Caroline Gleich lives on the ridgeline between adventure and activism. Her trips around the globe often transcend summit goals as she merges mountain missions with driving awareness around diversity, equality and inclusion, and environmental justice.
In 2019, Caroline summited the tallest mountain in the world—with a fully torn ACL in her knee. Two years earlier, she was the first woman to ski the entirety of Utah’s Chuting Gallery. But before she became a professional skier, Gleich thought she wanted to be a pro climber, after getting her start on old school sandbagged trad routes. While she ultimately pursued skiing, Gleich uses her rock and ice climbing skills to further her ski mountaineering goals.
On the advocacy side, she organizes marches, protests and rallies to further the causes she believes in, and has traveled to Washington DC to lobby for Protect Our Winters.
In this episode of the Alpinist Podcast, Caroline recounts her Everest expedition, challenges stereotypes around body image, and dives into the dark side of her personality and how she plans for a future full of unknowns.
This episode is brought to you by the American Alpine Club
Alpinist Magazine: Website | Instagram | Facebook
Host: Abbey Collins
Guest: Caroline Gleich
Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn
An Enormously Familiar Voice: Chris Kalous
The Calling: Barry Blanchard
To Abandon: Claire Carter
Strange Music: Doug McCarty
Open Heart: Alpinist Digital Editor Derek Franz
The Vertical Humor of Tami Knight
Fire in the South Platte
Climbing Doesn't Change You: Kathy Karlo
A Few Seconds: Whitney Clark
Sisnaajini: Stories from White Shell Mountain
Threshold Shift: Nick Bullock
The Adventure Gap: James Edward Mills
Available Light: Jimmy Chin
Art of Freedom: Bernadette McDonald and Voytek Kurtyka
Stillness and Storms: Mayan Smith-Gobat
In the Bear's Lodge: Voices from Devils Tower
The Climbers: Jim Herrington and Fred Beckey
Mountaineering and Climate Change
Death and Climbing, Part 2
Death and Climbing: David Roberts
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The MeatEater Podcast
Bear Grease
Wired To Hunt Podcast
Gamekeeper Podcast
The Southern Outdoorsmen Hunting Podcast