Blog

We’ve been adding various athlete ambassadors to our crew and we’re stoked to welcome Colin Haley to the family.  Here’s a little bio that he put together for us which I could paraphrase but then that wouldn’t really do it justice.

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Colin Haley was born in Seattle in 1984, and still lives there today. He discovered his love for alpinism at ten years old, in the nearby Cascade Mountains, and has been pushing his alpine climbing ever since.

He has opened several new routes in the Cascades, as well as many first winter ascents. Venturing away from home, Haley has climbed in Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, The Alps, Norway, The Karakorum, Korea, The Alaska Range, and, of course, all over the western US and Canada.

Despite having visited amazing mountains around the globe, winter alpinism in the Cascades, with all the horrendous weather, deep snow, and chossy rock, is still one of Haley’s favorite pastimes. And correspondingly, despite progressively improving his steep ice climbing skills, hard free climbing skills, and speed aid climbing skills, wallowing through deep snow remains his forte!

Haley presently squeezes his expeditions and days in the Cascades between classes at the University of Washington. With a lot more motivation for big walls and big faces than big homework assignments, he hopes that after graduating in March 2009 he will have more time to climb.

Haley considers some of his best ascents to be: the first ascent of The Entropy Wall on Mt. Moffit (Alaska, with Jed Brown), the first linkup of the Marsigny-Parkin and the West Face on Cerro Torre (Patagonia, with Kelly Cordes), and the first ascent of Patagonia’s Torre Traverse, with Rolando Garibotti (Cerro Standhardt, Punta Herron, Torre Egger, and Cerro Torre).