Personal information | |
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Born | Seattle, Washington, US | 2 September 1984
Education | BSc. Geology University of Washington |
Website | "colinhaley.com" |
Climbing career | |
Type of climber | Alpinist |
Known for | Fast ascents of technical, alpine routes. |
First ascents |
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Colin Haley (born 2 September 1984) is an American alpinist known for fast ascents of technical routes on mountains around the world. Haley is perhaps best known for his traverse of The Torres (Cerro Torre, Torre Egger, Punta Herron, and Aguja Standhardt), first with Rolando Garibotti in 2008, [1] [2] and subsequently with Alex Honnold - this time completing the traverse in under 24 hours. [3]
Haley holds a BSc. in Geology from the University of Washington. He began studying engineering, but soon switched to geology so he could "have more free time in his future". [4] Haley grew up in Seattle, Washington. [2]
Haley has made the first solo ascents of a number of difficult mountains, including Aguja Standhardt, [19] Punta Herron, and Torre Egger [20] in Patagonia, and Mount Waddington, Mount Combatant, and Mount Asperity in the British Columbia Coast Range. [21]
Haley has also made the first solo ascents of the Infinite Spur on Mount Foraker, [22] and the North Buttress of Mount Hunter, [23] both in the Central Alaska Range.
In 2016, Haley and Alex Honnold completed two big traverses in Patagonia in record time. First they made the second ascent of the Torre Traverse in 20 hours and 40 minutes. A week later they made the second ascent of the “Wave Effect” traverse in 17 hours and 7 minutes, taking a more direct route than the first ascent, and with both climbers climbing every pitch free. [24]
In 2007, Haley made the fifth ascent of The Denali Diamond (Alaska Grade 6: 5.9 A3, 7,800') with Mark Westman [25] and the first winter ascent of Mount Huntington with Jed Brown. [26] In 2009, he and Norwegian Bjørn-Eivind Årtun made the fourth ascent of the Grison-Tedeschi route on Mount Hunter. [27]
Haley has also garnered much attention in the alpine climbing community for climbing difficult routes in the Alaska Range much faster than previously thought possible. In 2016, Haley climbed the Infinite Spur on Mount Foraker solo in 12 hours and 29 minutes "'schrund-to-summit" [28] - less than half the time required by the next fastest climbing party in 2001. [29] In 2017, Haley climbed and descended the North Buttress of Mount Hunter in 7 hours and 47 'schrund-to-summit. [30] Haley set the speed record for climbing the Cassin Ridge on Denali in June 2018 in 8 hours and 7 minutes 'schrund-to-summit. [31] [32] [33]
Mount Waddington, once known as Mystery Mountain, is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Although it is lower than Mount Fairweather and Mount Quincy Adams, which straddle the United States border between Alaska and British Columbia, Mount Waddington is the highest peak that lies entirely within British Columbia. It and the subrange which surround it, known as the Waddington Range, stand at the heart of the Pacific Ranges, a remote and extremely rugged set of mountains and river valleys.
Alexander Huber is a German rock climber who is considered one of the greatest and most influential climbers in the history of rock climbing. Huber came to prominence in the early 1990s as the world's strongest sport climber after the passing of Wolfgang Güllich. He is the second-ever person to redpoint a 9a (5.14d) graded route by ascending Om in 1992, and has come to be known as the first-ever person to redpoint a 9a+ (5.15a) graded route from his 1996 ascent of Open Air.
Cerro Torre is one of the mountains of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in South America. It is located in Argentina and Chile, west of Fitz Roy. The peak is the highest of a four mountain chain: the other peaks are Torre Egger, Punta Herron, and Cerro Standhardt. The top of the mountain often has a mushroom of rime ice, formed by the constant strong winds, increasing the difficulty of reaching the actual summit.
Monte Fitz Roy is a mountain in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile. It is located in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, near El Chaltén village and Viedma Lake. It was first climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone.
Cesare Maestri was an Italian mountaineer and writer.
Steve House is an American professional alpinist and mountain guide, and winner of the 2006 Piolet d'Or.
The Piolets d'Or is an annual mountaineering and alpine climbing award organized by the Groupe de Haute Montagne (GHM), and previously with co-founder Montagnes Magazine, since its founding in 1992. Golden ice axes are presented to the annual winners at a weekend awards festival based on their achievements in the previous year. It is considered mountaineering's highest honor and is referred to as the "Oscars of mountaineering".
Big wall climbing is a form of rock climbing that takes place on long multi-pitch routes that normally require a full day, if not several days, to ascend. In addition, big wall routes are typically sustained and exposed, where the climbers remain suspended from the rock face, even sleeping hanging from the face, with limited options to sit down or escape unless they abseil back down the whole route. It is therefore a physically and mentally demanding form of climbing.
Rolando Garibotti is an Argentinian and American professional climber, writer, and mountain guide. He is from Bariloche, Argentina. These days he splits his time between the town of El Chaltén, Argentina, and the Dolomites in Italy.
Torre Egger is one of the peaks in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in South America, located between Argentina and Chile, west of Cerro Chalten. Torre Egger lies between Cerro Torre, the highest in a four mountain chain and Cerro Standhardt. It is named after the Austrian alpinist Toni Egger (1926–1959), who died while climbing on Cerro Torre.
Jim Donini is an American rock climber and alpinist, noted for a long history of cutting-edge climbs in Alaska and Patagonia. He was president of the American Alpine Club from 2006 to 2009, and a 1999 recipient of the AAC's Robert and Miriam Underhill Award.
Marko Prezelj is a Slovenian mountaineer and photographer.
Athol Whimp (1961–2012) was a New Zealand mountaineer, rock climber and soldier. Widely regarded as the most accomplished alpinist in New Zealand's modern era, he is the country's only recipient of the prestigious Piolet d'Or award for mountaineering.
Alpine climbing is a type of mountaineering that involves using any of a broad range of advanced climbing skills, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and/or mixed climbing, to summit typically large routes in an alpine environment. While alpine climbing began in the European Alps, it is used to refer to climbing in any remote mountainous area, including in the Himalayas and in Patagonia. The derived term alpine style refers to the fashion of alpine climbing to be in small lightly-equipped teams who carry all of their own equipment, and do all of the climbing.
Hervé Barmasse is an Italian alpinist. He began his career as a mountaineer on his home mountain, the Matterhorn, climbing new routes and repeating various prestigious ones.
Brette Harrington is an American professional rock climber and alpinist based in Lake Tahoe, California and British Columbia, Canada. She was featured in the 2021 film The Alpinist alongside her late partner, Marc-André Leclerc. She is best known for the first free solo of the 760 meter (2,500-foot) Chiaro di Luna (5.11a) in Patagonia, for her development of new alpine climbing routes, and as the star of Brette, a Reel Rock Film Tour short film.
Silvia Vidal is a professional Spanish big wall climber, and aid climber, and alpine climber from Barcelona, Spain. She is particularly known for her big wall soloing accomplishments in remote mountain regions of Pakistan, India, Patagonia, and Alaska.
Marc-André Leclerc was a Canadian rock climber, ice and mixed climber, and alpinist. He is known for his solo ascents–often in winter–of major ice and alpine climbing routes. In 2016, he completed the first winter solo ascents of both Torre Egger in Patagonia and of the Emperor Face of Mount Robson in Canada. In 2018, he was killed in an avalanche on the Mendenhall Towers in Alaska.
On June 28, 2013, the centennial anniversary of the first ascent of Denali, Tom Choate was recognized as the oldest person to summit Denali at the age of seventy-eight years old. He has reached the peak of Denali multiple times, spanning across five different decades: in 1963, 1983, 1993, 2003, and lastly in 2013.
The Alpinist is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen about Marc-André Leclerc, a free-spirited and little-known 23-year-old Canadian rock climber, ice climber, and alpinist. From 2015 to 2016, a film crew followed Leclerc as he solo climbed some of the most difficult and dangerous alpine climbing routes in the world.