Doug Solfermoser

by Mark Scott-Nash

After a long battle with cancer, Doug Solfermoser died on June 7, 2003, at the age of forty-four.

I first met Doug in the early 1990s while climbing near Boulder, Colorado. The next few years of our lives would take us on many adventures in Colorado and around the world. Doug’s climbing philosophy was a little different than most mountaineers: He said, “Let’s go climb something rare, uncrowded and on our own.” He didn’t follow the climbing masses to the popular mountains of the world, but went for the difficult and far more rewarding mountains most climbers have never heard of. He did not summit every mountain he climbed. That was not the important part; the adventure was his goal.

In 1996, Doug was part of a small expedition to Manaslu in Nepal, the eighth highest mountain in the world. Despite having almost no high-altitude experience, Doug attempted to be the first American to stand on the summit. For sixty days the expedition fought the elements and achieved the American high point. Doug also rescued a member of a British expedition who lost a crampon on treacherous ice. Despite the danger to himself, he worked the rescue until the climber was safe.

In 1998, Doug made the second ascent of the southeast face of the 20,150 foot-high Chearoco in Bolivia. This was another hard-won achievement. On his first attempt after breaking trail through thigh-deep snow all day, for safety reasons he turned around only two hundred feet short of the summit. Yet he convinced his group to make another attempt, and a week later he stood on the summit.

Doug spent many hours volunteering for the Colorado Mountain Club, passing on his extensive climbing experience to others. He taught every skill needed for mountaineering, from rock climbing to winter camping. He led numerous rock and peak climbing trips for the Boulder Group and was a senior instructor at the Boulder Mountaineering School. Additionally, he served two years as director of the Advanced Mountaineering School as well as many years on the school committee as the high peak trip organizer.

Doug lead both rock and peak climbs. On one winter ascent of Mount Meeker, he helped an injured climber down the icy trail in a blizzard, arriving back at the trailhead at 1:30 a.m. He took all of this in stride as it is a reality in mountaineering.

Doug’s most impressive accomplishments had nothing to do with mountains. It was his attitude, friendship, and absolute lack of ego. He never com-plained about the hardships of extreme weather, weeks of isolation in base camp, dehydrated food, or the common annoyances of other climbers. Though mountain climbers seem to have the ubiquitous quality of inflated self-importance, Doug was very much the opposite.

Two years ago in June, Doug was on Mount Logan breaking trail through knee-deep snow, carrying a fifty pound load at 15,000 feet to his next camp. It’s difficult to accept that a disease could bring someone so young and strong down in their prime and is a shock to all who knew him. But his journey in life was as full as possible. He will be sorely missed by everyone. P