Kitty Calhoun
Kitty Calhoun is a Patagonia ambassador, Chicks Climbing guide and resident of Castle Valley, Utah. She first roped up in South Carolina at 18. She started ice climbing a year later, which led to winter ascents in the Rockies where her passion for alpine climbing began. While guiding for the American Alpine Institute, she climbed dozens of peaks in Peru, Bolivia, Alaska, Argentina, and Nepal. In recognition of her accomplishments, she received the American Alpine Club’s Underhill Award in 1991.
A climber remembers her first experience with theunexpected on Thalay Sagar.
I was on my first snorkel, on the lookout for humpback whales near Tonga, when a monstrous creature slowly rose through the murky water from the depths of the ocean. She was close enough that I could see her eye studying me. I was afraid and, while holding her gaze, backed away as fast as…
TAKE ACTION! Help protect Bears Ears in southeastern Utah. Ask President Obama to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to create the Bears Ears National Monument. Sign the petition In southeastern Utah, a battle has been brewing between conservationists, recreationalists and resource extractionists. The pressure on all sides has increased as the stakes grow higher.…
As my friends and I get older, the threat of slipping into a normal lifestyle becomes more real. I have to mow the lawn, get the oil and filter changed in the car, go to the dentist. These days, given a choice, I would rather do a few sport pitches and get a good workout…
I anticipated the change with dread and excitement. My son was leaving the nest for college and I was determined to return to my former goal-driven climbing lifestyle. Fred Becky would be proud of me. After a night of mourning, alone under the desert stars, I promptly returned home, found my address book, and started…
Iceland is a land of extremes – stark beauty within a harsh, unforgiving landscape and an equally daunting climate. Volcanoes are still erupting, earthquakes are nearly constant, yet the geothermal water provides Iceland with most of its energy needs and natural hot springs ease the cold of winter. Eleven percent of the country is covered…
Iceland is frozen in time. Arriving there in February 2012, it was exactly as I remembered from 1998 when I was there to climb with Jay Smith and the late Guy Lacelle – grey, windy, and remote. It is the largest land mass along a mountain ridge that begins under the ocean, where the North…
Comeback – n Informal or vb come back (intr. adverb) 1. a return to a former position, status,etc. 2. a return or response, esp. recriminatory 3. To become fashionable again I am just leaving the belay on Pitch 5 of Aurora (5.8, A4), a steep, difficult aid line on El Cap. It has been five…
Editor’s note: Our thanks go out to Patagonia ambassador Kitty Calhoun for sharing today’s story and photos. This is the first time we’ve featured one of Kitty’s stories on The Cleanest Line, hopefully it won’t be the last. Cars, phones, money are the necessary bane of my existence. On this trip I would need none…