Meet the Team: Experience and Passion for Climbing in Glacier National Park
The Climb Glacier National Park guidebook series was built one summit at a time.
It took nine climbing seasons, hundreds of miles of hiking and scrambling, countless hours of route research and more than 60 people willing to join us on adventures into Glacier's high country.
Behind the guidebooks is a team of climbers who share a passion for Glacier National Park and exploring the places beyond the maintained trails.
Here are some of the people who helped make the Climb Glacier National Park series possible.
Lead Writer — Blake Passmore
Blake Passmore is the lead writer of the Climb Glacier National Park guidebook series.
A northwestern Montana native, Blake fell in love with the outdoors as a kid while hiking and exploring the valleys and mountains of the region. After spending time living in eastern Montana, he eventually moved back home and discovered a new passion: peak bagging in Glacier National Park.
His first Glacier summit was Pollock Mountain.
That first climb eventually led to years of exploring Glacier's mountains, photographing routes and helping create a five-volume guidebook series featuring 99 individual summits.
Blake's writing has also been recognized by the local community, where he was voted Best Author of the Flathead for four consecutive years.
For Blake, researching the guidebooks was never simply about collecting information. He had a blast traveling throughout Glacier, photographing routes, exploring new areas and standing on summits throughout the park.
Blake lives and works in northwestern Montana. He has three adult children, two great kid-in-laws and five spectacular granddaughters.
At age 56, he completed his first ultramarathon—a 33-mile race. When he isn't climbing, Blake enjoys photography, writing, fly fishing and plenty of other outdoor pursuits. Spring and fall often find him chasing big trout in Montana and Canada.
Does he want to climb every mountain in Glacier? Nope!
But there are still plenty of summits on the bucket list.
During the off-season, Blake stays busy photographing, writing, training for races and climbing—and somehow finding time for his other full-time job.
One of his favorite parts of writing the Climb Glacier guides is hearing from readers who use them to reach their first Glacier National Park summit.
If that's you, drop Blake a note through our Contact Us page. We'd love to hear about your adventure.
Contributing Authors — “The Doctors”
Dr. John VanArendonk
Dr. John VanArendonk is a native Montanan who returned to the Flathead Valley after completing his training as a physician.
John developed his passion for climbing while attending youth camps in the Rocky Mountains and has spent years exploring Glacier's backcountry.
He is the former medical director of the ALERT helicopter program at Kalispell Regional Medical Center and also enjoys hunting, fishing and camping.
More importantly to this project, John was there near the beginning. When Blake first proposed creating a climbing guidebook using photographs with routes drawn directly onto the mountains, John encouraged him to pursue the idea and agreed to help research the routes.
That conversation helped launch what eventually became the Climb Glacier National Park guidebook series.
Dr. Scott Burry
Dr. Scott Burry was born in Indiana, but his heart has been in the mountains since childhood.
After completing medical school and his residency training, Scott settled near Spearfish, South Dakota.
One of Scott's particular interests is Wilderness Medicine. He has also traveled to Peru multiple times as a team leader on medical missions along the Ucayali River.
His medical experience, outdoor background and love of the mountains made him a valuable member of our climbing team.
Dr. Brad Roy
Dr. Brad Roy is an exercise physiologist and accomplished runner.
He achieved a personal-best marathon time of 2:21 in 1982 and continues to enjoy day hikes and backpacking trips into remote places.
Brad holds a Ph.D. in clinical exercise physiology and is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.
His combination of endurance experience, exercise science and love of the backcountry brought another valuable perspective to our team.
Other Contributors to Volume 5
Chris Rost
Chris Rost brought additional climbing and mountaineering experience to our team.
His adventures have included summiting Granite Peak, Montana's highest mountain, on his third attempt, as well as climbing trips to Mount Rainier and Red Rocks near Las Vegas. He also enjoys ice climbing and photography.
Chris loves backcountry camping and exploring Glacier's high places. He climbed numerous peaks with us during the research for earlier volumes and became an important member of the Volume 5 writing team, researching and writing several of its routes.
Chris lives in Kalispell and is a Physician Assistant.
Mike VanArendonk
Mike VanArendonk was the youngest member of our writing team.
Like his father, John, Mike developed a love for Glacier National Park and its backcountry.
While pursuing his degree in physical therapy, Mike completed an internship with Fisio Med S.A. in Quito, Ecuador. During his time in Ecuador, he summited Cayambe, the country's third-highest peak, at approximately 18,996 feet.
Mike also played basketball and football locally before bringing his athleticism and enthusiasm to our climbing team.
For Volume 5, Mike researched, climbed and wrote the routes for Kupunkamint Mountain, White Calf Mountain and Amphitheater Mountain.
And More Than 60 Others...
Then there are all the people whose names aren't on the cover.
We haven't forgotten them.
It took nine climbing seasons to complete the Climb Glacier National Park series, and more than 60 people joined us in reaching the summits featured in these guidebooks.
Some climbed one mountain with us. Others came back again and again.
Every one of them contributed to this project by answering the call when we needed a climbing partner, helping research a route, sharing an adventure or simply spending a long day with us in the mountains.
Without them, this series literally could not have been completed.
To every person who joined us along the way:
Thank you for answering the call. Thank you for sharing the adventure. And thank you for helping us create Climb Glacier National Park.
GO EXPLORE GLACIER.