Stephen Koch » exum mountain guides

Stephen Koch Speaking Video

Stephen Koch — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:41:26 +0000

This is a short video of me speaking to a group of business professionals in Jackson Hole, WY. Footage included from Mount Everest, Grand Teton and story about my avalanche survival on Mount Owen in Grand Teton National Park.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss having me speak for your corporate group, university group or school group. I customize my presentations to meet your goals.

I am also available to share stories with small groups or families on vacation in Jackson Hole apres ski/snowboarding or over dinner.

I am available for hire as a backcountry snowboard instructor and guide, backcountry ski guide, mountaineering instructor and guide, avalanche safety instructor and ice climbing instructor and guide.

Please email inquiries to me at stephen (at) stephenkoch.com or call 307.699.0202

Serious Winter Mountaineering

Stephen Koch — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:09:00 +0000

This short video is from a climbing trip to the Canadian Rockies that I did last winter. It was a great trip that culminated in a winter ascent of the Andromeda Strain on Mount Andromeda. In this video, my partner, Jack Jefferies is climbing up to the belay with only one ice axe (not easy!), having dropped the other earlier in the pitch (rope length). This route is a “classic” and it is no surprise why I really enjoy family time, a warm bed and basically everything else that I tend to take for granted when I forget about the wonderful but harsh times on cold north faces. Enjoy!

Slideshow from winter ascent of the Andromeda Strain in the Canadian Rockies

Stephen Koch — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:53:27 +0000

Everest Snowboard Expedition Postcard

Stephen Koch — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:41:59 +0000

I am posting this PC because I think it is funny and hasn’t been seen much. I also want to give props to its very talented designer, Matthew Speakman. Matt is temporarily living and working in PA until his return to Jackson. Matt took an old photo of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first two people to stand on top of Mount Everest, and inserted Jimmy Chin’s and my head into the photo. We actually look a lot like them, which helps make the postcard all the more fun.

The Postcard was from my expedition to the north face of Everest in summer 2003 where I attempted, along with Jimmy and two Sherpa, to climb and snowboard the Direct Hornbein Couloir. In hindsight it was a fairly audatious project, but at the time I believed it was possible to take one of the greatest climbs of all time (Loretan and Triollet’s climb of the north face during the monsoon, without oxygen, where they butt glissaded down the entire face in a few hours) one step further by repeating it and carrying a snowboard and then snowboarding down.

Matthew also designed my websites, which can be viewed through his website, www.alpinestart.com. I think I will eventually have my site up again and make the blog accessible through my site via /blog or something. I am new to all this blogging and don’t know the advantages or disadvantages of having my blog be off of my website or a stand alone thing through WordPress, like it is at the moment.