Alan’s climbing career spanned close to 35 years. He started climbing as a teenager in California in the 70’s and continued climbing and bouldering right up to the last few months of his life. His early adventures in J-Tree, Yosemite, Toulumne Meadows, and elsewhere were often captured in his own writing. He penned one of the first climbing guides to Tuolumne, “Tuolumne rock: An underground climber's guide (Unknown Binding) 1982”, which some of the old school climbers still possess. His thirst for unforgiving challenges was relentless. From his solo ascent of the Tangerine Trip in Yosemite, his second ascent of the very bold “You Asked For It”, and his attempted second ascent of the stunning Bachar-Yerian, were typical of his approach to climbing: bold, powerful, committing. Many of these ascents were documented in The American Alpine Journal and elsewhere, and can be found referenced on the supertopo web site. A good example can also be found HERE. Of the many things that he had written, his description of the attempted second ascent of the BY, “The Path of The Master” is one of the most revealing descriptions of Alan’s motivation as a climber.

Alan’s thirst for new routes was endless, and he left a long legacy of excellent and challenging climbs in J-Tree and Toulumne. His very popular 29 Palms 5.11+ (1981), Silent Scream 5.10a (1982), and Alf’s Arête 5.11- (1987) are just a few of these numerous routes.

Alan moved to Colorado at the close of the 80’s in principal to further pursue his career objectives in a setting where he could continue climbing. In fact, his life just got more complicated. He had already been an avid biker, but shifted this into high gear after moving to Colorado. For most of the next 20 years he regularly competed in numerous long rides, often ticking off several Ride The Rockies tours in a fall season - this coupled with a new found passion to raft the big rivers, something he did frequently as well.