Ep. 234: The Jim Donini

This week Clint and Dawson sit down with Jim Donini. It is only fitting that we caught up with Jim in who knows where, packing for another climbing trip. Our recording is a bit gritty but fitting for our guest. Jim has been setting new free-climbing standards in Yosemite Valley in the early seventies, Jim Donini’s career has continued by pioneering hard alpine climbing in Patagonia, Alaska, Karakoram Himalaya, China, Peru, Venezuela and Antarctica. A former Exum guide and a founder of American Mountain Guides Association, in 1999 Jim was awarded the prestigious Underhill Award by the American Alpine Club for outstanding mountaineering achievement. Jim served as President of the American Alpine Club from 2006 to 2009.Jim continues to seek out unclimbed peaks around his home in Patagonia and, at the age of 80, has an objective for this coming February that will remain secret for the time being.
Notable cutting edge first ascents include Torre Egger (1976), Latok I (1978), and in Alaska The Diamond Arete, Mt. Hunter (1985), Cobra Pillar, Mt. Barille (1988), South Face, Mt. Bradley (1994) and “Shaken not Stirred”, an ice couloir on the Moose’s Tooth, (1997) and in Patagonia, the north faces of Poincenot (1996), Cerro Pollone (1999), Avellano Tower (2008) and Cerro Chueco (2017).