Lives:
High Falls, NY
Works:
Vitti Mountain Guides
AMGA Training Level
• Certified Rock Guide
• SPI Provider
What are your top 2 favorite places to climb?
The Gunks, Red Rocks
Who is your climbing hero and why?
I’ve got tons of heroes. Our sport is so diverse and has such a lively history. I have always admired Charlie Porter, he put his stamp on climbing in such a powerful way and at a time when things were still wide open. Alan Watts tore into sport climbing during the eighties and early nineties in a way that was so relentless and new, he pretty much single handedly put Smith on the map. It’s hard to have started climbing when I did and not be in awe of John Bachar’s climbing, he shattered the mind barriers that led to things that Michael Reardon, Dean Potter, Alex Honnold, Will Stanhope and tons of other people have gotten in to. Lynn Hill for her grace and power and totally shattering lame preconceptions about women and climbing. Peter Croft, Rolando Garribotti, Jerzy Kukuczka, Wanda Rutkiewicz, Mugs Stump, Herb and Jan Conn…. How about Rich Romano here in the Gunks? He put up a dozen or more climbs at Millbrook that are every bit as hard, daring and beautiful as Krystal Klear, Bachar Yearian and Perilous Journey that nobody even knows about. I saw Rich the other day at like six in the morning walking up the road to the cliff with his pack on, a rope over each shoulder bandolier style, stuffing a giant garbage bag with trash he was picking up from the side of the road. That dude rocks!
What are your top 2 favorite places to ski?
Jackson Hole, Berthoud Pass
Who is your ski hero and why?
My old friend Matt because teaching skiing is the only job he’s ever had, he’s a total lifer and though he’s a big dude on skis he’s Fred Astaire.
What’s one little known fact about you?
I spent about ten years working for a business turn around firm in Boulder, CO. Sometimes I wore a tie. Right around the time I realized I had to get out of there I had a corner office on the eighth floor of a building at Interlocken in Broomfield. I could see the summit of Longs Peak, the Indian Peaks and all the way south to Pike’s from my window; so close yet so very far away!
Personal Bio:
My wife and I met at the Stage Stop Saloon in Rollinsville, CO. These days we live in the Shawangunks with our daughter, son, cat, dog and twenty chickens. I started climbing when I was a teenager and it’s been at center of my life for over thirty years. I worked for a guide service for ten years before starting my own service in January of 2016. I guide rock and ice climbs in the northeastern US, especially here in the Gunks, as well as early spring and late fall trips to Red Rocks and occasional visits to the Colorado Front Range where I lived from 1994-2003. In addition to guiding ice climbs in winter I work as a professional ski patroller at a local resort in the Catskills. I am an EMT and have volunteered on my community ambulance squad since 2006.
Most memorable guiding/instructing moment:
I climbed Epinephrine at Red Rocks with a woman that had first imagined doing the route ten years before. I have worked many days with her over the years and in a variety of places from Carstenz Pyramid to Cochise Stronghold. Her toughness and determination has always amazed me. The chimneys that guard the the more straightforward climbing above were incredibly challenging for her and yet there she was on a chill November morning scraping, grunting and groaning her way tenaciously upward. On the summit of Black Velvet Peak she thanked me and wept from the effort and joy of accomplishment. We got down to the car just as darkness settled onto the desert floor with silence and stars.
Joe’s Social Channels:
Website | Instagram
Ben Johnson serves as the Team Lead for the Forest Service national recreation special uses program. He provides oversight and coordination of permitting policy and he supports National Forests around the country. Before his tenure with the Forest Service, Ben worked as a professional climbing and canyoneering guide in North Carolina, Texas, Minnesota and Utah. He currently lives in Bellingham, WA.
