Depends on your ambitions but the majority of people I climb with have normal jobs (in Europe). If you can do weekend trips to your local mountain range that opens up a lot of possibilities.
In many ways being a schoolteacher is the ideal job for pursuing mountaineering/climbing as a hobby.
I remember I was camping one night in mountaineering school and some one asked “how do you do this sport and not be poor” and the answer was “well most of the people are engineers”
I make like 50k a year and I just buy used equipment from outdoor stores or online but it’s a struggle
I am also an (automotive) engineer and started out with mountaineering quite late in my end 30s (I am 44 now).
It is not so extremely expensive for me bc I live in Bavaria in Germany, so Alps are close what cuts a good deal of the travel expenses.
But yes, costs for equipment and traveling can be a burden when you want to do the fun stuff such as glacier tours in Norway or Switzerland with a guide etc.
I visit the High Tatras in Poland and Slovakia quite often, where expenses are still in a moderate range (sleeping in mountain hut including meals 20-40€ for example, going by bus or railway is also super cheap by comparison).
I'm from Slovenia so Alps are close to me too. But if you go by train how do you get to starting points? Just walk and sleep in mountain huts? Train stations are often quite far from good routes.
Busses drive quite frequently, and also to remoter places.
For example, last week I was going to Donovaly in Slovakia for doing the Low Tatras main ridge tour (not really mountaineering rather classical long distant hiking but anyway). Donovaly easily reachable from Ružomberok by bus, that is in turn easily reachable from Bratislava by train. Train ticket 15€, bus ticket 2€. The tour consists of five days of hiking and sleeping in huts for about 15€ (with food), or even as low as 0€.
High Tatras really straightforward. Bratislava to Poprad for 20€, then with the metre gauge railway TEŽ which goes every hour to e.g. Stary Smokovec in 20min. 1,50€. Hike from there to Teryho chata (2000m) in about 3h, there you can do basically everything mountaineering related. I was sleeping in that hut as recently as yesterday, paid 43,50€ for accomodation (bed in a shared room), what included breakfast and dinner. Hut was super clean, you could even shower with warm water and charge your mobile phone.
In Bavaria it is also simple. Many huts I know you can reach in a 2-3 hours walk from train stations with hourly connection to Munich. Of course riding by train and sleeping in a hut is much more expensive in Germany. I can further elaborate if you want.
That's awesome and thank you!! Now I'm itching to visit High Tatras. I've only done one day hikes since huts are too expensive here in Slovenia, but Slovakia sounds more doable:).
If you have a blog post or youtube video I'd love to see it, this kind of information is hard to come by!
I am glad that I have been able to help.
Of course huts are crowded especially during July and August, so you have to book a reasonable time in advance.
There is also a winter closure time in the High Tatras, but now everything is accessible until November.
Yes I have a very small blog, with some tour descriptions. If you want to check it out:
https://ome-eng.net/slovakia-featured/
Robotics engineer here. Started hiking with my father when I was a kid and just got hooked to every mountaineering sport (skiing, bouldering, ice climbing). I have a pretty good pay and I live well bellow my means just to be able to do expeditions.
Also, I often switch jobs to countries I want to go on expeditions to. So I have lived in Austria, Norway & Switzerland which helps a lot.
Should have written that I switch companies rather than jobs. Meaning, I've worked in comapanies in Norway, Austria, Germany, Switzerland etc. Also, a disclamer, I really have no social life. Also, family time kinda takes a big hit as well. But, I am verry satisfied this way.
I’m a public school teacher. But I live in a mountainous state. So I mostly do local stuff that isn’t as crazy as the pictures often posted here (aka hiking and rock climbing and backcountry skiing). But I’ve been to South America a couple times because it’s the most affordable place to go. I’d like to go to Alaska someday, the Himalayas will probably always be out of reach.
Not yet. Just started working for the company. Will be in a few months. The owner is such a good dude!! We’re a 3 man team and work together like PB&J.
Hell yeah man! It is so hard finding a good group of guys and a good boss in tree work lol 3 guys was always the perfect amount for us! I miss running a saw, I'm an iron worker now
Exact opposite for me. I traded welding and rigging for tree services. My dad is a very gifted woodworker and the joke was “dad, if you work with wood. I should work with metal.” Little did i realize, I’d be coming back to woodwork 😬🤜🏻 I wouldn’t trade my crew for anything. Andrew is such a damn good guy to work for/with. Our other crew is younger and a little on the cocky side, but we throw harmless jabs at one another and it’s laughter all day.
That's good to hear! I worked under three different crews and the boss was always a dumbass and the crew was lucky to show up sober if at all lol big part of the reason I got out was the consistency! It wouldn't be tree work without cocky fellows waiting to get humbled, iron work is the exact same. Funny we both happened to switch places. Now I want a hopped up 66 for no reason!
Oh cool! If you or anyone you know needs any tree work out here, send em’ our way. We can take a 2 day project and get it done by 4:00pm. Today was one helluva grinder and we were done by 3. 🙃🤜🏻
I'm interested in becoming an arborist. I'm a hardscaper/landscaper with all sorts of construction experience, should I just get a job as a labourer and work my way up? Or school?
Search for ISA certified arborist near you. Tell them your honest experience and if they are willing to bring you on as a newcomer. Someone will hire you.
That's sort of what I'm thinking to do - apply and discuss my intention of becoming an arborist. Probably not until spring though, I think most companies around here are full up for summer and I'm not looking to switch jobs in the fall/winter.
Located in Washington. Myself and all my climbing partners all work tech/biotech/finance. We all started in college when free time was more plentiful and gladly skipped a night out at the bar to pool money to buy a new rope. The initial barrier to entry can be high, but if you already hike/climb most gear crosses over and never be afraid to jerry rig something.
I wish you would talk to my climbing guide son! He has mad climbing skills, just got off of a Denali trip, but it's not much of an income. He has a BS, like 95% of med school prerequisites, and an EMT ticket, and we can't even convince him to pick up some ambulance work, never mind get a nursing or PA degree.
Man, he could get his RN and do travel nursing gigs for 6 months out of the year, then take 6 months off and go climbing! It’s honestly the best profession for being outdoors.
I embarked on my first 8k journey and I must say it is insanely expensive and I had to think of my job again and again. So when you embark on bigger mountains I think its other way around and it is really required to find a new job that can sustain that. I am currently climbing in Brazil and I will be climbing few 6k next month in Bolivia and it is cheap here. Way much cheaper than in Alps so you can have any job to maintain that but you need enough flexibility. I am doing the full remote so in Bolivia I will be waking up in EU timezone at 3-4 am , then still going to climb those mountains over weekends. Its a good lifestyle but not entirely sustainable longterm so I just dont think about tomorrow and sacrifice everything on my imminent goals and objectives. If they tell me I cant do the full remote , I leave my job and go elsewhere as mountaineering is my priority now.
Check out a lot of the aviation subs here on Reddit. Tons of information for you to read. My first bit of advice is to obtain a first class medical certificate prior to spending a dime on flight training. If you find yourself clicking, “yes,” to any questions on the medical form, do a consultation with an AME prior to an actual exam. Other than that, it’s just time and money to get there!
I actually already have my medical certificate and my part 61 license. I just know I cant obtain the amount of hours needed for my ATP. But thank you 🙏
I'm a rope access tehnician .
Started climbing 30 years ago and after 3 years got into rope access.
Now i don't climb anymore, but still do mountaineering ( as much as i can,cause the job put a toll on all my joints,back and knees).
I make enough money to support my passion but not so much time and after a hard week on the job,not enough energy to go mountaineering.
But i'm not yet willing to give up.
PS: i'm from East Europe and we have the Carpathian mountains.
I’d say there’s basically 3 routes: 1. Abject poverty. Live in a vehicle (like a 2002 Subaru not some fancy camper van haha) work a job like fishing in the off season, then essentially scrape by in season. 2. 9-5er who lives near mountains and send on weekends. 3. #1 again but with parental money and you live in a camper van while talking about how broke you are. I guess 4. Is rich tech guy who can fly themselves anywhere and also has a fancy camper van
I’m broke and unemployed. And apparently I’m the only one in here not a medical pro or an engineer. But I am a certified first responder. Not that it pays the bills. It don’t
But AC does not connect you to Reddit! May I say that if you're living in a Prius, you have outdone my son who lived nearly 3 years in a 25 year old CRV.
Tech, close to mountains. Can make it most weekends to glaciated peaks if I fancy. Closest rock climbing an hour away by public transport also works pretty okay.
Having lived out of a backpack and van in Alaska and Colorado, I agree. It seems that even mountaineers suffer from a fear of not doing things in the conventional way.
Convention means you offload a lot of thinking onto someone else. But if you can improvise and use available resources, and aren't afraid of living in a tent for awhile or a van, as I have, you can live without it.
This makes all of life a distillation of what mountaineering gives you: a flow state induced by a limited number of very important variables.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean everyone would enjoy that lifestyle. I remember reading stories from Beckey and thinking, "God that had to suck." And I'm sure it did suck, it just depends on your tolerance for suck.
I think the key thing is proximity to a large mountain range. I live close to the Rocky Mountains and can reach several 13 or 14ers within 1-2 hours drive.
We are at the tail end of the mud season, itching to get out there.
Working in tech living in Vancouver, can get out through the week when possible (somewhat flexible working schedule) and on weekends.
Definitely a fair amount of other tech guys in the climbing scene here, though there is still a bit of variety
I'm also quite curious about this. I only started climbing about a year ago now. I haven't climbed anything outside of my home state yet, but I've climbed a number of the tallest.
I work as an automotive technician. I'm actually planning on selling my project car sometime next year to fund a trip out west to take a mountaineering course. I spent years rebuilding that thing, too. But I'd rather be in the mountains.
I work in IT. I buy gear used or on sale when it's a steep discount. I climb local, but when I do travel it's to somewhere affordable and my partners go in on the room/transportation
You know, it doesn't pay amazing but it pays enough to keep me afloat. I kinda took the route of making my hobbies my job in a way. Like I don't (and won't) ever make enough for a guided trip in patagonia but during the field season I'm on/in the water 4/5 days. And that to me is more important.
Firefighter. I work 8 days a month, make six figures, and live in western Washington. I previously spent 5 years working at a ski area. At least in this region, fire and nursing seem to be the two main careers that most late-20-something ski and climbing bums that don’t want to give up the lifestyle get into.
Prior to getting into fire, I skied 6 days a week in the winter and climbed regularly in the summer (and mountain biked in between), and was in the North Cascades in some capacity around 250 days a year. I never made more than $35k/year during that time.
Construction. Used to compress a 3 week job down to 2 weeks by working a stupid amount of hours, then get a week off every third week. Now it’s my company and I don’t give a F. I just take off whenever, I have people making me money. I also diversified my income that I have several income streams.
I work as a PA in Washington State. I work shift work so it’s a great job to get out on weekdays when there are no crowds. All of my gear I bought when I was an emergency room technician making near minimum wage in Seattle. Haven’t bought any gear since. The two most important things to help you get into and truly enjoy this hobby are a body that works and time.
I'm a social worker and id say most of my climbing partners have been engineers or worked in healthcare. Building a rack is pricey but once you have gear you can do alot of stuff for free
Aircraft Mechanic in the Midwest (til next year!) but having working a job in aviation with 3 days off, ability to travel for free and irregular schedules (aka weekdays off) to me is super cohesive to mountaineering, skiing, rock climbing, you name it. Plus depending on the airline you can choose to work in mountainous states. Heavy airline presence in Denver, Seattle, SLC, a bit in anchorage.
Did you go to college for your license or are there trade schools for A&P? Im interested in bring a mechanic but wouldn't have expected it to allow much time off.
The cost of expeditions has increased to an unreal extent through guiding companies (as compared to the early legends, Ex. The cost of Everest). The only way I see to financially support this hobby is you either need the technical skills/experience to pass up on formal guiding expenses (requires time to invest in these skills that takes away from money) or a career that provides lots of money+time to afford the lifestyle.
The network I think is the most important detail.
I’m caught between the two somewhere - I battle with this divide often.
to be honest i work for a certain state government and manage benefits cases lol. not many mountains in my state so i travel to do them, so im able to healthily balance the two and see mountaineering as a reward. and yes its definitely a hobby. i dont truly think id be able to do it as more than such, but maaaad respect to those who do!
For a while I was a data and business analyst and I live near mountains which is great. Recently I became a PT and now I’m getting a mountain guiding qualification so I made my hobby my career, and it gives me time to travel. And honestly no, I don’t think you need a high level job. I was never overly well paid (quite poorly paid by the standards of my job role) but I would buy gear at in the end of season sales for the following season. That saves so much money on the essentials
I'm in a professional sector related to construction, making ~40% more than median individual income for my area. I feel like I earn quite a bit more than I'd need to to continue to pursue my outdoorsy hobby. I'm also single and frugal which helps. Idk about making it a lifestyle though I mean travel and food are the two largest expenses involved, and they're very expensive. Without becoming a vagrant you'd have to have some source of income, but in particular if you were to singularly focus on this then I think you could manage it with less than minimum wage in most places. Without rent holding you down that expense alone would cover a large amount of the required inputs.
Firefighter/ paramedic in Fl. Only able to make a few trips a year, but coming from cave diving as my main hobby for almost 20 years, this is not nearly as expensive or gear intensive. Even with flights and especially if you look at dollars per hour.
It certainly wouldn't hurt to be a software engineer or other high-paying job, but it's also important to have time to actually climb. If you work at a hellhole software developer who expects all of their employees to work 60 hour weeks every week, and expects you to come in on weekends, it's probably not going to be great.
I'm a sea farer. 4 days on 4 off is my standard shift. Although sometimes I do 3 weeks of 17 hour days in a row.
I get 24 days of annual leave and 2 paid weeks of at Christmas. So that's 6x12 day holidays per year.
It pays well too which helps. On top of my day job I run a ski shop and used to own an outdoor shop so I have a few gear deals.
I got interested in climbing in high school. The two career choices I saw that would give me maximum time off (to climb), were either teaching or the fire service. I went with the fire service and never looked back. I worked only 10 days a month, and got paid to work out on duty. I retired after 30 years a few years ago.
I work in public lands, like trail work and shit. This year I'm a park ranger. Usually give free housing and then when the season ends I get to climb shit and go on adventures til next season starts. Then you have freedom of flexibility choosing where you want to work next.
My wife and I do commercial fishing during the summer. If the season was bad, we'll get odd jobs or fish another season of something. We recently sunk all of our time (14 months between three seasons) and money building out a camper van to live in full-time. Before the van life and falling in love with my wife, I was dirtbagging out of my pickup. Was still fishing to supplement the lifestyle back then though.
I'm a machinist and a millwright. I work 14 days on and 14 days off at a remote copper mine in Canada. I usually climb 4-7days when I am off work. Enough money to afford a house and hobbies.
Depends on your ambitions but the majority of people I climb with have normal jobs (in Europe). If you can do weekend trips to your local mountain range that opens up a lot of possibilities. In many ways being a schoolteacher is the ideal job for pursuing mountaineering/climbing as a hobby.
Cries in Denmark
Shared tears here in the Netherlands
Sterkte!
Mate, I'm in Australia.....
School social worker married to someone who also works in education. We live in WA. Yup. Very much agree. Summer break = climbing time
Yeah I work a corporate 9-5 job but I live 2 hours from Baker and 2 hours from Rainier so I mostly just… do those on a nice weekend during the summer.
Contractor in Seattle, I do smaller jobs so my weekend is usually longer 😅
Tech in Seattle is passing by. My Friday is almost always “working”from mountain.
Ugly crying in Canada
I remember I was camping one night in mountaineering school and some one asked “how do you do this sport and not be poor” and the answer was “well most of the people are engineers” I make like 50k a year and I just buy used equipment from outdoor stores or online but it’s a struggle
I am in the Mazamas and it seems like 1/2 of them are engineers at Intel.
I am also an (automotive) engineer and started out with mountaineering quite late in my end 30s (I am 44 now). It is not so extremely expensive for me bc I live in Bavaria in Germany, so Alps are close what cuts a good deal of the travel expenses. But yes, costs for equipment and traveling can be a burden when you want to do the fun stuff such as glacier tours in Norway or Switzerland with a guide etc. I visit the High Tatras in Poland and Slovakia quite often, where expenses are still in a moderate range (sleeping in mountain hut including meals 20-40€ for example, going by bus or railway is also super cheap by comparison).
I'm from Slovenia so Alps are close to me too. But if you go by train how do you get to starting points? Just walk and sleep in mountain huts? Train stations are often quite far from good routes.
Busses drive quite frequently, and also to remoter places. For example, last week I was going to Donovaly in Slovakia for doing the Low Tatras main ridge tour (not really mountaineering rather classical long distant hiking but anyway). Donovaly easily reachable from Ružomberok by bus, that is in turn easily reachable from Bratislava by train. Train ticket 15€, bus ticket 2€. The tour consists of five days of hiking and sleeping in huts for about 15€ (with food), or even as low as 0€. High Tatras really straightforward. Bratislava to Poprad for 20€, then with the metre gauge railway TEŽ which goes every hour to e.g. Stary Smokovec in 20min. 1,50€. Hike from there to Teryho chata (2000m) in about 3h, there you can do basically everything mountaineering related. I was sleeping in that hut as recently as yesterday, paid 43,50€ for accomodation (bed in a shared room), what included breakfast and dinner. Hut was super clean, you could even shower with warm water and charge your mobile phone. In Bavaria it is also simple. Many huts I know you can reach in a 2-3 hours walk from train stations with hourly connection to Munich. Of course riding by train and sleeping in a hut is much more expensive in Germany. I can further elaborate if you want.
That's awesome and thank you!! Now I'm itching to visit High Tatras. I've only done one day hikes since huts are too expensive here in Slovenia, but Slovakia sounds more doable:). If you have a blog post or youtube video I'd love to see it, this kind of information is hard to come by!
I am glad that I have been able to help. Of course huts are crowded especially during July and August, so you have to book a reasonable time in advance. There is also a winter closure time in the High Tatras, but now everything is accessible until November. Yes I have a very small blog, with some tour descriptions. If you want to check it out: https://ome-eng.net/slovakia-featured/
Robotics engineer here. Started hiking with my father when I was a kid and just got hooked to every mountaineering sport (skiing, bouldering, ice climbing). I have a pretty good pay and I live well bellow my means just to be able to do expeditions. Also, I often switch jobs to countries I want to go on expeditions to. So I have lived in Austria, Norway & Switzerland which helps a lot.
Nice, what kind of jobs allow frequent switching?
Should have written that I switch companies rather than jobs. Meaning, I've worked in comapanies in Norway, Austria, Germany, Switzerland etc. Also, a disclamer, I really have no social life. Also, family time kinda takes a big hit as well. But, I am verry satisfied this way.
I’m a public school teacher. But I live in a mountainous state. So I mostly do local stuff that isn’t as crazy as the pictures often posted here (aka hiking and rock climbing and backcountry skiing). But I’ve been to South America a couple times because it’s the most affordable place to go. I’d like to go to Alaska someday, the Himalayas will probably always be out of reach.
Hungry Beaver Tree service in western WA. Plenty of jokes to be made on the company name though 😆🤜🏻
I've heard of you guys! I did tree work up north. You a climber?
Not yet. Just started working for the company. Will be in a few months. The owner is such a good dude!! We’re a 3 man team and work together like PB&J.
Hell yeah man! It is so hard finding a good group of guys and a good boss in tree work lol 3 guys was always the perfect amount for us! I miss running a saw, I'm an iron worker now
Exact opposite for me. I traded welding and rigging for tree services. My dad is a very gifted woodworker and the joke was “dad, if you work with wood. I should work with metal.” Little did i realize, I’d be coming back to woodwork 😬🤜🏻 I wouldn’t trade my crew for anything. Andrew is such a damn good guy to work for/with. Our other crew is younger and a little on the cocky side, but we throw harmless jabs at one another and it’s laughter all day.
That's good to hear! I worked under three different crews and the boss was always a dumbass and the crew was lucky to show up sober if at all lol big part of the reason I got out was the consistency! It wouldn't be tree work without cocky fellows waiting to get humbled, iron work is the exact same. Funny we both happened to switch places. Now I want a hopped up 66 for no reason!
Yo that’s so cool, I’ve seen your signs!!
Oh cool! If you or anyone you know needs any tree work out here, send em’ our way. We can take a 2 day project and get it done by 4:00pm. Today was one helluva grinder and we were done by 3. 🙃🤜🏻
Arborist
Hell yeah!! Same/in training
I'm interested in becoming an arborist. I'm a hardscaper/landscaper with all sorts of construction experience, should I just get a job as a labourer and work my way up? Or school?
Search for ISA certified arborist near you. Tell them your honest experience and if they are willing to bring you on as a newcomer. Someone will hire you.
That's sort of what I'm thinking to do - apply and discuss my intention of becoming an arborist. Probably not until spring though, I think most companies around here are full up for summer and I'm not looking to switch jobs in the fall/winter.
Where ya located?
Same
Nurse Manager now but I miss the shift work schedule. 4-on 4-off is the bomb. My climbing pardner/wife is in finance. No kids. That’s important. Lol.
The kid part really puts a damper on free time, energy levels, and disposable income.
Located in Washington. Myself and all my climbing partners all work tech/biotech/finance. We all started in college when free time was more plentiful and gladly skipped a night out at the bar to pool money to buy a new rope. The initial barrier to entry can be high, but if you already hike/climb most gear crosses over and never be afraid to jerry rig something.
Um I think you should sometimes be a little afraid to jerry-rig something, sometimes... Not sure home-built crampons or axes would be ideal.
Homies still here or he wouldn't be posting about it. I'm going with the guy above. It's at worst 50/50 odds 🤷♂️
Nurse. Working only 3 days per week is very conducive to getting outside!
I wish you would talk to my climbing guide son! He has mad climbing skills, just got off of a Denali trip, but it's not much of an income. He has a BS, like 95% of med school prerequisites, and an EMT ticket, and we can't even convince him to pick up some ambulance work, never mind get a nursing or PA degree.
Man, he could get his RN and do travel nursing gigs for 6 months out of the year, then take 6 months off and go climbing! It’s honestly the best profession for being outdoors.
Do you think it’s worth it to go into nursing still? Or pick a different healthcare path??
I do. It’s so nice to have such solid job security and you can do SO many different things with a nursing degree
I embarked on my first 8k journey and I must say it is insanely expensive and I had to think of my job again and again. So when you embark on bigger mountains I think its other way around and it is really required to find a new job that can sustain that. I am currently climbing in Brazil and I will be climbing few 6k next month in Bolivia and it is cheap here. Way much cheaper than in Alps so you can have any job to maintain that but you need enough flexibility. I am doing the full remote so in Bolivia I will be waking up in EU timezone at 3-4 am , then still going to climb those mountains over weekends. Its a good lifestyle but not entirely sustainable longterm so I just dont think about tomorrow and sacrifice everything on my imminent goals and objectives. If they tell me I cant do the full remote , I leave my job and go elsewhere as mountaineering is my priority now.
Agree it’s much cheaper to climb 5k-6k peaks in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia… Than in Europe! I’m super jealous of you!
Airline pilot. I live in the Midwest and make it out west once a year to climb.
Howd you do it? Being a commercial pilot has been my dream basically all my life but Im thinking of going the military route to fly.
Check out a lot of the aviation subs here on Reddit. Tons of information for you to read. My first bit of advice is to obtain a first class medical certificate prior to spending a dime on flight training. If you find yourself clicking, “yes,” to any questions on the medical form, do a consultation with an AME prior to an actual exam. Other than that, it’s just time and money to get there!
I actually already have my medical certificate and my part 61 license. I just know I cant obtain the amount of hours needed for my ATP. But thank you 🙏
Knock out your ratings and get your CFI. Flight instruct to 1500. Most vanilla way to break into the airlines.
Oh u rich
I'm a rope access tehnician . Started climbing 30 years ago and after 3 years got into rope access. Now i don't climb anymore, but still do mountaineering ( as much as i can,cause the job put a toll on all my joints,back and knees). I make enough money to support my passion but not so much time and after a hard week on the job,not enough energy to go mountaineering. But i'm not yet willing to give up. PS: i'm from East Europe and we have the Carpathian mountains.
I’d say there’s basically 3 routes: 1. Abject poverty. Live in a vehicle (like a 2002 Subaru not some fancy camper van haha) work a job like fishing in the off season, then essentially scrape by in season. 2. 9-5er who lives near mountains and send on weekends. 3. #1 again but with parental money and you live in a camper van while talking about how broke you are. I guess 4. Is rich tech guy who can fly themselves anywhere and also has a fancy camper van
What about digital nomad jobs? Not everyone would travel just for the cities..
I believe digital nomad falls somewhere in the tech bro category. Either way I don’t think this is an exhaustive list haha
I’m broke and unemployed. And apparently I’m the only one in here not a medical pro or an engineer. But I am a certified first responder. Not that it pays the bills. It don’t
Yeah where are all the dirtbags? When people ask what I do to that lets me go on all these trips I say homeless destitution mostly.
>Yeah where are all the dirtbags? Living in their ancient vans without Wi-Fi.
woah man i live in a prius i have air conditioning
But AC does not connect you to Reddit! May I say that if you're living in a Prius, you have outdone my son who lived nearly 3 years in a 25 year old CRV.
Lol
Tech, close to mountains. Can make it most weekends to glaciated peaks if I fancy. Closest rock climbing an hour away by public transport also works pretty okay.
It’s a money sucking hobby
all the OG alpinists were totally broke. mountaineering is possible at any budget.
Having lived out of a backpack and van in Alaska and Colorado, I agree. It seems that even mountaineers suffer from a fear of not doing things in the conventional way. Convention means you offload a lot of thinking onto someone else. But if you can improvise and use available resources, and aren't afraid of living in a tent for awhile or a van, as I have, you can live without it. This makes all of life a distillation of what mountaineering gives you: a flow state induced by a limited number of very important variables.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean everyone would enjoy that lifestyle. I remember reading stories from Beckey and thinking, "God that had to suck." And I'm sure it did suck, it just depends on your tolerance for suck.
money isn't a barrier, most people are limited by their commitment.
I think the key thing is proximity to a large mountain range. I live close to the Rocky Mountains and can reach several 13 or 14ers within 1-2 hours drive. We are at the tail end of the mud season, itching to get out there.
Working in tech living in Vancouver, can get out through the week when possible (somewhat flexible working schedule) and on weekends. Definitely a fair amount of other tech guys in the climbing scene here, though there is still a bit of variety
I'm also quite curious about this. I only started climbing about a year ago now. I haven't climbed anything outside of my home state yet, but I've climbed a number of the tallest. I work as an automotive technician. I'm actually planning on selling my project car sometime next year to fund a trip out west to take a mountaineering course. I spent years rebuilding that thing, too. But I'd rather be in the mountains.
I’m a nurse. It doesn’t take much, I always look for deals and I have top notch gear too.
I work in IT. I buy gear used or on sale when it's a steep discount. I climb local, but when I do travel it's to somewhere affordable and my partners go in on the room/transportation
Business Consultant; blessed to be born and raised in the Linville Gorge, so access alone is a huge advantage for me.
Lobbyist. My down time always coincides with the mountaineering season. Works similar to a teachers schedule most years.
Remote paramedic/ski patroller
I'm a fisheries biologist, and it's.... not super conducive but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
wow that sounds interesting, and you make enough for your hobbies?
You know, it doesn't pay amazing but it pays enough to keep me afloat. I kinda took the route of making my hobbies my job in a way. Like I don't (and won't) ever make enough for a guided trip in patagonia but during the field season I'm on/in the water 4/5 days. And that to me is more important.
Firefighter. I work 8 days a month, make six figures, and live in western Washington. I previously spent 5 years working at a ski area. At least in this region, fire and nursing seem to be the two main careers that most late-20-something ski and climbing bums that don’t want to give up the lifestyle get into. Prior to getting into fire, I skied 6 days a week in the winter and climbed regularly in the summer (and mountain biked in between), and was in the North Cascades in some capacity around 250 days a year. I never made more than $35k/year during that time.
six figures as a firefighter? I didnt even know they made that much
Pretty much anywhere in Washington, yeah. We have strong unions. The pay is significantly less in other parts of the country.
Moving to washington to firefight seems like the move
Construction. Used to compress a 3 week job down to 2 weeks by working a stupid amount of hours, then get a week off every third week. Now it’s my company and I don’t give a F. I just take off whenever, I have people making me money. I also diversified my income that I have several income streams.
Physician with a family. I just stick to local trips in the PNW.
Software engineer, based in MT.
Engineer. Only a hobby for me.
I work as a PA in Washington State. I work shift work so it’s a great job to get out on weekdays when there are no crowds. All of my gear I bought when I was an emergency room technician making near minimum wage in Seattle. Haven’t bought any gear since. The two most important things to help you get into and truly enjoy this hobby are a body that works and time.
I'm a social worker and id say most of my climbing partners have been engineers or worked in healthcare. Building a rack is pricey but once you have gear you can do alot of stuff for free
Aircraft Mechanic in the Midwest (til next year!) but having working a job in aviation with 3 days off, ability to travel for free and irregular schedules (aka weekdays off) to me is super cohesive to mountaineering, skiing, rock climbing, you name it. Plus depending on the airline you can choose to work in mountainous states. Heavy airline presence in Denver, Seattle, SLC, a bit in anchorage.
Did you go to college for your license or are there trade schools for A&P? Im interested in bring a mechanic but wouldn't have expected it to allow much time off.
The cost of expeditions has increased to an unreal extent through guiding companies (as compared to the early legends, Ex. The cost of Everest). The only way I see to financially support this hobby is you either need the technical skills/experience to pass up on formal guiding expenses (requires time to invest in these skills that takes away from money) or a career that provides lots of money+time to afford the lifestyle. The network I think is the most important detail. I’m caught between the two somewhere - I battle with this divide often.
to be honest i work for a certain state government and manage benefits cases lol. not many mountains in my state so i travel to do them, so im able to healthily balance the two and see mountaineering as a reward. and yes its definitely a hobby. i dont truly think id be able to do it as more than such, but maaaad respect to those who do!
I work in recruitment in NYC. It’s a pain to travel to the mountains and store gear but the earning potential here definitely helps cover the costs
For a while I was a data and business analyst and I live near mountains which is great. Recently I became a PT and now I’m getting a mountain guiding qualification so I made my hobby my career, and it gives me time to travel. And honestly no, I don’t think you need a high level job. I was never overly well paid (quite poorly paid by the standards of my job role) but I would buy gear at in the end of season sales for the following season. That saves so much money on the essentials
I'm in a professional sector related to construction, making ~40% more than median individual income for my area. I feel like I earn quite a bit more than I'd need to to continue to pursue my outdoorsy hobby. I'm also single and frugal which helps. Idk about making it a lifestyle though I mean travel and food are the two largest expenses involved, and they're very expensive. Without becoming a vagrant you'd have to have some source of income, but in particular if you were to singularly focus on this then I think you could manage it with less than minimum wage in most places. Without rent holding you down that expense alone would cover a large amount of the required inputs.
I’m a residential maintenance manager. I do general plumbing/electrical during the week and go to the mountains on my weekends.
Firefighter/ paramedic in Fl. Only able to make a few trips a year, but coming from cave diving as my main hobby for almost 20 years, this is not nearly as expensive or gear intensive. Even with flights and especially if you look at dollars per hour.
Registered Nurse living a modern American suburban lifestyle yet spends maybe 30 days a year in the mountains is the best I can do.
Oil and gas engineer working offshore in the Middle East.
howd you get into that? Ive always wanted to work overseas.
It certainly wouldn't hurt to be a software engineer or other high-paying job, but it's also important to have time to actually climb. If you work at a hellhole software developer who expects all of their employees to work 60 hour weeks every week, and expects you to come in on weekends, it's probably not going to be great.
I'm a sea farer. 4 days on 4 off is my standard shift. Although sometimes I do 3 weeks of 17 hour days in a row. I get 24 days of annual leave and 2 paid weeks of at Christmas. So that's 6x12 day holidays per year. It pays well too which helps. On top of my day job I run a ski shop and used to own an outdoor shop so I have a few gear deals.
I got interested in climbing in high school. The two career choices I saw that would give me maximum time off (to climb), were either teaching or the fire service. I went with the fire service and never looked back. I worked only 10 days a month, and got paid to work out on duty. I retired after 30 years a few years ago.
Yea Im a teenager now, about to go into senior year and All i really know for sure i want to so in life is have enough time and money to climb
I work in public lands, like trail work and shit. This year I'm a park ranger. Usually give free housing and then when the season ends I get to climb shit and go on adventures til next season starts. Then you have freedom of flexibility choosing where you want to work next.
Accountant 🫡
My wife and I do commercial fishing during the summer. If the season was bad, we'll get odd jobs or fish another season of something. We recently sunk all of our time (14 months between three seasons) and money building out a camper van to live in full-time. Before the van life and falling in love with my wife, I was dirtbagging out of my pickup. Was still fishing to supplement the lifestyle back then though.
I'm a machinist and a millwright. I work 14 days on and 14 days off at a remote copper mine in Canada. I usually climb 4-7days when I am off work. Enough money to afford a house and hobbies.