Majka Burhardt

Majka Burhardt grew up a paddler in northern Minnesota and Canada and was a nationally ranked skier at age 12. She started mountaineering with a NOLS course at 15 and she started working for Outward Bound at 18. Majka began guiding shortly after that in the North Cascades and went on to work in Ecuador and Alaska all before graduating from Princeton University in 1999.

Majka describes her climbing career as a series of good decisions punctuated by bad injuries and good fortune. On and off the couch for the past 12 years, in her early climbing days she received AAC climbing grants, soloed Imje Tse in Nepal, racked up Valley free climbs, hard Colorado ice leads, and tromped around climbing and guiding in Bolivia, Nepal, Mexico, Ecuador, Alaska and the lower 48.