Katie Bono

Date of Birth:
October 30 1987

Hometown:
Minneapolis, Minnesota (I live in Boulder now, after stints in Canmore, AB; Washington; Sun Valley, ID; and Hanover, NH)

What is your primary means of adventure, AKA what gets you most psyched?
I get the most psyched about long routes in the mountains, but also on just trying REALLY hard and testing my physical limits (usually in a more controlled setting like cragging). I think there are really valuable things to learn and experience from both ends of the hazard/try-hard continuum! I get Psyched by any kind of adventuring with good friends.

Describe 3 climbs, trips, or moments that have defined you as a mountain athlete:

When I was first getting into mixed climbing, I went to Helmcken Falls with Will Gadd, Sarah Hueniken, and John Freeman to establish a new multi-pitch mixed route on the spray and water ice there. It was relatively dangerous due to overhanging icicles (it’s an extraordinarily large cave behind a waterfall) and it was also -25 C and wet the entire time. It required huge amounts of try-hard and mental toughness just to spend time down there. I didn’t send the climb, as the route went at M13 and my limits were more in the M10 range at the time, but the mindset required to be able to work in that environment stuck with me.

Guiding, in general, gave me the confidence to stay calm and collected in challenging situations.

A trip to the Alaska Range where we didn’t get to the top of anything due to atrocious and unpredictable weather. However, we still got in lots of climbing and we still had fun, which really drove home the message that in the end, it’s ultimately more about the shared experience with friends than ticking off achievement boxes.

Describe your most memorable night in the mountains:
My first real time alpine climbing, where we topped out a rock route in the dark in a snowstorm and couldn’t find the way down (because of above). In the morning we did, but the night spent on top, where we alternated between air squats and team huddles to keep warm, was exceptionally memorable.

What has scared or intimidated you as a mountain athlete?
Objective hazards

What would your adventure partners be most surprised to learn about you from before the time when they met you?
I used to figure skate fairly competitively, including synchronized figure skating. So much hairspray and glitter!

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

X-Dream ice tools!!!
Photon and Nano 22 carabiners
G Comp Wind Power Gloves
Blade Runner crampons
Corsa Nanotech ice axe

Why are you a CAMP athlete?
Because I think going light-and-fast is a magical thing and it is way easier to do with CAMP’s products. Also, I think CAMP/Cassin ice tools are head-and-shoulders above the rest of the competition.

Tick List

It meant a lot to me when I climbed:

The Lightning, a M13- at Vail. This was the first route I ever projected, and I now I understand the appeal behind projecting!
Quarter Life Crisis, a route I put up with Michelle Kadatz and Hannah Preston in the Leaning Towers of British Columbia. I was having a rough summer, and it rained for 7 out of 8 days on that trip, but on the one good day, we went for it and it all worked!
Mt. Rainier, via a speed ascent. It was pretty amazing to set a goal (under 5 hours, round trip), train for it, and then just barely achieve it (4:58).
The Cassin Ridge on Denali. One of the first big routes in the mountains for me.
The Disappointment Cleaver on Rainier with my dad for his 60th birthday. He didn’t know that most people take a few days to climb it, and I told him we were going to do it in a day. It was his first experience mountaineering/doing anything climbing -related, and when the sun rose when we were at 13k, it was priceless.

The adventure, route or race I had to train the hardest for was:
The Lightning (M13-), Vail, Colorado

The adventure, route or race that wrecked me the most was:
A failed attempt on Mt. Robson (Canadian Rockies) when I was just starting to get more into climbing and didn’t know how much I didn’t know!