Never get separated from your primal urges.
– Gerry Roach |
About Gerry Roach |
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Gerry below Boulder’s Flatirons |
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Gerry on top of Tanzania’s
Little Meru |
Gerry Roach moved to Boulder Colorado as a lad in 1954, and
started climbing rocks and mountains shortly thereafter. Over six decades
later, he continues pursuing his mountaineering passion with all the energy he can muster.
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Gerry’s complete climbing resume
Gerry’s Professional resume
Gerry on Facebook
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In the intervening years, Gerry became a world-class mountaineer. After climbing
Mount Everest in 1983, he went on to become the second person to climb the
highest
peak on each of the seven continents in 1985. In over 60 years of mountaineering
that span 7 different calendar decades, Gerry has climbed in dozens of states
and countries. He has been on 29 Alaskan expeditions, 10 Andean expeditions
and 7 Himalayan expeditions, including first ascents in the kingdom of Bhutan.
In 1997, he summited 26,360-foot Gasherbrum II in the Karakorum without supplemental oxygen.
In 2000, Gerry became the first person to climb the
ten highest peaks in North America. After this climb, he was the subject of a
Fast and Light article in Rock and Ice.
In 2003, Gerry became the first person to climb every major peak over 16,000 feet in
North America. Gerry is a member of the Colorado Mountain Club, the Highpointers Club,
the Sierra Club, and the American Alpine Club.
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Closer to home, Gerry has climbed more than 2,000 peaks in Colorado, including
all the
Fourteeners, which he completed for the first time in 1975.
He finished climbing every ranked Thirteener in Colorado in 2010.
He finished climbing every named and ranked peak in the Indian
Peaks Wilderness and Rocky
Mountain National Park in 2001. He has also climbed every peak in the Colorado
counties of Boulder,
Gilpin
and Clear Creek, and every named peak in
Jefferson County.
He completed visits to all 64 Colorado counties
in 2001, and became the tenth person to achieve this feat. He is also a member of the coveted
Highpointers’ Double Century Club for visiting more than 250 county
summits nationwide, and he has done all 50 of the US
State Summits. In 2004, Gerry completed the 99
classic desert peaks on the Sierra Club’s fabled Desert Peaks List.
Pursuing another venue, Gerry has visited the highpoints of 55 of the 59 US
National Parks.
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Gerry is also an accomplished rock climber. His first book,
Flatiron Classics,
is a guide to the trails and easier
rock climbs in the Flatirons above Boulder. His second book,
Rocky Mountain National Park,
is a guide to the classic hikes and climbs in the park.
His guide Colorado’s Indian Peaks,
now in its second edition, remains the definitive mountaineering guide to that special area.
In his guide Colorado’s Fourteeners,
Gerry conveys his intimate knowledge of, and love for Colorado’s high peaks.
In Colorado’s Lost Creek Wilderness,
Gerry expanded the scope of his guidebooks, and continued to convey his love
for Colorado’s mountains. His most recent guidebook is
Colorado’s Thirteeners,
which he co-authored with Jennifer. After returning from
his numerous expeditions, Gerry climbs in Colorado’s mountains to re-hone his
skills, and write about his experiences. His first three narratives are
Transcendent Summits,
Ride the Breath, and
Orthogonal Adventures.
Mountaineering in his rugged and beautiful home state forms the foundation for his successful
expeditions to Earth’s great peaks. In 2005, the Sierra Club gave Gerry the coveted
Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award
for a lifetime of mountaineering achievement. In 2006, the Colorado Mountain Club gave Gerry
the rare Ellingwood Ice Ax Award, and in 2010, the Highpointers Club gave Gerry the Frank Ashley Award.
Gerry lives with his wife Jennifer in Montrose, Colorado USA.
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