The instructors below taught during the 2010 Mountainfest, which took place in January. Next year’s info will be posted in Fall 2010

Steve House

Reinhold Messner himself has called Steve House “The best high-altitude climber in the world today.” In September 2005, he and Vince Anderson pioneered a direct new route on the Rupal Face of 8126-meter (26,660-foot) Nanga Parbat. The 4100-meter (13,500-foot) face had never before been climbed in alpine style. During Steve’s 2004 season in the Karakoram he raised the standards of alpine climbing with his solo ascent of K7 via a new route in 41:45 hours (with 26 hours of nonstop climbing to summit) using no fixed ropes, no bolts, and only a seven-pound pack. It was the mountain’s second ascent.

Steve is an IFMGA-certified guide and has also established groundbreaking climbs in Alaska and the Canadian Rockies.

Erik Weihenmayer

On May 25, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the only blind man in history to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak – Mount Everest. On August 20, 2008, when he stood on top of Carstenz Pyramid, the tallest peak in Austral-Asia, Weihenmayer completed his quest to climb the Seven Summits – the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. Erik is joined by fewer than 100 mountaineers who have accomplished this feat. Additionally, he has scaled El Capitan, a 3300-foot overhanging granite monolith in Yosemite; Lhosar, a 3000-foot ice waterfall in the himalayas; and a difficult and rarely climbed rock face on 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya.

Chuck Boyd

Chuck is a professional alpinist and ski patroller who owns and operates Vertical Realms, a climbing school and guide service based in Suffield, CT. He has climbed and skied extensively throughout the world, and he has made first ascents of mountains in Pakistan’s Karakoram and Peru’s Cordillera Blanca. In May, 2004 he reached the summit of Mount Everest. On ice, snow or rock, Chuck’s goal is to teach people to safely experience the mountain world. Chuck is a nationally registered avalanche instructor and a member of the National Ski Patrol. He became an avalanche instructor in 1996 after two close avalanche encounters in the Alps. A graduate of the National Avalanche School, Chuck mentored under Roger Damon and regularly attends the ISSW, an international conference on snow science. Chuck now organizes most of the Level I and Level II Avalanche courses for the Eastern Division of the National Ski Patrol, and, in 2006, he was awarded his region’s Instructor of the Year award. He is currently working with Whiteface Mountain, NY, helping to develop an avalanche control program to open the slides at Whiteface to the avalanche-educated public.

Emilie Drinkwater

Despite being cold for ten months of the year, Emilie loves the Adirondacks for their abundant ski and climbing terrain (though the Canadian Rockies are a close second). She has been guiding rock, ice, and skiing for eight years and is AMGA certified and NYS licensed. Her more recent adventures have included Canada’s Chic-Choc Mountains, Maine’s Mt. Katahdin, and Little Switzerland, Alaska.

Jeremy Haas

Energetic is an understatement. Local guide and alpinist Jeremy Haas has spent two decades in the northeastern mountains, from West Virginia to Gaspe. In addition to the years spent alpine climbing and ski mountaineering throughout the Rockies, Jeremy has made trips to the Cascade and Selkirk Mountains, and overseas to the Mont Blanc massif.

After a few years of living in Colorado, he returned to New York and sought out the alpine potential of the East. Jeremy’s home is the Adirondack Mountains, with their unique blend of roadside climbing and technical mountaineering in an expansive backcountry. He is the coauthor of the new rock climbing guidebook for the Adirondack Park, through which he has discovered a wealth and variety of climbs. Patient out of practice, he has been with Adirondack Rock and River Guide Service since 2002.

Carl Heilman

Carl has been involved in the sport of snowshoeing ever since making his first pair of snowshoes in the early 1970’s. He has written numerous articles and has been a consultant on the sport of snowshoeing. He’s been leading beginner’s and advanced snowshoeing workshops for the Adirondack Mt. Club and Appalachian Mt. Club since the mid 1980’s and has also done programs and workshops for many organizations and schools throughout the United States. Carl still hand crafts a limited number of snowshoes each year. His snow-shoes have been used all over the world, and some of his ideas for snowshoe design have been incorporated into commercial styles. While he enjoys passing along his expertise on snowshoeing and winter travel, he enjoys most seeing folks turn-on to the sport after using snowshoes for the first time!

Matt Horner

Matt lives in the Adirondacks where he spends most of his time free climbing year round. His outdoor lifestyle has enabled him to be a successful guide with Adirondack Rock & River Guide Service. Teaching and guiding come naturally and his infectious enthusiasm for climbing rubs off on everyone he spends time with. Matt is always seeking out new areas to explore and has established many challenging first ascents in the area. His passion for ice climbing has led him to pursue adventures in the United States and abroad including the Canadian Rockies, Peruvian Andes and Mongolia’s Altai Mountains. Matt has embraced the freedom of climbing leashless to enhance the sublime experience of asceding frozen waterfalls.

Don Mellor

Currently school counselor and English teacher at Northwood School. Sometimes guide. 36 yrs climbing Author. Renowned chicken. Likes country music, long walks on the beach, NASCAR, possible commitment.

Ian Osteyee

Ian Osteyee started his climbing career in the Adirondacks in 1983. He has climbed all over the US, Canada and in Nepal. He has established many first ascents both here and in Nepal. Ian guides in the Adirondacks, throughout the US and in Nepal. Ian runs Adirondack Mountain Guides and is AMGA certified. Ian is sponsored by Blue Water ropes and CAMP.

James Pitarresi, Ph.D.

James (the “Ice Doctor”) first started climbing in Western New York and Southern Ontario in the 1970s (and he still wears his vintage Joe Brown helmet). After taking time off to complete graduate school, start a family and a career, he returned to ice climbing in the early 1990s. Since that time, he has spent his winters climbing ice throughout the Northeast. It was a conversation with Jeff Lowe who first gave him the idea that teaching ice climbing would be a great way to give back to the sport. Accepting that sage advice, James has been active in combining his passion for ice climbing with his enthusiasm to share his knowledge with others so that they can learn to move confidently and safely on vertical ice. Over the past decade, James has taught ice climbing to individuals and groups and he has been involved with the Mountainfest for many years. James is a licensed guide and when not climbing, he is a professor and chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Binghamton University (SUNY).

Jim Shimberg

Jim is the owner Rhino Mountain Guide Service and the Rock Barn climbing gym in Plymouth, NH. He has climbed all over the world, including Peru, Scotland, the Canadian Rockies and Quebec, and is well known in the northeast for his link-ups of hard routes at Cathedral (Repentance, Remission, Diagonal) and Lake Willoughby (Called on Account of Rains, Last Gentleman, Promenade), as well as hard climbing on Cannon (Omega, five times) and the Adirondacks (Lake Champlain Monster). In addition to his climbing accomplishments he is a proud father and a marathon runner.