Heidi Almighty

Today, Wirtz spends about 20 hours per week on nonprofit work. GEI continues to grow (it raised more than $18,000 in 2009), and has half a dozen volunteers searching for new ways to aid needy areas. But political turmoil, corruption, and inaccessibility have prevented any real work in Khane, the village that first inspired her.

“It’s been super-frustrating,” says Wirtz, but there is hope. GEI recently partnered with the Pakistan-based women’s rights organization Bedari, which designed a scholarship program for girls, to be implemented in Laphi, a village of 3,500 in the northern mountains of the Punjab region. This is a huge step for GEI — and for Heidi personally. Scully, friends with Wirtz now for 14 years, says the GEI work has let Wirtz start to “value herself more.”

Meanwhile, Wirtz is still climbing and traveling with The North Face climbing team. She was most recently in the Czech Republic, and her plans for 2010 include all-female ascents in Yosemite, overseas trips (to “undisclosed destinations”). When home, she’ll climb in Eldorado at least once a week, the Black Canyon in the spring (where she has an eye on new routes), and Rocky Mountain National Park (for alpine trad) in the summer.

Near the end of my interviews, Wirtz and I spend a day ice climbing above the snow-covered Camp Bird Road, with a down-valley view toward the bustling Ouray Ice Park. Heidi kicks a vertical ice pillar with her left crampon, her right foot stemmed onto a rock ledge. From the 200 feet below, Steve House and his clients watch. Wirtz talks to herself during the whole lead, provoking Colorado Ice guidebook author Jack Roberts, one route over, to ask (with a chuckle) what she’s saying.

Wirtz finagles a stem rest beneath a rocky roof traverse on Tourist Trap (WI5 M6), then calms her mind, pre-crux. I can tell, because she’s finally quiet. Then, without warning, she pulls her Almighty thing — hooking and torquing rightward through two bodylengths of exposed, slightly overhanging rock and ice. When I reach the belay, I am sweaty and out of breath. Heidi’s eyes brighten and she cracks a warm, happy smile. You can see that she doesn’t want to be anywhere else.

Senior Contributing Editor Chris Weidner has enjoyed all genres of climbing for over 20 years, but Almighty status has thus far eluded him.

The Heidi Almighty Ticklist
Alpine
•Bad Hair Day (V 5.12-), Bugaboos, Canada; FA with Lizzy Scully
•Qui Lombo (IV 5.11+ A1), Aguja San Rafael, Patagonia; FA with Zack Smith
•Pufigu (IV 5.11 A1), Kupol, Siberia; FA with Roxanna Brock
•North Face (IV AI4 M3), Hapless Peak, Alaska
Ice
•Losar (VI WI5 2300 feet), Khumbu region, Nepal
•Bird Brain Boulevard (IV WI6 M5), Ouray, Colorado; Heidi led every pitch over two ascents in two different years
•Off the Road (IV WI6-), British Columbia, Canada
•Bridalveil Falls (IV WI5+/6), Telluride, Colorado
•Stettner’s Ledges (III 5.8, winter ascent), Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado; with Vince Anderson
Multi-pitch
•The Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, California; women’s speed record (12 hours 15 minutes), with Vera Schulte-Pelkum, 2004
•Regular Northwest Face, Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, California; women’s speed record (5 hours 19 minutes), with Schulte-Pelkum , 2004
•West Face Leaning Tower, Yosemite Valley, California; women’s speed record (5 hours 15 minutes), with Schulte-Pelkum, 2004
•Dar al’Salaam (V 5.13a), Wadi Rum, Jordan; FA with Chris Kalous, Aaron Black, Ben Firth
•Colorado Welcome Party (IV 5.11+R), onsight, Black Canyon, Colorado
Trad Cragging
•The Evictor (5.12c R), Eldorado Canyon, Colorado
•The Wasp (5.12+), Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
•Fish Crack (5.12b), onsight, Yosemite Valley, California
•Positron (E5 6a), onsight, Gogarth, North Wales
•Sentry Box (5.12a), onsight, Squamish, Canada