SELF PORTR AIT


JEN OLSON


OLSON Mountain Guide, Canmore, Canada


her travels as a climber and her job: a Mountain Guide in both Canada and Chamonix. But Canmore is where she “feels most loved,” and that’s where she is right now, recuperating after fracturing her back on this year’s BMC International Winter Meet. Jen came over to check out our famous winter climbing – “I loved the technical climbing, it was so rewarding to unlock the sequences and fi nd bomber nuts” – but she took a lead fall, on the last day at Coire an Lochan. It was her fi rst serious mishap in over twenty years of climbing but, thanks to a speedy rescue and helicopter ride to Inverness, she even made it back to the fi nal night party that evening. Now that’s dedication. Recovery is going well: “I should be climbing after a few months of alcoholism and driving my friends crazy!”


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OMETIMES Jen Olson feels like she “lives all over the world,” with


I’m inspired by:


Athleticism, laughter and women who crush hard trad routes.


Fave possessions:


My truck and my climbing shoes. Being winched off a Scottish cliff was: The best part about breaking my back.


The best thing to happen to me in the last year was:


Summiting Fitz Roy, Patagonia on my birthday.


I was most scared when:


I lost my Dad. I was most tired when:


Stumbling out from Fitz Roy after 2.5 travel days and 2.5 climbing days, falling asleep while walking.


Why the mountains?


Masochistic tendencies and a love of stunning, wild places


If I hadn’t discovered climbing I’d probably be:


A long-distance adventure athlete and a teacher of maths and sciences.


Other people probably see me as: Soft. Fave quote to live by?


“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” Helen Keller.


SUMMIT ONLINE ALPINE SPECIAL #01 | SUMMER 2014 | 15


JEN OLSON ON GARGOYLE WALL, BEN NEVIS. PHOTO: JAMES DUNN VISUALS. For more info see www.jenolson.ca


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