Mtnmeister

Ronnie Dickson is a prosthetist by day and a professional boulderer by night. In 2005 at the age of 17, Ronnie lost his leg above the knee because of a congenital disorder called Trevor’s disease. After his amputation, he found the sport of climbing and never looked back. Since then Ronnie has been at the forefront of the disabled rock climbing movement in competitions around the world, and he is aspiring to be the first above the knee amputee to boulder the V10 difficulty grade.

Steph Davis is a professional rock climber, base jumper, wing suit flier, and a passionate chef. She has an impressive list of accomplishments which include many first ascents some of which are free solo. She also owns and runs MOAB Base adventures which provides classes, guiding, and stunt and production work for climbing and base jumping. http://mtnmeister.com/meister/steph-davis

Faith Dickey is a professional slackliner who specializes in highlining, longlining, and free soloing. She set the female world record for Highlining length at 345ft (105m) in Moab, Utah. She is also the first female to surpass the 100 meter mark in highlining. Her record for height was in the Swiss Alps at 4000ft (1200m) from the valley. Faith has more than 30 free solos (walking without a safety leash), the longest of which is 28m, also a female world record.

Jason Haas is a math teacher, co-owner of Fixed Pin Publishing, and a rock climber (free solo climbing on occasion). He has done climbing in Alaska, Africa, Asia, South America and all over the continental US. Jason has completed over 550 first ascents, many of which are done to create guidebooks for Fixed Pin.

David Chancellor and Daniel Chancellor are the owners of So iLL Inc, which is in the business of manufacturing climbing holds and more recently offering a premier climbing gym called Climb So iLL in the Saint Louis area. When asked to describe each other's appearance, Dan describes Dave as a "white Bob Marley, and Dave describes Dan as "maybe a comic book character or a terrorist".

There are many different ways to describe who a Meister is. Perhaps a good phrase would be "good at what he/she does." Yet, no matter how much someone has mastered something, or "Meistered" something, risk remains. Mark Kogelmann and Meredith Eades first met in Chile at Nevados de Chillan, a ski resort about six hours south of Santiago. Mark, a Meister from episode #4, ran into some trouble at Nevados de Chillan, and he might not be around today if it wasn't for his new friend Meredith.

  Nick Troutman and Emily Jackson are both professional white water kayakers. In 2009, they decided to join forces through the bond of marriage to create what can only be called a kayaking power couple. In 2013, Nick and Emily had a baby who, unless the gene skips a beat, will be a paddling prodigy. 

Tim Medvetz is the founder of The Heroes Project, a non-profit organization that works with veterans, soldiers, marines, and military families and communities on all levels. They have taken disabled veterans to the tops of mountains all over the world, they are currently in the process of training an injured marine who lost his leg in Afghanistan, Charlie Linville, to the top of Mt Everest. Tim also has an amazing story of his own. An ex-Hell’s Angel, Tim was in a serious motorcycle accident where he broke countless bones and nearly had his foot amputated. If that wasn’t enough, he awoke from his accident on September 11th, 2001. A year after his accident, he set out to climb Mount Everest.

Trevor has hiked some of the most legendary and difficult treks in the US including an unassisted, solo, end-to-end, thru hike of the Appalachian Trail (2,175 miles in 2008). In 2009, he completed the 2,654 mile Pacific Crest Trail. What makes these treks even more impressive is that Trevor is blind. In 2005, Trevor became blind in only a few months’ time, abd after a period of mourning, he set out to regain the skills he needed to function in society (and much, much more).

For the past five years, Mark and Janelle Smiley have been working on a demanding project: completing the 50 classic climbs in North America. If they complete it Mark and Janelle will be the first people to have done all of the climbs. The climbs are based off of a legendary book called Fifty Classic Climbs of North America written by Allen Steck and Steve Roper.

Ann Trason is a legendary ultrarunner and was one of the best in the world in the 80’s and 90’s. She has broken 20 world records, many of which remain today. She won the Western States 100 14 times, and her time of 18:06:24 at the Leadville Trail 100 is woman's world record. This was written about extensively in Christopher McDougall's Born To Run.

Sasha DiGiulian is a professional climber and a full time student at Columbia University in New York City. She is a 3 time US national champion, a female overall world champ, and has completed numerous iconic first female ascents all over the world. In addition to climbing and school, she is an active athlete ambassador for many organizations.

Fredrik Marmsater is a professional adventure photographer doing work in both commercial and editorial environments. His photographs have been featured in just about every major outdoors publications, most recently with magazine covers on Alpinist and Backcountry.

In this episode of MTNmeister, Ben Schenck reflects on how the Meisters helped him in the 2014 NYC Marathon. Highlights of episodes featuring Dean Karnazes, Rebecca Rusch, Dave Hahn, and more are included. 

Vanessa O’Brien is a mountain climber, explorer, public speaker and former business executive. She has climbed the highest mountain peak on each continent and has also skied the last degree to the South Pole in Antarctica and the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean. Vanessa is the fastest woman to climb the 7 summits (10 months) and the fastest woman to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam (just under 11 months). O'Brien is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of The Explorers Club.

Debra Searle is a British professional adventure, author, BBC Sportscaster, Gender Equality Ambassador,  a wife and mom. Most notably in 2002, she rowed across the entire Atalntic Ocean solo after her then husband and rowing partner had to be rescued. Debra is also a motivational speaker and works with companies world wide to help them achieve greater gender balance at senior level.

Dave Hahn is one of the world's most accomplished mountain guides, with an impressive list of summits. These include but are not limited to 275+ summits of Mount Rainier, 20 summits of Mount McKinley, 33 summits of Antarctica's Vinson, and 15 summits of Mount Everest. 

Robert Young, or “MarathonManUK” is in the process of running at least 367 marathons in 365 days. He wakes up no later than 3am every morning to run a marathon before heading to work for the day. Rob is running to raise awareness for charities which support disadvantaged children who have suffered from child abuse and illness – NSPCC, GOSH and Dreams Come True (links at the bottom of this page). This topic is near and dear to Rob’s heart, as he was brutally abused as a child.

Joel Gratz is the co-founder opensnow.com, a website hosting weather forecasts and information with an added flair. They include personable forecasts, LiveSnow reports direct from the hill, custom snow alerts, and many other services to help you find the powder.  

Dr. Eric Meyer is an anesthesiologist and a high altitude mountaineer based out of Steamboat Springs, CO. During the 2008 K2 tragedy where 11 climbers died near the summit, Meyer chose not to proceed into that dangerous territory. With Sherpa Chhiring Dorje, Meyer has also explored who summited Everest first. Officially, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first, but there is evidence to suggest that Mallory may have done it almost 30 years earlier.