About Alpine Mentoring.Alpine Mentoring came out of the many different teaching and rescue experiences Scott Backes had while a professional climber on The North Face’s climbing team.
One seminal experience convinced him of the need for Alpine Mentoring. In 1998, he trained eighteen non-climbers for three months and then led them on a "Climb For The Cure" expedition to Mt. Kilimanjaro. Seventeen out of eighteen made it to the summit. An incredible percentage considering all of the participants were from Minnesota and had never been above 12,000 feet above sea level in their lives.
Why was his group was so successful? What was missing from traditional climbing schools and guide services? Alpine Mentoring came from that musing and his subsequent research. Its course work and philosophy are based on twenty-seven years of study, experimentation and research.
Scott Backes is uniquely qualified to be an alpine mentor. Having lived his enitre life in Minnesota, how does a flatlander keep up with the likes of Mark Twight, Alex Lowe, Conrad Anker, Steve House or Barry Blanchard? A willingness to study every aspect of climbing allowed Scott to develop physical and mental training regimens that mimic the stresses and skills necessary to excel at climbing, these are the basis of Alpine Mentoring's programs.
These skills would be useless for mentoring without insight, intuition and a genuine love of teaching. Years of being part of The North Face's Climbing Team (giving climbing clinics and participating in dealer outings) honed Scott's understanding of what people want and need to learn.
His deep connection with his climbing partners has taught him to see and accept the strengths and weaknesses everyone has in them. Scott can help clients use their skills and abilities to their best advantage. The work and study done together will not only prepare clients for their adventure, but will also help them to understand their partners and ultimately themselves.
One of the finest alpinists alive, Scott Backes has taken his wealth of experiences and knowledge and distilled it into a program called Alpine Mentoring.
Scott Backes, Mentor
Scott Backes is an unlikely star of American alpinism. Since his first time climbing in 1975, he pursued all forms of climbing, from bouldering to big wall climbing to ice cragging the biggest alpine faces with passion and commitment. He is best known for his alpine ascents, but loves all forms of climbing.
In 1980, he went to the Canadian Rockies for the first time. His ascents of the north faces of Mt. Temple and Mt. Kitchner pushed him into the world of difficult alpine ascents. 1983 found him in Patagonia, Where he did the 11th ascent of Mt. Fitz Roy. Ascents of new routes such as Deprivation on Mt Hunter, M16 on Howse Peak, and his sixty hour “continuous push” ascent of the hardest route on Mt. McKinley, have led Climbing and Rock and Ice magazines to label him “elite alpinist”, “alpine legend”, and hail him as “one of the leaders of pushing the limits of human endurance.”
What has always been the most important part of climbing for Scott, is the love and trust of the partners he climbs with. He considers himself lucky to have found people who share the spirit of adventure that, to this day, keeps his passion burning.