Bryan Wickenhauser

Date of Birth:
12.03.72

Hometown:
Gunnison, CO

What is your primary means of adventure, AKA what gets you most psyched?
Skimo racing and training. A little secret about skimo training…it means you HAVE TO ski a lot of backcountry pow !!!

Invent your dream adventure by combining five places, disciplines, pitches, peaks, environments, etc. and stacking them together into a combination. Why did you pick each part?

Five top places for me to ski/adventure:

Haute Savoie Region of France/Swiss. The food, ski culture, coffee, chocolate, coffee is off the hook there. Plus the mtns and ski touring options are in your face, amazing!
Ski off Denali…duh!
Apparently I need to ski tour Northern Japan’s pow…seems to be the rage these days. ….and bring a bunch of friends with. #anyonecanskipow
Ski tour with Greg Hill and friends in Canada eh! Seems like all the amazing Canadian terrain near Fernie, BC is just amazing. You can get cold smoke, technical lines and Canadian beer!
Ski Mountaineering trip to Nepal (or Norway…) Kind of a tie. They are both totally different but they are on my dream list for different reasons for obvious reasons

Describe 5 climbs, trips, or moments that have defined you as a mountain athlete:

Winning the Gore-Tex Grand Traverse 3x and completing it 16 of its 17 editions
Completing 3 Primal Quests adventure races with my teammates
Completing the 2006 Adventure Racing World Championships in France/Switz with a combined Vertical gain of more climbing Everest 3x (over 90,000’ vertical…ugh)
Having had the opportunity to Adventure race in 14 different countries around the world (thank you sponsors!)
Raising two daughters while maintaining a athlete’s schedule and running two businesses (now venturing into a third business). My adventure racing career set me up well to deal with sleep deprivation and perseverance.

Describe your most memorable night in the mountains:
Racing the Gore-Tex Grand Traverse in 2008 with Eric Sullivan. It was the first time anyone raced on modern day skimo gear. We left the Taylor Pass check point around 5am in first place, after a midnight start in Crested Butte. From there we skied straight into the worst ground blizzard I’ve ever seen. Wind chills were probably about -20 to -30F, dark, lost…and poorly dressed. At one point I dropped to the ground and told Sully we were in an avalanche (in hind sight we were on relatively flat ground, and I had a bad case of vertigo!). We were freezing and helpless! We had lots of emergency gear, warmer clothes in our packs, but we had nowhere to hide and decide to just keep moving to stay warm. Eventually we pulled into the next aid station in 7th place having given up our 18 minute lead…and our tails between our legs.

What has scared or intimidated you as a mountain athlete?
Running a river with class 3 or 4 without scouting it….and climbing Calaveras Dome & then rappelling off it in the dark and totally destroyed in 2003 Primal Quest.

What would your adventure partners be most surprised to learn about you from before the time when they met you?
My love for pastries

What are your top 5 all-time favorite pieces of CAMP equipment?

Flash Anorak (I never leave home without it, when heading to the mountains Winter & Summer)
Rapid racing backpack
G Comp Windpower
Windmit’N
Flash pant

Why are you a CAMP athlete?
I love to travel light & fast through the mountains. CAMP makes the best gear to match my philosophy….plus it never fails me in the mountains.

Tick List

The adventure, route or race I had to train the hardest for was:
2006 Adventure Racing World Championships (90,000’+ of Vertical over 5 days)

The adventure, route or race that wrecked me the most was:
2006 Adventure Racing World Championships

I most want an all-expenses-paid trip to:
Nepal

My short list of climbing or adventure goals this year:

Repeat as winner of the Gore-Tex Grand Traverse
Podium at the Power of Four