Climber
Portland, OR
Age: 36

Wallace, 36, of Portland, Oregon, has a long, impressive climbing resume and keeps notebooks filled with every single route he has ever done for the last 26 years. He grew up in Portland and after high school graduation worked as a ski bum on Mt. Hood and took up climbing in California's Lake Tahoe area where he met Paul Teare in the early 1980s. They took many trips to the High Sierras, and did lots of big walls and free climbing in Yosemite. He typically climbs rather than trains. "Everything about climbing has always fascinated me," he says.

click

Indeed, he has spent much time philosophizing about climbing - he has another notebook in which categorizes and ranks the "purest" forms of climbing. K2's North Ridge is the "highest level of expeditioning you could ever order," he says. "Ever since I've been a small child it's been the only large peak that ever captured my imagination."

This is his first Himalayan trip, but he has climbed major peaks in Alaska, Canada and South America, including Denali, Cordillera Blanca, and Artesonraju's South Face. Divorced and with two daughters, 8 and 11, he is a dedicated family man and construction foreman for the Walsh Construction Co., whose tremendous support and flexibility have helped allow him to fulfill his climbing dreams. "I'm friends with just about everybody I work with," he says.