CHAD KELLOGG WAS ONE OF ALPINISM’S MOST ACTIVE PRACTITIONERS, BEATING CANCER AND TACKLING HIS OWN AMBITIONS ON HIS QUEST TO BECOME THE FITTEST AND FASTEST THETIMEKEEPER CLIMBER IN THE WORLD > BY ANDY ANDERSON 01:OO / 02:00 / 03:00 / 04:00 / 05:00 > 06:00 > 07:00 / 08:00 / 09:00 10:00 / 11:00 > 12:00 / 01:00 / 02:00 03:00 > 04:00 / COLIN HALEY RACHEL SPITZER

Kellogg about midway up the Northeast Buttress of Mount Slesse (V 5.9), one of the 50 Classic Climbs, and first done by Fred Beckey, Eric Bjornstad and Steve Kellogg on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2013. Marts, in 1963.

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THE TINY ROOM IN EL CHALTÉN, ARGENTINA was dark when Chad Kellogg snuck in at 3 a.m., but his for visits to save money. climbing partner Jens Holsten felt an unsettled energy In December of 1991, he was a forerunner reverberate through the space. The two were packed and ready for the 1992 Olympic trials, but fell short of the time cut-off for making the team. For the next to hike into the mountains in the morning, and for a guy like two years, he traveled on the Junior World Cup Kellogg, with a near religious devotion to training, maintenance circuit, becoming one of the fastest starters on and rest, the late arrival was out of character. the national team. The night before the trials for the 1994 Olympics, his then girlfriend Their trip so far had been marked by and he had rough plans to leave for Nepal in dumped him. The next day, he missed the cut- unrelenting storms and poor conditions—a March, just a few weeks after coming home off by fractions of a second. grim season even by Patagonian standards. from Patagonia. “I could picture myself on the award stand Marginal windows had allowed them attempts He and Jens ran a few final errands and accepting the gold medal,” Kellogg later told at Exocet on Cerro Standhardt and the Kellogg e-mailed his friend Dan back in Seattle the Tacoma News Tribune, which in 2004 Supercanaleta on Fitz Roy, but they had to arrange a flower delivery to Mandy. He ran a profile of him as a climber. “When I been beaten back by storms. With only a few would be in the mountains on Valentine’s Day. didn't make it, I thought I had wasted seven weeks remaining in the trip and the climbing He tucked a pinch of tobacco under his years of my life.” season, the forecast showed four days of lower lip, and the two shouldered their packs The team invited him to stay in Lake Placid stable high pressure with no wind—the best for the long walk into Niponino base camp. and train for the 1998 Olympics, but Kellogg weather in three months. The gnarled beech trees still swayed in the was burned out. The plan was to climb the Afanasseif on last winds of the dissipating storm, and they “He felt like he hadn’t gotten the breaks Fitz Roy. At nearly 5,000 feet, it was one of talked about Kellogg’s dilemma. that he wanted to get, that he needed to get,” the longest climbs in the range, but with “There’s just not enough time, Jens,” Ric says. much easy scrambling and moderate, low- Kellogg said. With dwindling funds and his next shot angle climbing, it should fall quickly to the As they crossed the glacier into the Torre nearly four years away, he left his sled in a experienced alpinists. And maybe, just Valley, where toothy granite spires reared up Lake Placid storage unit and hitchhiked back maybe, the weather would hold long enough on both sides, Kellogg grew quiet and focused to Washington for good. for them to regroup and climb a route on the on the goal at hand, as he had done so many Kellogg on the first fair-means Torre massif. times before. Life back home would have to (without Maestri bolts) ascent Kellogg and Holsten had big plans for wait—the clock was ticking. of the Corkscrew link-up of the Back IN SEATTLE, the 23-year- the future, and had recently been awarded Southeast Ridge and South old Kellogg searched for direction without a grant for Labuche Kang III in Tibet and Face of Cerro Torre, in 2013. the rigid structure his training for the luge Lunang Ri in Nepal. They had attempted a Chad LEWIS KELLOGG was had provided. Now that he was living near the number of serious climbs in their two years born in 1971 in Omak, Washington, a short tribal lands and thousands of Kenyans living “He might have gotten some inspiration from became captivated by a luge race on TV. An ad Cascades, climbing rapidly began to fill the as regular partners, but the only successes drive from his parents’ home in the Methow in mud huts. Kellogg’s first climb was up the the dog,” says Ric. “Not to be too confined.” ran across the screen, calling those interested void left by his unrealized Olympic dreams. He they had shared were a major traverse and a Valley. Ric and Peggy Kellogg were pastors at large blue gum eucalyptus in the backyard. He was outgoing and loved to play with to try out for a Junior Olympic training camp, moved into a house with some snowboarding climb of Dragontail , both back home in an Assembly of God church and began taking Life in Kisumu was rife with objective other kids, and was driven and competitive in a kind of feeder program to cultivate future friends, grew his hair out and got a job at the the Cascades. Their friendship and ambition their new son into the nearby hazard. Hawks and small leopard-like genet both sports and the classroom. Olympians. Kellogg was incredibly athletic REI in Seattle's Capitol Hill area. were strong, but their partnership needed when he was only a few months old. In 1973, cats crept into the yard in pursuit of the “If he couldn’t be the top achiever, he and had dabbled in organized sports—he’d “He was probably raising and selling pot,” validation, and they both felt the pinch. they were called away as missionaries, and family chickens. Down by the lakeshore, wanted to do something else,” says Peggy. lettered in golf and played basketball, soccer says Ric. “Our good kitchen scale disappeared “Noticed you came in pretty late,” Holsten the young family moved to Kisumu, Kenya, a hippos and crocodiles lurked. Intense dry The Kelloggs spent time hiking and camping and baseball—but his independent nature about that time.” said when they both woke. Kellogg confessed small port city on the shore of Lake Victoria. lightning storms occasionally crackled in the Cascades, and also began skiing. For clashed with a traditional team approach. After years of living by hundredths of that he had spent much of the previous night The family’s home was a stone’s throw from over the parched landscape to the east. The the middle-class family, the passion required In the luge, he saw a sport that provided a second, Kellogg found in climbing the in a cramped phone booth, talking with his the city limits, beyond which lay untitled Kelloggs once found a spitting cobra in Chad’s some sacrifices. the kind of adrenaline and introspection he freedom to experience the world on his own girlfriend, Mandy. playhouse, and later a green mamba curled up “Why do we always drive beater cars?” the thrived on, and required the kind of focus and terms. He dedicated summers to building For years Kellogg’s life had been a under his crib. boys asked. “Why can’t we get a nice one?” determination he knew he possessed. his alpine resume on remote mountains in continuous and often chaotic series of major By the time the family moved back to “Do you want to ski?” was Ric’s standard He flew to Los Angeles, and after a series the North Cascades, and shoulder seasons to alpine climbing expeditions, often financially AFTER YEARS Washington in 1980, Kellogg had a new reply. of tryouts on a wheeled luge course, he was living in a cave behind Camp 4 and ticking off jerry-rigged with just enough work as a younger brother, Shawn, and a quite different When Chad was in high school, a climber selected for the program. After his first walls in Yosemite. In the winter, he’d return contractor in Seattle to fund the next plane OF LIVING BY world-view than the kids in his grade-school and carpenter named Dan Waters rented an quarter at UW that fall, he put school on hold to Washington to snowboard. ticket. But a part of him had always yearned HUNDREDTHS classroom. He came home frustrated that unfinished basement room in the family’s and moved to Lake Placid, New York, to train During a trip to Joshua Tree in 1996, for a more traditional existence—to have a OF A SECOND, no one believed his wild stories about life in house. Pinching pennies to save for his next full time. Kellogg, then 25, ran into Mike Gauthier, an wife, kids, a home base—and that feeling Kenya. He felt like an outsider, stunned by how climbing trip, Waters would finish a contracting Kellogg trained with an ex-pat Russian old friend from Washington who was working sometimes conflicted with his strong desire KELLOGG FOUND different life was in the States. job and hit the road, retreating back to Seattle coach and added 45 pounds of muscle to for the Park Service on . to be one of the world’s alpine elite. After IN CLIMBING THE The forests surrounding the family’s home to work when the money ran out. Chad idolized his 5-foot, 9-inch frame. At night, he’d Gauthier had been tasked with recruiting Fitz Roy, he was going to fly back and meet in Brier, covered in mossy cedar stumps and Waters—he peppered him with questions, and spend hour after hour obsessing over his fresh talent for the climbing-ranger team on Mandy’s family in Lincoln, Nebraska, before FREEDOM TO prehistoric ferns, became Chad’s new milieu. Waters took him bouldering on the University sled, meticulously sanding its steel runners the mountain, and encouraged Kellogg, who the couple returned home and got married. EXPERIENCE THE He built dirt jumps for his bike, which he of Washington climbing-rock structure and on with progressively finer-grain sandpaper. had developed a reputation around the Pacific He had earlier promised that he would paid for by selling candy bars door-to-door. his first outdoor climbs. Relatives sent him money, but funding for the Northwest as a strong all-around climber and stay put in Seattle for a few months after WORLD ON HIS He chased after his Siberian husky, Thunder, Near the end of his senior year at North program was tight and Chad was constantly mountaineer, to apply.

Patagonia, but an opportunity had come up, OWN TERMS. who was constantly running away. COLIN HALEY Seattle Christian School in 1988, Chad fundraising. He often hitchhiked back to Kellogg got the job and that summer joined

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DESCENDING FROM to share Kellogg’s intensity and drive. But his father-in-law, Robert, full-time at his where Kellogg could come off as being quiet construction business, where he could have AN ATTEMPT ON and reserved, Lara was bright-natured and an intermittent, flexible schedule. THE NORTHEAST outgoing, a social hub. She was competitive Early in the summer of 2003, Chad and Lara RIDGE OF MOUNT and had strong opinions, but she had countless went to to train for his upcoming event friends who loved and respected her. At the in Kazakhstan. Four days after they summited WAKE IN THE time, she also had a boyfriend. and descended via the Upper West Rib, Kellogg RUTH GORGE , On El Cap, sitting with Kellogg on the went from Kahiltna Base Camp to the summit portaledge on Tangerine Trip, with their and back via the West Buttress in 23 hours 55 LARA KELLOGG friend Kai Hirvonen dangling in a hammock minutes, the first time the mountain had been R A PPELLED OFF below, Lara got a glimpse beyond the aloof climbed round-trip in a day. THE END OF stoner she had seen around Seattle. He was After three days of rest in Talkeetna, he smart and funny, his animated eyebrows returned with clients and summited Denali THE ROPE. furrowing around his stormy blue eyes. a third time. Feeling fit and flush with cash When they descended the East Ledges from guiding, he boarded a plane for Asia just five days later, Kellogg’s smoldering interest a few weeks later. Gauthier, David Gottlieb, Mark Westman and had been ignited. Lara had often climbed The Festival Khan Tengri, a race up the Joe Puryear in what would eventually become with other male partners, but she and her 23,100-foot Khan Tengri in the Tien Shan something of an alpine dream team. Though boyfriend had been drifting apart, and she Range, would take Kellogg higher than he route on Siguniang. Lounging in camp, all of them were talented climbers, Kellogg’s mentioned that she was looking for a partner had ever been, but the chance to stand on Kellogg spotted their expedition liaison, Mr. exceptional cardio fitness and desire to raise to climb in Alaska. the podium previously occupied by alpine Ma, riding a horse up the hill toward camp. the standard affected the group. A month later, the two climbed the West luminaries like Alex Lowe and Denis Urubko The climbers greeted him with smiles and “When the tide came in with Chad, all the Ridge of Mount Hunter. Eager to seal the deal was irresistible. In his mind, it was a chance jokes. But Mr. Ma’s face was solemn as he boats in the harbor rose,” Gauthier says. with one of the most sought-after climbing to post a time on the global scoreboard, to be handed Kellogg a note. In his first summer as a ranger, Kellogg women in Seattle, Kellogg read Pablo Neruda a made guy in alpinism’s upper crust. There’s been an accident. Call home. summited Rainier 33 times. The following poems to her during stormy days in the tent. When he arrived in base camp in late July, Kellogg (belaying) and Jens Down in Rilong, the nearest town, Kellogg Holsten on the Afanasseif on year, he broke the speed record, climbing from “They came back, and we heard from both alone and with no translator, the mood was frantically searched for answers, finally Fitz Roy, Patagonia, in 2014. Paradise to the summit and back in 5 hours 6 of them that it worked,” says Kellogg’s close tense. Kellogg tried to shake off the hostile, This would be Kellogg's last reaching his friend Mark Westman. minutes. He even brought his snowboard to the friend Ammi Borenstein, a product designer incomprehensible snickers he received from climb. Right: A selfie during Descending from an attempt on the job, and other rangers followed suit, drastically for Outdoor Research. the predominantly Russian and Central Asian his 42-hour first ascent of Northeast Ridge of Mount Wake in the Ruth improving their rescue response times. Within a year, Kellogg and Bitenieks were climbers. Who was this American? Medicine Buddha, a perilous Gorge, Lara was looking for an anchor when 6,500-foot line on the South While many of the older guides and married. But on August 1, as family and friends Face of Aconcagua (22,837 she rappelled off the end of the rope and fell locals scoffed at the cocky young hotshot They moved into Lara’s West Seattle house, watched back home via a primitive satellite feet), in 2009. nearly 1,000 feet. It had been a week since with something to prove, Gauthier saw an and with the help of Lara’s father, Robert feed, Kellogg went from base camp at 13,400 she had died, at age 38. Kellogg was one of the introspective and detail-oriented athlete who Bitenieks, remodeled the entire home. Kellogg feet, to the route’s high point and back in a 20,190-foot Luktse in Tibet, Kichatna Spire I’ve ever known,” says Ric Kellogg. “They last people to find out. used the mountain as a measuring stick for finished school, graduating from the University winning 6 hours 11 minutes. Kellogg had in Alaska and two virgin peaks in China. both could be really stubborn.” “From that day it was a different Chad,” says his personal challenges. Everything about of Washington with honors and a degree in finally gotten his gold medal, but with an In early 2007, the Kelloggs made plans to The Kelloggs had spied Siguniang for the Strong. “He didn’t smile much for a long time.” climbing became quantified in calories International Economics. He even landed asterisk—due to bad weather in the days return to the Alaska Range in the spring. first time in 2004, but Chad’s return trip the Kellogg, Puryer and Janousek abandoned consumed, ounces carried, vertical feet a desk job, testing software for Expeditors prior to the event, the race’s high point had Chad and Joe Puryear had also applied, following year hadn’t included Lara. After the mountain, though almost immediately all climbed, seconds elapsed. International, a global logistics company. only been fixed to 21,500 feet, 1,600 feet for the same spring, for the McNeill-Nott Kellogg and Puryear’s first attempt on the three made plans to return to Siguniang five “It was part of his aesthetic almost, to see “Chad was very driven,” Gauthier says, short of the peak’s true summit. Award to climb Mount Siguniang (20,510 mountain, they made the FA of an unclimbed months later, in September. the mountain as this series of number games,” “but Lara pushed him in a lot of ways to Three days later, when the festivities were feet), a massive peak in China that they had rock peak, naming it The Angry Wife. When “However, the anger and sadness bottled up Gauthier says. “I think that was a way for him improve and change his life, and become in full swing and medals were being handed attempted in 2005. they received the grant for a second trip, and inside me were like acid eating at my organs,” to control his world and make sense of it.” more than just a guy who had lived out of a out, Kellogg was still in the mountains, having Kellogg’s aspirations for bigger and bigger Kellogg told Lara he would be going to Siguniang Kellogg wrote in the American Alpine Journal. As a technical climber Kellogg struggled, van at Crystal Mountain or a cave in Yosemite soloed back up the route to the true summit. challenges, combined with his long stints away without her again, tensions escalated. Then a few months after Lara’s death, but when it came to endurance and pacing in or a trailer camp on Mount Rainier.” What had started as guide-shack bragging from home while Lara continued to work a 9-to- “When he left on that trip, they weren’t on Kellogg spent an uncomfortable night on the the big mountains, he was a machine. Bitenieks settled into a position working as a rights began to coalesce into a linear series 5 job, began to wear on their relationship. great terms,” says Strong. toilet, wondering about the blood in his stool. “You might be ahead of him when you left research scientist, doing statistical analysis for of accomplishments. Kellogg knew he’d never “Sometimes I wonder if his life isn’t him Kellogg, Puryear and their friend and The bleeding had been happening since his the car,” says Roger Strong, a Washington UW’s Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory. be a 5.14 rock star, but he’d confirmed that compensating for not getting that gold medal,” former client Jay Janousek left for China in trip to China that spring, though only Puryear climber and sales rep. “But by the end of the The pair’s tight-knit cadre of climbing friends he was capable of moving fast, carrying Lara said in the 2004 profile of Kellogg in the early April. Lara linked up with a 23-year-old and Janousek knew about it. He hated going day you’d be like, ‘Can you carry me?’” was hitting its stride in then-booming Seattle. big loads and enduring long pushes. In the Tacoma News Tribune. climber named Jed Brown, and on April 15, to the doctor, but something told him not to In the spring of 1999, Kellogg got a call from Life was stable and the Kelloggs, both highly summer of 2004, he climbed to just shy of the “There was a lot of pressure on Chad to they flew into the Alaska Range. blow it off this time. Lara Bitenieks, a climber he had met years motivated and passionate about the mountains, summit of the world’s 12th-highest mountain, produce achievement in the mountains, His alarm clock went off early the next before while working at REI. She was headed were the quintessential climbing couple. Broad Peak (26,414 feet), and to Camp II on and Lara pushed herself really hard,” says morning, to meet a friend for a day trip in the to Yosemite to climb El Cap with a friend, and Despite the relative security that his new K2’s Abruzzi Ridge. Soon after returning Gauthier. “So they were just pushing, When Kellogg, Puryear and Cascades. On their way out of town, Kellogg their third partner couldn’t make it. Kellogg, life afforded, the confinement of an office to Seattle, he bested his speed record on pushing, pushing. And I think they had Janousek arrived, spring was just taking hold stopped by the ER, and the doctors ran some who had already climbed a handful of serious cubicle wore on Kellogg. When Lara came Rainier, climbing and descending in 4 hours slightly different goals.” of the Changping Valley, in China’s Sichuan tests before referring him to a specialist. routes on the Captain, was a natural ringer. home one day mentioning a speed-climbing 59 minutes, sporting little more than a pair of “He was one of the most competitive people Province. Soon the team made the first ascent Two weeks later he had a diagnosis—colon Bitenieks was a former punk-rock bike competition in Kazakhstan, Kellogg quit his track spikes and some unwrapped energy bars I’ve ever known, and he married Lara, who of an unclimbed 5,700-meter peak, and cancer, stage two. Fast-tracking him into

messenger turned outdoor athlete who seemed job, signed up for the competition, and joined taped to his arms. He climbed new routes on LUKE CHAD HOLLOWAY; KELLOGG (RIGHT) also was one of the most competitive people Kellogg and Puryear scoped their intended surgery, the doctors removed nine inches

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perspective on death, and although some grumbled that he had become reckless, those who knew him felt they understood his nuanced motivations. “He wanted life, and he wanted to live that Kellogg attempted life to the fullest, without wasting a minute to set the speed on the fear of death,” his friend Dan Aylward record on in 2010, says. “I always felt very safe climbing with 2011 and 2013, Chad—probably more than anyone I’ve soloed a new route climbed with.” on the South Face Kellogg knew that he wasn’t immune to of Aconcagua objective hazard. “There’s so much you can't (upper right), and was the first to control,” he said in the 2004 newspaper With Rachel break five hours article. “I imagine I’ll probably go when a Spitzer on round trip on boulder falls on me or I fall in a crevasse.” the summit of Mount Rainier Over the next four years, Kellogg made Mount Slesse. (lower right). three attempts to best the French climber of his colon. If the cancer had gotten much meditation retreat with the BodhiHeart Marc Batard’s 1990 speed record on Everest. further, they said, Kellogg would be wearing a Dharma Center, a Seattle Buddhist education 9,000 feet of climbing, Kellogg and Johnson rented out his place and moved into the back miserable night in the Paradise parking lot, In 2010, thinking that his body would burn colostomy bag for the rest of his life. center. The theme of the retreat was Dealing clawed their way up a 2,000-foot big wall, of his Toyota truck, sometimes staying at the drifting in and out of consciousness while muscle at such high altitude, he arrived in Doctors predicted a full recovery, but his trip with Difficult Emotions, and when they across a mile of knife-edge ridge and up high- Buddhist Dharma Center or on his old friend waiting for the snowplows. When help arrived Nepal 25 pounds overweight. But his body to Siguniang, only five weeks away, was out. arrived, the first session was on anger. Kellogg altitude and ice to the summit. Ammi Borenstein’s couch, or wedging in a in the morning, he was evacuated to Seattle’s struggled to supply the extra burden with took it as a sign he was meant to be there. “There were so many reasons we should few hours of sleep in the parking lot of the Harborview Medical Center. Everest would oxygen and, unable to afford Sherpa support, “He sat in the very front row with a have bailed way earlier, but he was so stoically Seattle Bouldering Project between training have to wait a year, and now he was even he couldn’t recover from the crushing effort In the spring of 2008, nearly a year beautiful meditation posture which seemed motivated to finish the route,” Johnson wrote and work. deeper in debt—his insurance didn’t cover of establishing and stocking his high camps. after Lara’s death, Kellogg was still a wreck. to come to him naturally,” says Tenzin Jesse, on a memorial page for Kellogg. “He literally The deaths continued—grandparents, Joe the $20,000 Life Flight bill. He returned home to find the housing Physically, he had approached cancer as if it one of the founders of BodhiHeart. “You see a grabbed the rack from me, put his head down Puryear in a cornice collapse in Tibet in 2010, By December 2009, Kellogg was healed and market was struggling, and a crooked were a mountain, calculating and pacing his lot of people come to dharma class and kind into the storm and charged upward.” Chad’s brother Shawn to heart failure in 2011, fit, and headed south to Argentina. In a 42- bookkeeper had put his finances into even recovery. To save money for future trips, he of tourist their way through it, but he really Though a long and harrowing descent his climbing partner Bjorn-Eivind Artun in a hour solo push up the notorious South Face more of a tailspin. Sponsors continued to had moved from their West Seattle home into practiced it. From the beginning, he was awaited, the first ascent of the Southwest climbing accident in 2012. But now Kellogg of Aconcagua, Kellogg made the first ascent of front him cash for his attempts, but he went the small mother-in-law apartment behind the going to make a transformation.” Ridge, that had eluded him through had the emotional skills to handle the losses. Medicine Buddha, a weaving, 6,500-foot line more and more deeply into debt, trying to rental property he owned in Columbia City. Though long disenchanted with his his most troubling times, was complete. As he “Suffering, like pain and loss, is inevitable, up a complex patchwork of hanging seracs. pull off the trips. He spent time in Hawaii remodeling a condo, religious roots, Kellogg saw uncanny and Johnson released Lara’s ashes on top of is part of the human condition,” says Tenzin Several times during his ascent, “I might lose my house on this expedition,” surfing and getting back in shape. He had even connections between his own life and the the mountain, Kellogg felt a sense of closure Jesse. “But if you practice a view of yourself swept the face. Though he acknowledged he told Outside of his upcoming 2012 begun dating someone. teachings of Buddhism. and peace he hadn’t known in years. in the world that’s in sync with the nature of its committing and dangerous nature, Everest attempt. But Lara’s death and his cancer diagnosis “It’s something that you train in, and he “I was given a second chance at life,” he reality, then you don’t see all these external Kellogg defended the route, saying he had A much leaner Kellogg arrived at base camp had piled on top of issues that had been could relate to that,” Jesse says. “Just like said in a 2009 episode of the Dirtbag Diaries things as the cause of your suffering and your meticulously planned his path. that year, but crowds, nutritional snafus and brewing under the surface for years— you can train your mind and your body as podcast. “It was a quest.” happiness. And when you get a handle on “Timing is everything,” he wrote in the exhaustion put him off pace, and he turned resentment about his hardcore Christian a climber, you can train your altruism and suffering and happiness as internally caused, American Alpine Journal. around 200 meters below the summit. upbringing, dissatisfaction with not making it your compassion and your patience and your then you can create the causes for happiness Buddhism had provided Kellogg an altered In 2013, he was on track to break the to the Olympics, his brother’s recurring drug generosity.” After Siguniang, the gaps between and eliminate the causes for suffering. And record, but was forced to turn around, this problem, and an Internet troll who challenged Kellogg began attending classes once a expeditions became smaller. On the rare he achieved that.” time by high winds on the summit ridge at any and all of Kellogg’s speed records. week, though by now he had resumed a occasions when Kellogg was in Seattle, it Technical routes on unclimbed mountains 27,225 feet. More often than not, he’d brood and become hectic schedule of work and training. He wasn’t unusual for him to work 16-hour continued to drive Kellogg, but speed “ THERE'S SO In three expeditions, he had spent nearly despondent, sedating his pain with a now never missed a session. Soon he began going days to pay for the next trip. Any time left climbing remained his measure of fitness, the a year on the mountain and made 70 trips near-constant regimen of high-grade weed. twice a week. “You could see him applying over he devoted to training, earning him the way he tested himself for future projects. In MUCH YOU CAN'T through the dangerous . His unprocessed emotions made him prone the teaching to his experience,” Jesse says. nickname Suffer Machine. He’d often wake at 2008, he began making plans and arranging CONTROL,” He doubted whether he could fund another to feelings of isolation and sudden outbursts “His whole experience with mortality—he 4:30 in the morning to do a trail run on Tiger finances to attempt one of his lifetime round, and the crowds and commercialism of anger and jealousy. understood the impermanence of things, the Mountain or get a session at the climbing goals—to break the speed record (using no KELLOGG SAID IN had worn on his psyche. But he knew better Puryear had moved in with Kellogg inevitability of death, but in a context.” gym before strapping on his tool belt for the supplemental oxygen) on Mount Everest. Dan A 2004 NEWSPAPER than to think of it as time wasted. and his new girlfriend, Deb Hinchey, for Kellogg quit drinking and smoking pot, day. Unexpected down time meant grueling Nordstrom, the CEO of Outdoor Research, “I am proud of my effort and the ability several weeks in the fall of 2007 to help vices that had been companions for years. He weight circuits or interval laps up the 388 agreed to put up $15,000, and Kellogg began ARTICLE. “I to return from this expedition healthy and manage construction projects while Kellogg gave energy to important relationships and steps of Seattle’s Howe Street Stairs. In 2009 a frenzy of work and fundraising to make up IM AGINE I'LL happy. There will be other climbs and trips to recovered. But when Puryear and Janousek patched those marred by his anger. on Mount Rainier, he traversed up and over the shortfall. be made because I made the right decisions,” had gone through with the trip to China in In September of 2008, he returned to the mountain twice in under 24 hours. Much But just a few months before he was set to PROBA BLY GO he wrote on the Outdoor Research blog. “I September, Kellogg was furious. He lashed out Siguniang, this time with his fellow Seattle to the chagrin of his next girlfriend, he began leave for Nepal, he was caught in a whiteout WHEN A BOULDER learned and progressed as an athlete and as a at the two, accusing Puryear of stealing his alpinist Dylan Johnson, who had been a sleeping in an altitude chamber. “You better during a solo ski lap down Rainier. Lost in the FALLS ON ME human being. After all, life is about living for client. Their relationship soured. good friend of Lara’s and had become a close not fart in here,” she said. snow, he skied off an ice cliff, shattering his each moment.” Hinchey had dabbled in Buddhism, and she climbing partner for Kellogg. When that relationship ended, Kellogg’s right arm. He struggled back to his truck, but OR I FALL IN A convinced Kellogg to sign up for a weekend Over nine days, 72 pitches, and more than existence became even more monastic. He RACHEL SPITZER CHAD KELLOGG (UPPER RIGHT) the intense snowstorm forced him to spend a CREVASSE.”

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AT A TIME WHEN EVEREST WAS Lunang Ri, which Gottlieb and Kellogg had the hazy horizon to the east. attempted in 2012. The air was still, and the sun’s warmth put WR IT TEN OFF But one project stood above all others in a temporary end to uncertainty. Conditions AS A LOGJAM Kellogg’s mind. on the Afanaseif had been far from ideal— OF WEA LTHY “For Chad, it was always building to ice filled many of the cracks, and feathery something, always trying to get to the rime stuck to the rock like spackled cotton TOUR ISTS, ultimate,” Holsten says. candy. The route had taken a day longer than KELLOGG STILL In a time when most alpinists have written expected, and Kellogg and Holsten were tired. off Everest as an overcrowded logjam of But the weather window was holding, and the SAW IT AS A wealthy tourists buying their way to the rich flavor of the summit faded as they gazed STAGE FOR THE summit, Kellogg still saw it as a stage for the west to the Torres. culmination of his career in the mountains. Forgoing the standard descent down the CULMINATION OF In many ways, his previous three speed Franco-Argentine, they down climbed to the HIS CAREER. attempts were prerequisites—opportunities Supercanaleta, which would allow them to to experiment, learn about his body at descend west to their gear cache in the Torre altitude, and refine systems for something he Valley. At the top of the enormous couloir, felt was much more significant than a hot lap they agreed it was still too warm to rappel, Like Kellogg, Jens Holsten grew up up the standard route. and sat down to wait. in Seattle, but it wasn’t until early 2012 that Named by , who reportedly At 6 p.m., they threw their ropes down the a friend introduced them on the streets of El quipped that it could be climbed only in chute and dropped over the edge. The sun Chaltén, Argentina, the little mountain town the imagination, Everest’s Fantasy Ridge is had left the face, but the temperatures were at the base of the Fitz Roy Massif in Patagonia. the last unclimbed spur on the mountain. warm—too warm—and rime began falling all A climbable spell had materialized for the A double-corniced fin that soars from the around them. A chunk, big enough to hurt, hit next day, and they made plans to attempt Fitz to meet the notorious Holsten in the leg. Reaching an anchor a few Roy together. Though they were rained off Three Pinnacles of the Northeast Ridge at rappels down, they ducked into a small alcove. the mountain that day, it became clear on the 7,800 meters, the Fantasy Ridge has been Neither said so, but they were both scared. approach that their meeting was fortuitous— attempted several times by large siege-style “Should we stay here?” Kellogg asked. they shared a similar lifestyle and vision for expeditions. Kellogg’s dream was futuristic— “Ah, shit man, I don’t know,” Holsten said. climbing—they even had the same birthday. to climb a dangerous, committing and Below, it looked as if more sheltered terrain “It was super obvious from the first climb technical new route to the highest point on might offer protection from falling debris. that we did, that yeah, we’re on the same Earth, in alpine style and without oxygen. “Maybe we should just go for it.” page,” Holsten says. “A lot of friends got He propositioned a number of high-profile “All right, let’s do it.” Kellogg got on the rope married, had a kid or whatever. Chad and I alpinists, including Ueli Steck, to no avail. and began rappelling. “Russian roulette, man.” thought, this is it, climbing is the priority.” But in late 2013, he contacted Kyle Dempster, When Holsten joined Kellogg at the small Their connection transcended climbing, a talented alpinist from Utah. Dempster was stance below, he clipped into the anchor and however, and in Holsten, Kellogg saw a piece skeptical but intrigued by Kellogg’s fanciful began pulling the ropes. The cord suddenly of his old self—a troubled soul who could use proposal, and the two decided to see how went taut—stuck. the guidance of someone who had overcome they’d climb together. They began hashing “Get on this rope with me,” Holsten said. his demons. Though Holsten was the stronger out plans to head to Nepal in April 2014, to Kellogg wrapped his hands around the rope climber, Kellogg became somewhat of a try the East Ridge of Annapurna III. above Holsten’s and they pulled. Crack. spiritual mentor. Forty had come and gone. Kellogg, now Holsten heard a loud noise, like a gun going “I was kind of on the verge of making some 42, was in the best shape of his life but knew off. Both ducked as rockfall clattered down the breakthroughs in my life when we met,” says he couldn’t chase big routes forever, and his couloir. Holsten never saw the rock, only the Holsten, “and he was really fostering that.” unfulfilled desire for a stable home life was nightmare suddenly playing out next to him— They didn’t reconnect to climb until a year starting to gain traction. He and his girlfriend, Kellogg had been hit in the face and was dead. later, when they attempted the infamous Mandy Kraus, had only been together a short Holsten thought about unclipping and Southeast Ridge of Cerro Torre. Back home in time, but things were moving quickly. They throwing himself down the mountain. He July 2013, they climbed the Complete Pickets talked about building a small house in the yelled at Kellogg’s lifeless body. Traverse, a seven-day, 10-mile ridge traverse Methow Valley of Washington, spending more Around the time that Holsten threaded his across one of the most remote sections of the time exploring the Cascades, starting a family. rappel device and descended alone into the North Cascades. impending night, a bouquet of carnations, “We never did a climb together that wasn’t dahlias and tulips was delivered to a woman serious,” says Holsten. “We were all in.” On February 14, 2014, the sky over a continent away, with a Valentine’s card that In the fall, Kellogg, Holsten and David the summit of Fitz Roy shone a flawless read, “Sending you my love from across the Gottlieb received the Mugs Stump Award, azure blue. Beyond the arrow-like peaks of world!” a grant that would allow them to attempt the massif, the pure white of the Patagonian two unclimbed peaks the following year— Ice Cap stretched beyond to the fjords of the ANDY ANDERSON is a Senior Contributing Labuche Kang, where Gottlieb had been Pacific. The watery expanse of Lago Viedma Editor for Rock and Ice. climbing with Puryear when he died, and and the arid Patagonian pampas faded into

66 | NOVEMBER 2015 / ROCKANDICE.COM