Get in the (Long) Game
Anne Parmenter, Coach, Climbing Guide and Everest Mountaineer
I purposely picked this conversation with Anne Parmenter to kick off the year, because I need to hear so much of this right now. For someone who was told by a middle school teacher that she wasn’t going to amount to much, Anne has done pretty ok for herself. She will blow you right off your feet. Literally!
Anne is a Hall of Fame field hockey coach that took her team to the NCAA tournament multiple times. She’s done multiple marathons, is an AMGA rock climbing instructor and ice climbing instructor, and oh, did I mention she’s also a mountaineer who’s climbed a bunch of 8000 meter peaks around the world - including summiting Mt. Everest in 2006?
BUT - this isn’t a story of some extreme, unrelatable, genetically superior athlete ticking things off a bucket list. (Although Anne's 90 year old mum is still working out every day and went snow tubing over the holidays, so maybe there is a teeny bit of genetic superiority at play here after all....)
The day I spoke with her, Anne was on the brink of retiring from an almost 40-year career as a coach and educator to embark on her next act - as a full-time climbing guide with EMS in North Conway, New Hampshire. Never mind 'bucket list'; Anne is more of an opportunist who doesn't shy away from epic adventure potential that drops into her lap.
Rather than using her age or job or busy life as (justifiable) reasons to put things off indefinitely, Anne cranked up her mountaineering in her 40s, summited Everest in her late 40s, and decided to lean in to more technical ice climbing in her 50s. She is truly the inspiration I thought we all could use to start the year off in the right frame of mind!
You are basically getting a two for one today, maybe even a 3 for one, because I can almost guarantee your next stop will be the episode Anne did with Michael Gervais about imposter syndrome (linked), and you’re also going to want to score the High Crimes audio book from your local library. My brain, like what little snow we’ve had so far here in the northeast, is basically melted after this. Anne is just so. dang. cool.
Learn more about Anne, her Everest expeditions, and lots more good stuff here:
High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed by Michael Kodas
The Lake District (UK)
Exum Mountain Guides (Jackson Hole, WY)
Ama Dablam (Nepal)
The Gunks (NY)
Laurie Watt on Guides Gone Wild (more climbing goodness)
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by John Krakauer
Kanchenjunga (India/Nepal border)
Dolomites (Italy)
Cuillin Ridge, Isle of Skye (Scotland, UK)
Ben Nevis (Scotland, UK)
Women’s Climbing Coalition ice climbing on Jan 21st & 22nd (Woodstock, NH)