JARED OGDEN.com

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Jared Ogden's BIOGRAPHY

I was born in Massachusettes and moved to Pelham, New York at the age of three where I lived until I was fourteen. Then I moved to Carbondale, Colorado for school and discovered myself in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Since then I've stayed in Colorado and currently live in Durango with my wife Kristin, son Tobin, and daughter Isabella.

I started bouldering in Durango while attending Fort Lewis College and was instantly hooked. The combination of mental and physical challenges while hanging with friends outdoors was a perfect fit. The next winter I was climbing ice in Silverton, Ouray and Telluride. Ever since then I've been psyched on all aspects of climbing and the friends I've made on the way.

After studying fine art and photography in college I roamed the country looking for ways to be creative and climb at the same time. The two go hand in hand in many ways and I've been able to make a living doing both ever since. With my photography I've been getting published more and more every year. It's great to see my work published since it's a way of sharing the amazing moments and places I've had in my life. My photographs have been published in over 20 National and International publications including National Geographic, Mens Journal, Outside, Shape, Mens Health, U.S. News & World Report, Trail Runner, Canoe and Kayak,Outdoor Retailer, Climbing, and Rock & Ice magazines. In addition, I've served as videographer on several climbing films including work for National Geographic Television and NBC Sports. For complete information on my climbing, photography, and video accomplishments please go to their individual pages on this website.

Here are a few of my favorite first ascents. They include The Gambler, V M7 WI 6, on Aguja Guillamet, and Padre Viento V M6 WI5, on Aguja Mermoz, both in Patagonia. I climbed these with my good friend Topher Donahue in December, 2001, a few months before my first son was born. The Book of Shadows VI 5.11 A3+ WI V, on Nameless Tower in Pakistan was my first expedition and big new route. That was in 1995. It started my fascination with wall climbing and lead to my ascent of Shipton Spire with Mark Synnot in 1997. We climbed a new route we called the Ship of Fools and it's still the most memorable climb of my life. We climbed alpine style and lived on the cliff for almost two weeks through heinous weather and all kinds of hard climbing. No one knew what or where we were and it formed a partnership that will last as long as I live. Mark and I have also climbed Parallel Worlds VII 5.11 A4, on Great Trango Tower, the Scorpion Wall VI 5.11+ AO, on Roraima Tepui in Guyana, and 7 first ascents in the Jarjinjabo Massif of Tibet among others. A route I did with Nathan Martin in Greenland called Prowed and Free V 5.12+ on Nalumasortoq was for sure the hardest new free route in a remote area that I've put up. It was stacked with hard crack climbing including 5 pitches of 5.12 in a row, two ranking in at 5.12+. I still can hardly believe we pulled it off.

In 1997, I won two gold medals at the Winter X-Games and used the $6,000 in prize money to climb Shipton Spire, a much more worthy climbing objective. Another huge accomplishment for me was a linkup of Yosemite's El Capitan and Half Dome in an 18-hour car-to-car effort in 1999 with Rob Miller.

As far as mixed climbs go I'd say my favorite is a route I put up with Ryan Nelson in 2004 called Jedi Mind Tricks in Lake City, Colorado. It took everything we had to pull it off. A few of my favorite traditional mixed routes I've put up are Cold Cold World M8+ and Something about you makes me wild M8, both in New Hampshire, Crazy Horse M8+ and Six degrees of Separation M7X, both near Telluride, and Hardline, a killer M8 in the ice park near Ouray.

A few of my more memorable ascents on rock include the Bacher-Yerian 5.11cRX, climbing Astroman and The Rostrum all-free in 8 hours, on-sighting the Rainbow Wall 5.12b in Red Rocks, the first ascent of Shadowboxing V 5.13aRX, in the Black Canyon, free climbing the Hallucinogen wall, and constantly getting my ass handed to me on the hard splitters of Indian Creek. Damn those cracks are tough.

A few years back Climbing Magazine featured me as one of the top 11 climbers that represent the best of the U.S. and I somehow made it on Core Sports Magazine's top 100 Raddest Athletes list. More recently Rock and Ice sprayed about just about all the badass climbers in the People Issue and they thought I was influential on the sport of mixed climbing. Thanks for the fluff!