Leading American Alpinist Michael Gardner Killed in Nepal
Michael Gardner died in a fall on Jannu East (7,468m), in Nepal’s Kangchenjunga region, on October 7. The 32-year-old was attempting a new route with longtime friend and climbing partner Sam Hennessey up the imposing North Face, one of the great unclimbed faces of the world. This was the duo’s fourth trip to Jannu East and third attempt at the North Face, having turned around in 2022 when their shelter was shredded by ice fall and in 2023 without good overall conditions for a proper bid.
The details of Gardner’s fatal fall are not yet clear, but Climbing confirmed that Hennessey has successfully descended. Partway through his descent, he intersected with a French team who was also retreating from an attempt on the North Face, and the group rappelled the final 700 meters together. A search via drone and on foot was not successful, but did locate some of Gardner’s personal equipment below the face.
Hennessey and Gardner had racked up an otherworldly list of standard-shattering ascents over their seven-year partnership. They were truly redefining fast and light alpinism, climbing Alaskan testpieces in fractional time (often in ski boots with skis on their backs to descend); but perhaps most importantly they were doing so quietly, with overflowing, contagious joy.
Mike is survived by his mother, Colleen, and sister, Megan. His father, George Gardner, was a storied Exum mountain guide who died from a fall while soloing the Grand Teton in 2008 when Mike was 16. Mike was beloved by all in his orbit, including fellow guides, clients, and athletes who were fortunate to call him “friend.”
The word “legend” gets thrown around too much in our alpine-climbing circles. But if Mike Gardner didn’t earn it, then no one has. His style was all his own: a bushy mustache capping a wiry frame, usually clad in blue jeans and a pearl-snap shirt (often sleeveless), driving a beater truck and riding his skateboard everywhere from Ridgway, CO, to Nepal. Stories of Mike are the canon of barely believable (but nonetheless true) mythology: After just a one-hour introductory seminar, Mike nearly broke the U.S. breath-hold record, clocking roughly eight and half minutes; and made the Arc’teryx athlete team’s radar when, as a safety guide for one of their ski photo shoots, he offered to help, donning the athlete’s jacket and hucking a backflip for the camera to everyone’s astonishment.
Mike was a reluctant climbing “professional,” who, prior to signing with Arc’teryx, didn’t have an Instagram page nor a knack for self-marketing. “He wanted a guarantee that he could maintain his authenticity while pursuing climbing as a career,” Athlete Team Manager Justin Sweeny said. “I reassured him he could. And we started to build what was the most unique athlete relationship I have ever been a part of. … Mike’s legacy lives on through all the people he touched and his soul rests easy in the land of the giants.”
I met Mike shortly thereafter at the Ouray Ice Fest in 2020. He hung around cragging and chatting with a genuine ease and openness, deflecting inquiries about himself and achievements toward his recent passion of skijoring (a competitive winter sport where skiers are towed by horses, dogs, or motor vehicles around a track), but the profoundness of his nascent achievements quickly shone through his quiet humility. “Climbed the Infinite Spur in ski boots and skied off the summit? Repeated Light Traveler in 31 hours?? Who is this guy?!” I asked myself and then the internet the next morning. The first Google result: a 2010 Powder Magazine article naming him as one of the “Best [20] Skiers in the World Under 18.”
He and Sam Hennessey continued ticking big alpine routes at a voracious pace, particularly in the Alaska Range. Teaming up with Adam Fabrikant, they sprinted from Kahiltna Basecamp up the Cassin Ridge (5.8 AI 4; 2,400m) and made the first ski descent of Denali’s Northwest Buttress in a single 64-hour push, walking across the tundra and catching the bus back to Talkeetna. New routes on Denali’s Isis Face (Anubis [WI 5 M6; 2,500m], also in ski boots, carrying skis), and the East Face of Mt. Hunter (One Way Out [AI 6 M6+ R; 2,000m]) with Rob Smith, nothing seemed to stop them. In 2022, also with Rob, they climbed Denali’s Slovak Direct (5.9 X M6+ WI 6 A2; 2,700m) route in 17 hours 10 minutes. It was Mike and Sam’s second route up Denali’s gigantic South Face, having made the second ascent of Light Traveler (M7 WI 6) in 2018. This spring, the duo made the second ski descent of the same face with Eric Haferman.
It is a rote temptation to reduce a climber to a list of their ascents, and if there is one thing for sure it’s that doing so here leaves out a number of days Mike considered remarkable purely for the company he kept, whether adventuring locally in the Tetons or in the Himalaya. Nevertheless, it is an undeniable truth that Mike was among the greatest alpinists of our time, pushing the limits beyond what most of us could even conceive as possible.
On a day of sport climbing on Anvil Island during this summer’s Arc’teryx Climbing Academy, in between carefree whippers and ocean dips, Mike told us of his planned tattoo once he and Sam completed “the Jeast” (Jannu East): a fierce mapache.
Mapache Style (Raccoon Style)
adjective | ma·pa·che style
- the style of alpine climbing in which you embody the spirit of existing on the fringe
Push into the dark forgotten corners.
Sustain on what you have.
Scrappy to the bitter end.
Life on the fringe. Eat trash, live fast. Mapache for life.—Michael Gardner (Instagram post July 19, 2024)
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