Altitude, Attitude and the Pursuit of Happiness

I had a small role in a variety show skit at my high school, in which my only line was telling a Matt Foley-inspired motivational speaker, “I want to be a writer.” His response was that I’d end up “living in a van down by the river.”

After waking up in (another) jail cell in Iowa in 2002, I got my shit together (thanks, rehab), moved West, learned to climb (thanks, Colorado), learned to write, and now I spend what feels like an undeserved amount of time dreaming and then chasing dreams in the outdoors. I’ve ridden a $100 bicycle across America, climbed the Grand Teton in a day, run across the Grand Canyon in a few hours, climbed hundreds of pitches of technical rock all over the western United States, and I have a billion stories about the people who inspire me and accompany me on those bad ideas adventures.

I’m a writer (Climbing, Adventure Journal, Backpacker, Men’s Journal, The Dirtbag Diaries, and others), and I live in a van. Like I told my dad, dreams can come true.

To book an evening of sometimes inspiring, sometimes embarrassing, sometimes funny stories, e-mail me at brendanpleonard at gmail dot com.