Meet Max Tepfer

 

How did you start climbing and why did you stick with it?

[*I started in college partly on a dare after a long night of drinking, but mostly for the fame and glory.  I stuck with it for the fast cars, women, and lucrative product endorsements.*] I actually started climbing because my friends in high school were all part of a mountaineering club.  At first it scared me to death every time I went on a trip, but for some reason I kept going.  I think the reason I pushed past being scared out of my mind on every trip was because the environment was so beautiful and different from anything I’d experienced at that point in my life.  At some point I started rock climbing more because I figured it would help me tackle bigger and harder alpine climbs and from that point on, it quickly took over my life.

What are your favorite 3 routes?

Moonlight Buttress: Zion’s classic 5.12+ wall — Besides being the best finger crack on the planet, Moonlight was my first real multipitch free climbing project.  It’s such an incredible line that it never felt like a chore coming back to work on it a couple times and the process taught me a lot about how to approach projects like this.  It also taught me that in this style of climbing, there will almost always be some sort of asterisk hanging over your best effort.

Compleat Angler: a 5.13- finger crack I established at Trout Creek —  This is probably my proudest climb ever.  I’ve been climbing at Trout Creek for the majority of my climbing life and came up through the grades there.  (when I first got there, the 10s were hard and scary!)  Watching friends and mentors put up and send some of the hardest lines out there seemed like an unattainable alien world to me in those first few years.  Eventually ticking their routes and being able to contribute one of my own was in immensely satisfying experience.

Golden Gate: 3,000′ on the west side of El Cap, free at 5.13a/b — When we finished packing in Camp Four, my partner said in his awesome Spanish accent: ‘now we are ready for an adventure.’ Little did we know how prescient those words were!  Climbing well into the night most nights, a pulled bolt on the crux and resulting 50 foot fall, setting up the ledge at a drippy, hanging stance in the dark with one headlamp, (it was ripped off my helmet after said winger) lots of wet, seeping cracks, a surprise shoulder injury, some improvisational aid shenanigans to get past the missing bolt pitch, and thousands of feet of some of the best rock in the world made for a highly memorable experience!

Rainbow Wall: the classic Red Rock 5.12 — This was the first time in my climbing life when I  experienced the change of scale that makes mountain sports so satisfying.  Up until this point in my climbing, routes like this had seemed unattainably large and dauntingly beyond me.  In my head, it was too big and too hard to be a reasonable objective for me.  Sending it my second time up the route blew my hair back and forced me to realize that in my climbing at the time, I was my own worst enemy.  My preconceptions about my ability and what routes were ‘reasonable’ for me were holding me back from progressing.

What motivates you or draws you into your sub discipline of
mountain adventure? Which mountain sports have you tried and disliked?

So many things.  It’s the classic ‘why do we climb’ question.  Some days it’s the wild positions you find yourself in, other times it’s the amazing way rock and ice tends to form these impossibly perfect lines of ascent.  The ‘scaling down’ of terrain and appreciable sense of progression as a climber and skier.  The sheer joy of being outside, running around, and challenging yourself.  The combination of all of these things plus the emotional rollercoaster of being intimidated by an objective, challenging yourself/committing to it, simultaneously having fun and scaring yourself while trying it, and attempting to mentally process what you just did after the fact.  And, of course, at the end of the day, it’s the lasting friendships with the awesome people we get to share these experiences with.

My introduction to climbing was through more traditional mountaineering. (typically defined by a less favorable walking to climbing ratio) While there are elements of it I enjoy, it’s not something I pursue for pleasure.  Working as a guide gives me all the slogging I can handle and I’m content with only pursuing those types of objectives at work.

For me, guiding and climbing compliment each other very well.  I know a lot of people for whom this isn’t the case, but the style of climbing I pursue personally is so far removed from what I do professionally, that I haven’t found burnout to be an issue.  On the contrary, working in the mountains gives me an excellent base level of fitness and keeps me familiar and comfortable in a variety of alpine terrain as well as dialed with a range of different technical systems.  Lining up a personal trip with a work trip in a more exotic venue is also a great way to subsidize my own climbing trips.  In the other direction, challenging and humbling myself during my free time gives me a better idea of what my guests are experiencing when they climb with me.  They also appreciate hiring someone who’s not just a guide, but is also passionate about pursuing climbing objectives on their own time.

If you could give any training / improving / climbinge advice to yourself 5 years ago, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to prioritize the things in life that make you happy.  It’s super cliche, but at that point in my life I was hanging on to negative elements of my life because I thought that I was supposed to want them.  I felt guilty prioritizing climbing over relationships and both were suffering the consequences.  Letting go was super difficult, but incredibly liberating and was the crucial first step towards attaining every goal I’ve achieved since.

Any plans or goals for the next year?

-Tick the last 5.12+ at Trout Creek that I haven’t done

-Free El Cap

-Climb Fitz Roy

-Pass my ski movement make-up exam to continue the process of becoming a certified mountain guide

If you could only eat one breakfast for the rest of your life what would it be? 

Nancy’s yogurt with real maple syrup and fresh garden berries (strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries) with a side of hashbrowns. (with corn syrup-free ketchup and Tillamook extra sharp cheddar)