Widely-decorated climbing legend Allen Steck began his career in Yosemite Valley in 1947, learning to establish routes using pitons and trial-and-error practices. Over an illustrious career that extending some 70 years, Steck established first ascents in mountain ranges around the world including participating in the first major American mountaineering expedition to the Himalaya, attempting Makalu in Nepal in 1954. His 1965 ascent of Mount Logan’s Hummingbird Ridge in the St. Elias Range, AK has never been repeated and is considered among the most challenging climbs in the mountaineering history. In 1979, with co-author Steve Roper, Steck published the seminal Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. His memoir, A Mountaineer’s Life, was published by Patagonia in 2017.
A passion-project of AAC Past President Jim McCarthy and Tom Hornbein—themselves mountaineering legends by any standard—the American Alpine Club’s Legacy Series pays tribute to the visionary climbers who made the sport what it is today and stands as a commitment to securing their legacies.
