Get in the (Long) Game: Anne Parmenter, Coach, Climbing Guide and Everest Mountaineer

I purposely picked this conversation with Anne Parmenter to kick off the year, because I need to hear so much of this right now. For someone who was told by a middle school teacher that she wasn’t going to amount to much, Anne has done pretty ok for herself. She will blow you right off your feet. Literally!

Anne is a Hall of Fame field hockey coach that took her team to the NCAA tournament multiple times. She’s done multiple marathons, is an AMGA rock climbing instructor and ice climbing instructor, and oh, did I mention she’s also a mountaineer who’s climbed a bunch of 8000 meter peaks around the world - including summiting Mt. Everest in 2006?

BUT - this isn’t a story of some extreme, unrelatable, genetically superior athlete ticking things off a bucket list. (Although Anne's 90 year old mum is still working out every day and went snow tubing over the holidays, so maybe there is a teeny bit of genetic superiority at play here after all....)

The day I spoke with her, Anne was on the brink of retiring from an almost 40-year career as a coach and educator to embark on her next act - as a full-time climbing guide with EMS in North Conway, New Hampshire. Never mind 'bucket list'; Anne is more of an opportunist who  doesn't shy away from epic adventure potential that drops into her lap. 

Rather than using her age or job or busy life as (justifiable) reasons to put things off indefinitely, Anne cranked up her mountaineering in her 40s, summited Everest in her late 40s, and decided to lean in to more technical ice climbing in her 50s. She is truly the inspiration I thought we all could use to start the year off in the right frame of mind!

Learn more about Anne, her Everest expeditions, and lots more good stuff here (and even more over at GuidesGoneWild.com!):

Anne Parmenter - National Field Hockey Hall of FameAnne Parmenter on NBC CTHigh Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed by Michael KodasEMS Climbing GuidesAMGA - American Mountain Guides AssociationAnne Parmenter on Finding Mastery with Michael GervaisRagged Mountain Foundation (CT)Who was Fritz Wiessner?What are traprock ridges?Exum Mountain Guides (Jackson Hole, WY)Ama Dablam (Nepal)Laurie Watt on Guides Gone Wild (more climbing goodness)Kanchenjunga (India/Nepal border)Dolomites (Italy)Cuillin Ridge, Isle of Skye (Scotland, UK)Anne’s essay about her ‘Summer of Fun’ when she turned 60Women’s Climbing Coalition ice climbing on Jan 21st & 22nd (Woodstock, NH)