all lessons, all outcomes. To climb a great route is a reflection of what you’ve become capable of over time, of what you’ve worked for. Of what you can do because you earned it.

SKYWARD ALPINIST METHODOLOGY

The Skyward Alpinist methodology starts with your thorough education in rock, ice, mixed, alpine climbing and skiing. Once your ‘formal’ education is completed, you may define a high-level goal for yourself and then we co-create a climbing plan based on your experience, skill-level, and fitness. Through successive climbs with multiple Skyward Mountaineering guides, you lift your abilities—step-by-step—to the point where you can successfully climb the routes you’ve dreamed about. Many of our clients take advantage of Steve House and Scott Johnston, two of the world’s best alpine climbing coaches, to develop a training plan that is linked to their climbing goals.