On Episode 206 of the Enormocast, I sit down at Banff Mountain Film with alpinist and guide, Sarah Hueniken. Sarah was an outdoor educator before she was a climber, and though she is known for ice climbing and dry tooling, she was a rock climber first. She even found Canmore, Alberta a little bleak and cold for her taste. Nevertheless, Sarah eventually set up shop in Canmore and pursued guiding as her career choice and first love. Almost as an afterthought to that pursuit, she became an accomplished alpinist in her own right and took to the emerging disciplines of mixed climbing and dry tooling. She became the first North American woman to climb M11-M14. But then, well into her advanced guiding career, a terrible incident occurred during an ice-climbing camp under her direction in 2019. An avalanche swept over a a guided group at Massey’s Waterfall and buried and killed Sonja Findlater. In the aftermath of that incident, Sarah found herself wallowing in guilt and trauma and the loss of her friend. Finally, she emerged from her despair to rejoin the climbing community, start guiding again, and form the Mountain Muskox organization to see others through the trauma of mountain accidents.

Sarah On Fire

Sarah’s Guiding Website

Massey’s Incident Guide Report

Not Alone by Heather Mosher

canada

Enormocast 306: Sarah Hueniken – The Aftermath