Mountain Culture

Jim Donini

Saturday November 8, 8:00 p.m.
Eric Harvie Theatre (live)
Margaret Greenham Theatre (simulcast)

Wild Patagonia

Jim Donini “was fated to become an alpinist”. Setting out across the country with a climbing friend when he was 23, Jim Donini’s brilliant alpine climbing career began with a naïve first-time mountaineering trip to Mt. Robson where he and his partner were forced to retreat from their attempt at a “real” mountain by a typical Canadian Rockies snowstorm. Since the early days, Donini has focused on big wall alpine style routes with many first ascents in both Patagonia and Alaska including the notorious Torre Egger, and most recently the southernmost Avellano Tower in Chilean Patagonia. He has climbed with the likes of Michael Kennedy and Jack Tackle and brushed shoulders with the infamous Camp Four pioneers of Yosemite in the late 1960’s. In 1978, he attempted the north ridge of Latok I with George Lowe, Michael Kennedy and Jeff Lowe, a team whose high point has yet to be matched. When not putting up new routes, he is the President of the American Alpine Club.